GOP Wants Roanoke College's McAfee's Help with ACA Troubles

John McAfee during Roanoke College address

Now this is your modern Republican Party:

Alarmed about everything having to do with the Affordable Healthcare Act, Republicans on a House of Representatives committee looking into oversight of the ACA has asked a man once accused of murder--a man with strong ties to Roanoke College--to examine what's creating the glitches in the program. John McAfee has an honorary PhD from Roanoke College.

This is not to suggest that McAfee (a Roanoke college grad, math, 1967; benefactor; 2008 commencement speaker) would not be qualified. He's the founder of McAfee and Associates, the Internet de-bugging service that made him a gazillionaire before he wound up on the run from various governments in South America.

According to NBC's online news, "The committee thinks McAfee might have some idea how the technology was screwed up on the rollout of the ACA."

McAfee founded the antivirus software company McAfee and Associates and sold it for about $100 million in 2004. He lost most of that in the housing market crash of 2008.

A few months ago, McAfee headed for the hills when his neighbor--with whom he had a disagreement over his barking dogs--was found with a bullet in his head after the two had an argument (I keep telling you people that barking dogs are damn serious). McAfee was caught in Guatemala and shipped back to the U.S., but has never been officially charged, which makes him eligible, I guess, to be a GOP expert witness.

In his Roanoke College address (here), McAfee explained his lifestyle with this, "We could begin with my work ethic. Work has never appealed to me, and the bulk of my career was spent avoiding it. My rhythm was working until I had saved enough money to travel the world for a year or two. Then I would quit and travel the world. Wherever I ended up, when I ran out of money, I would get another job. As a consequence, the longest I ever held a position was three years, and that was while I was at McAfee. And my average position lasted about 18 months."

"It would be nice to say that after I achieved a degree of financial success, that my habits changed, but that was not the case. After three years at McAfee, I had had enough. I hired an executive to replace me, resigned, spent two years on the road, and never went back."

As somebody once said, "Nice work if you can get it."