Ronald McDonald Is A Republican ?

Well, no one can say the Republicans aren't trying every dirty trick in their repertoire to try and win the 2010 elections.   All across the country they have been piling lie upon lie as they campaign -- so many lies that I wonder if they even have a concept of what truth is.   In Houston they are putting out misleading political flyers and intimidating voters in minority precincts.

Now an Ohio Republican businessman has decided he can pressure his workers into voting for Republicans.   Paul Siegfried, owner of Siegfried Enterprises which owns some McDonald's restaurants in Canton, decided a little threat might make his restaurant employees vote the way he wanted them to vote -- for Republicans.   The McDonald's employees got the following insert in their pay envelopes:

I'm sure many right-wingers will view this as just a little harmless campaigning.   I don't, and neither does election law, which forbids companies from putting pressure on employees to vote a particular way.   And as precious as any job is in this economy, even a McDonald's job (where the pay and benefits are certainly nothing to brag about), to have an employer putting pressure on voting employees is just unconscionable.

At least one of the employees wasn't intimidated.   He gave the insert to an attorney, who forwarded it to the local authorities.   That was exactly what he should have done since the insert seems to be a clear violation of state law.   Here is how the Ohio law reads:

"No employer or his agent or a corporation shall print or authorize to be printed upon any pay envelopes any statements intended or calculated to influence the political action of his or its employees; or post or exhibit in the establishment or anywhere in or about the establishment any posters, placards, or hand bills containing any threat, notice, or information that if any particular candidate is elected or defeated work in the establishment will cease in whole or in part, or other threats expressed or implied, intended to influence the political opinions or votes of his or its employees.

Whoever violates this section is guilty of corrupt practices, and shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars."

Now that it looks like he may get in trouble for his illegal campaigning, Siegfried has issued the traditional Republican non-apology apology.   He said,   "Distributing this communication was an error of judgement on my part.   Please know, it was never my intention to offend anyone.   For those that I have offended, I sincerely apologize."

General Manager for McDonald's Ohio region, Shirley Rogers Reece, said that the national chain had no knowledge of the illegal paycheck insert.   Then she went on to issue her own non-apology apology saying,   "While clearly this was poor judgement, we don't believe it was intended to offend anyone."

Obviously both Siegfried and Reece miss the whole point with their tepid attempts at an apology.   The point was not whether someone was offended or not (although they probably were).   The point is that the restaurant owner broke the law by trying to intimidate his employees into voting for Republicans, and that is far worse than being offensive -- especially in a representative democracy.

I have been a semi-regular customer of McDonald's for many years, but it will be a very long time before I will set foot in one again -- unless I hear a real apology from the corporate head office and get their assurance this will never happen again.

(NOTE -- the above picture is from the website thefunnyads.com.)