Schmidt snubs Wenstrup -- and her constituents -- on way out the door

WVXU's Howard Wilkinson reports here that Jean Schmidt has elected to take the low road -- again -- as she exits stage left from the U.S. Congress.

That story reports:

A few weeks ago, while in Washington, Wenstrup stopped by Schmidt’s congressional office, hoping to speak to the congresswoman. He told WVXU that he talked to Schmidt’s scheduler and was told later that Schmidt had “no interest” in meeting with him.

Here, in Schmidt's departure editorial in the Enquirer, she reports that she has turned her office constituent service files over to Senators Democrat Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, yet another backhanded slap at the man who defeated her in March, Lt. Col. Dr. Brad Wenstrup.

Even worse, we have heard from Schmidt staffers that they have been instructed to "shred everything; don't leave as much as a paperclip."

COASTers already know that Schmidt is snubbing the House Ethics Committee and her constituents by failing to make a dent in the $600,000 of debt they ordered her to pay back to the Turkish Coalition of America.  She leaves Congress having failed to comply with their order.  She also remains under the cloud of an investigation by the Federal Elections Commission.

Thus, our low-road Congressman has elected to take the lowest-road approach to her departure.  It's not that any of this will harm Lt. Col. Dr. Brad Wenstrup in the least -- he will be sworn in on January 3, 2013 and serve the district with diligence and honor.  But for her constituents whose work in the Congressional office is incomplete, for transitioning Congressional work on important public projects within the district, and for the fundamental respect she owes the office and the people of her district, she has once again let us down, this time in a petty and malicious fashion.

So long, Jean Schmidt!