Wall-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) Julie Roehm scandal just won't seem to go away. Every time it finally seems like it's out of the headlines, it comes roaring back in an even more scandalous incarnation. This time, Roehm is accusing CEO Lee Scott and other top executives of violating the company's code of ethics. She claims that they accepted all kinds of perks from suppliers and engaged in inappropriate relationships.

Of course Wal-Mart fired back denying the allegations. Financier Irwin Jacobs, whose companies do business with Wal-Mart, denied Roehm's suggestions that his relationship with Scott had been too personal and that it had violated the company's code of ethics. However many have been questioning Jacobs' integrity since his days as a corporate raider in the 1980's, and his apparently close relationship with Mr. Scott may raise eyebrows -- guilt by association for both of them.

It will be interesting to see how this story plays out. Ms. Roehm's allegations continue to get more serious and, regardless of whether they're true, they've diverted a lot of the company's attention away from the serious issues that the company is facing.

This got me to thinking: Wal-Mart has been struggling to match Target's (NYSE: TGT) success in fashion, partly because it couldn't convey an edgy image to entice fashionistas. So here's an idea: Given Julie Roehm's relationship with a former colleague, and the salacious details surrounding it that have emerged in the media, maybe Wal-Mart should bring her back to spice things up on the fashion front. As Sarah Gilbert noted, Julie Roehm was too sexy to succeed as an advertising executive at Wal-Mart. But perhaps she's just sexy enough to make the company's clothing hip.

File this under Julie Roehm: avenger. The PR food fight between Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and its former marketing communications chief just got more interesting. I don't know why she picked late Friday afternoon on a get-away-weekend to launch her latest missive but according to the Wall Street Journal, Julie Roehm is alleging that WMT executives violated its ethics policy by accepting discounts on yachts, diamonds and personal gifts from vendors.

To put this into perspective, here's a recap of the rounds so far:

1. Wal-Mart fires Roehm alleging she accepted gifts from an advertising agency that was later chosen to handle WMT's ad account (12/06).
2. Roehm countersues WMT for breach of contract (12/06).
3. In a countersuit, WMT releases salacious details about an alleged affair Roehm had with a subordinate -- Sean Womack -- accusing her of misusing WMT travel funds on business trips with him. The suit cites one e-mail purportedly sent to Womack by Roehm as saying: "I think about us together all of the time. Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me." (3/07).

And today's round goes to Roehm, who alleges that WMT CEO H. Lee Scott, received "preferential prices" on yachts and "a large pink diamond for his wife" through his relationship with Irwin Jacobs. One of Jacobs's companies, Jacobs Trading, has the exclusive right to buy unsold WMT merchandise.

Ever since I first started learning about Julie Roehm and her work, and subsequent abrupt dismissal, as advertising executive for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), I saw a major disconnect. As I wrote at the time of her firing, Roehm "was fast cars, sex and rock-and-roll to Wal-Mart's Buicks, family values and Barry Manilow." Whether or not the allegations -- Roehm's calling them a "smear campaign" today -- of an improper relationship with marketing VP Sean Womack, and acceptance of special favors from potential clients -- were true, well, really. This is advertising, not government contracting (where, if you're going to be frank about it, this sort of thing goes on all the time, too). It's not like Roehm and Womack could sleep together and somehow sink Wal-Mart's considerable ship.

None of the things of which she's been accused would worry me, were I the management team above her. If she was telling a client he had a good chance of being awarded the contract, when he really didn't? That would be a concern, but she's not accused of that. She's basically accused of having a good time, and not even on the company dime.

Seriously. There are many sordid and terrible things going on in corporate America. Nothing Julie Roehm did, or is accused of doing, even comes close to terrible -- and is only sordid if you live a truly puritanical lifestyle. In her statement, Roehm said "Senior executives at Wal-Mart seemed to feel that maybe change wasn't such a good idea. Perhaps some did not like following or taking the advice of a woman."

Another one for the obviousness files. Wal-Mart should never have hired Julie in the first place -- not because she's not a good, even brilliant, marketing executive. Because they were never prepared to take her advice. Because they aren't her kind of people. If you're not prepared for change, don't pretend like you might. It will only hurt you, and the people who see more clearly than you.

Julie Roehm contradicted everything that Sam Walton ever held dear, and her hiring a year ago had many Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) observers scratching their heads. Famous for her racy, attention-getting antics -- like her "Lingerie Bowl" in which models clad in underthings played 'football' -- Roehm never seemed the right sort for Wal-Mart. She was fast cars, sex and rock-and-roll to Wal-Mart's Buicks, family values and Barry Manilow. In fact, her transformation of the shareholder meeting from boring to off-Broadway was a spectacle to behold (and, it seems, had old-line Wal-Mart executives "groaning," according to the New York Times.

[Recent Julie Roehm news:
Wal-Mart should bring Julie Roehm back -- May 27, 2007
Julie Roehm claims Lee Scott violated ethics -- May 25, 2007
Julie Roehm says Wal-Mart charges invalid -- March 29, 2007
Wal-Mart countersues Julie Roehm -- March 20, 2007]

Now she's been ousted, amid allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, and the advertising agency she chose -- DraftFCB of Chicago -- is unceremoniously dismissed before it even began work on the huge account.

How was this ever supposed to work? I have to ask. Wal-Mart executives, even Sam himself, were always told to sleep two to a room while travelling on business, and select the cheapest available lodging. The company has strict "fraternization" rules so that any relationship between colleagues is inappropriate. [While it's not said outright in anything I've read, it seems that Julie Roehm has been read-between-the-lines accused of sleeping with Sean Womack, a member of the marketing staff at a lower rank than Roehm. It doesn't shock me. People who work together sleep together, it's happened everywhere I've ever collected a paycheck.]

Wal-Mart is so not Julie Roehm.