Someone within the Securities and Exchange Commission appears to be using his or her work time and government-issued computer to wage political battle through Wikipedia in behalf of Missouri’s Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, who is locked in a tight re-election battle with Democrat Claire McCaskill.
Central to this wikiwarfare is ongoing disagreement over how to characterize Talent’s position on stem-cell research, an imbroglio that has in recent days featured a television commercial by actor Michael J. Fox and an unconscionable mocking of Fox’s Parkinson’s symptoms by radio loudmouth Rush Limbaugh.
What an SEC IP address is doing in the middle of this mess is anybody’s guess, but it represents at best highly inappropriate workplace conduct, and, if my layman’s understanding of election law holds water, may even be illegal.
First to raise questions about Talent’s wikiwarrior was a blogger with the handle lliiffee, who this morning posed this question:
“Senator Jim Talent, like most politicians has a Wikipedia entry. Like all Wikipedia entries, if someone wants to edit the page with out logging in, their IP address is recorded. Take a look at the history of edits to Jim Talent’s page: An interesting IP address shows up: 162.138.176.51. Now, if we do a lookup of this IP address, like perhaps at ip2location.com, we get some interesting information.”
That information shows the address originates in Washington, D.C. and lists as its ISP the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Several of the history entries indicate that the writer takes exception of Wikipedia characterizing Talent as an opponent of stem-cell research, while others address the senator’s role as a lobbyist and position on abortion.
Perhaps there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. A spokesman for the SEC public affairs department said he would look into it and get back to me.
But it appears as though you’ve got a government employee carrying water for his or her preferred senatorial candidate while on the taxpayer’s dime. That’s got to be a no-no in any workplace.
And, it is my understanding that election activity within government offices is prohibited by law. (Actual lawyers should feel free to help here.)
That it shows again why you can’t trust Wikipedia for info regarding politicians goes without saying.
