EDITORIAL: Remember Governor Manchin and the MBA Degree Scandal This Saturday
Scandals come and scandals go in West Virginia politics, but one that occurred not only on Manchin's watch but involved him and his family has a lingering odor that will never quite go away. That's because one of the state's universities almost got its academic reputation wiped off the face of the earth--all for the Manchins.
That is how self-absorbed a crew we've got in the Governor's Mansion. The Heather
Manchin Bresch faux MBA affair proved once and for all that the Governor cares less
for all the alumni and friends of WVU than he does in supporting the incredible story
his daughter brought forward as justification for declaring herself an MBA graduate
of WVU.
A young President of that university had to resign over it, along with some of his top lieutenants. All for Heather. The university spent many thousands doing an official, internal investigation that showed conclusively that no evidence existed to substantiate Bresch's claims.
And frankly, we've always wondered why nobody in the state press asked the obvious question of Heather and her Governor father, one that perhaps should still be asked during this campaign: if Heather Manchin Bresch at least paid for her tuition for her remaining courses, surely either she or her bank would have a record of the cancelled checks for those tuition payments?
After all, banks keep electronic copies of those and have for years. It couldn't have been be too hard to find if Heather really paid for those classes. But it was impossible to produce such cancelled tuition checks because...they didn't exist.
Who knows why Heather maintained her story for so long? But more important to WVU students, faculty, alumni, staff, and friends everywhere was what her father, Governor Joe Manchin, had to say after the whole messy affair was wrapped up by the WVU investigation. No apologies, no humility, just a statement he hoped no other parents had to go through a situation like this at WVU.
It seems the Manchins can never quite admit fault, even when the proof is all around them. Governor Manchin had an opportunity at the end of his daughter's scandal to show us that he understood the pain that had been caused WVU and all who love her. Instead, he blamed WVU for what was clearly his daughter's problem.
For this reason alone, Manchin should be defeated at the polls this Saturday in the Democratic Primary special election, and if not there then on November 2nd by John Raese, a proud WVU alumnus who has never brought shame like this to his alma mater.