Buffett-Owned Newspaper Forces Nebraska's Lt. Governor Out of Office Over Phone Calls To Women

The double standards in the media's treatment of our elected officials abound. No case points this up more than the announcement by Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, the Republican front-runner for governor in 2014, that he was resigning his office immediately following an investigative report by the Omaha World-Herald that he had made several thousand phone calls on his state-issued cell phone over a several year period to four separate women. Many of the phone calls occurred after Sheehy's wife filed for divorce in July of last year. Two of the women denied the phone calls were of a sexual nature. One of the women refused to discuss the phone calls with the newspaper. The fourth woman, a Bellevue, Nebraska physician, claimed she had a sexual relationship with Sheehy that had gone sour.

Sheehy's resignation on Saturday came after he learned that the Omaha World-Herald, a newspaper recently acquired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, planned to report on the calls he made to the four women that it had uncovered after obtaining his cell phone records through a public records request. The only thing Sheehy may be guilty of is infidelity to his wife, which the last I heard wasn't a criminal offense. Otherwise, we would have to request the resignation of about half of the elected officials in this country. I also thought the media told us that marital infidelity was a private matter when President Bill Clinton's serial philandering continued through most of his presidency, and after he was impeached by the House of Representatives for lying and obstructing justice as he fought Paula Jones' civil case against him for sexual harassment during an independent counsel's investigation. Could it be that Warren Buffett didn't want Sheehy to become Nebraska's next governor?

As for the scorned woman, she says she wishes nothing but the best for Sheehy and his wife. “I regret now that many of my understandings and impressions about his marital status were later found to be inaccurate,” Dr. Theresa Hatcher told the World-Herald. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for Rick and Connie and wish them both nothing but the best, both personally and professionally.” Yeah, right.