About Heather

The Gazette does a good job today of reminding us that the person who actually started all of this — the “Heather” behind Heathergate — is still doing just fine, thank you, in her fancy, multi-million dollar out-of-state job.

It’s worth going back to ponder exactly what Heather did. It’s jaw-droppingly amazing, actually: Heather had one conversation with Paul Speaker where she alleges that he agreed to excuse her from HALF of her MBA coursework so she could be free to jet set around the country for her dear old friend Mike Puskar. (Course work for a graduate degree? Seriously, who can be burdened with such a quaint inconvenience?) She never ever follows up. She never makes a phone call, never sends an email, ANYTHING. She just begins representing herself as someone who has earned an MBA.

And gosh by golly, when someone dared to question her about it, she actually said that her word was “better than any transcript,” and that for anyone to accuse her of not earning an MBA degree was “offensive.”

Offensive.

Seriously, people — who the fuck does that? WHO? Certainly not a reasonable person:

“No student should have a reasonable basis to conclude that he or she could or would be excused from so many outstanding credit and course obligations simply upon the basis of a single meeting without any follow-up.”

This really was one of the most shocking parts of the report, and it deserves more attention. If Heather really, honestly thought she had earned an MBA degree, that means she is either 1, dumber than a bag of hammers, or 2, because she’s HEATHER FUCKING MANCHIN, she feels a sense of privilege and entitlement that is SO deep and SO great, that literally, people like you and me cannot comprehend it.

I guess that’s what happens to your head when your entire family’s “success” is built on generations of political power.

And about that political power: it should turn your stomach to think that the Manchins used the state university — paid for by tax dollars and sky-high tuition — to get their daughter a fake MBA, and now she’s LITERALLY making 100 times what the average West Virginian makes in a year. And because she’s too good to live in West Virginia, we don’t even get a dime of that back in taxes. All we get is a big ugly scandal.

And all over a degree that Heather actually says (probably truthfully) that she never really needed. But it’s not about what she needed — she’s never needed anything in her entire life.

It’s all about what Heather MANCHIN thinks she deserves.

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People still ask me what I think drew the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to this story in the first place. Was it a tip? Who the hell knows. But let’s consider the obvious:

Most news junkies remember that Wall Street became concerned when Mylan — a company that contrary to popular belief, is actually headquartered right outside of Pittsburgh — bought up the generic arm of Merck. (Which incidentally, happened around the exact same time that Heather Bresch was promoted to COO.) Overnight, Mylan became a much larger company. A lot of people thought (and still think) that Mylan may have bit off more than it can chew. And investors are still unsure if the company’s leaders — including Heather Bresch — have it in them to run such a large operation.

Why, you might ask? Forget the fact that she doesn’t have an MBA. She doesn’t have a COO’s resume period. I challenge you to find ANY company of similar size in America that has ever promoted its Director of Public and Government Relations (business speak for “Head of Lobbying”) directly to Chief Operating Officer. It just doesn’t happen. We’re talking about 2 entirely different jobs, and 2 ENTIRELY different skill sets.

Directors of Public and Government Relations are almost always politically and socially connected schmoozers who know how to arrange political favors for their company. In other words, a pretty good job for a Manchin. The COO on the other hand, is literally the person chiefly responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the corporation. It’s about as nuts and bolts of a job as it gets.

So. If you’ve ever wondered why anyone would take a second look at Heather Bresch’s resume — wonder no more.

Tags: Heather Bresch, Joe Manchin