No Warner news story but we do get the inevitable editorial

Regular readers of the Wheeling Intelligencer knew it was coming. In the absence of any actual news coverage of West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner just having cost the state a couple of million dollars (see previous two posts), we instead get an editorial defending his actions:

Pointing out the people were “at-will” employees under the law, Warner has said he had every right to terminate them and replace them with better workers.

Except that Warner, according to the news reports, never proved that these workers were not doing their job. And what Warner did admit was that they he replaced the 15 Democrats and one independent with Republicans:

In the deposition, conducted on Nov. 28, 2017, Warner said he was aware that many of his new hires were Republicans, since many had been or worked for Republican candidates or office-holders, or had held positions in the state Republican Party or county Republican Executive Committees.

Sorry, Mac and the Intelligencer: you can't fire a government worker just because they belong to the wrong political party.

An editorial with insight and rare honesty on the Intelligencer's part?

The editorial tells us:

Settlements in such situations do not include admissions of wrongdoing. Still, handing out $4 million in taxpayers’ money will be perceived by many as admitting Warner was in the wrong.

And the many would be wrong because . . .

Finally:

Obviously, this is an extremely political situation. Giving Warner’s enemies ammunition such as that contained in the BRIM settlements probably would be harmful to his public service career.

Which explains why, instead of an AP news report, we get this editorial!