Kasich trumpeting through broken porcelain

I'M AWARE THAT it can sound like a scold, but when you have a governor who scuffs ahead as an elephant in a china shop, it's hard to avoid noticing his astonishing trail of breakage. The latest report of John Kasich's off-key trumpeting arrives from Marc Kovac, a Dix newspapers bureau chief in Columbus, whose column describes a strange Kasich press conference that left - figuratively at least - more broken porcelain on the floor.

We must first back up to the bows that the governor has been taking to discourage the Bob Evans restaurants' headquarters in Columbus from moving out of the state. The administration offered the sausage, gravy and biscuits king $8 million in incentives to move 20 miles up the road to New Albany. The Bob Evans Story has now become an article of faith for Republicans like House Speaker Bill Batchelder to offer up at town meetings as a clear example of how Kasich is dutifully creating jobs. (Many questions have been raised about whether the restaurateur had not already decided before the state deal to move to New Albany, which is a lot closer to Bob Evans CEO Steve Davis' home. )

But back to the china shop. Kovac reported that during another press conference, Kasich again touted the upside of his attack on public unions and used the Bob Evans model to justify his attempt to reform collective bargaining by telling reporters:

"When I go to Bob Evans and I see a woman working in there who doesn't have any pension and I don't even know if she has health benefits and if she does they're shabby at best...We're asking public workers to do a little bit more."

Or less! Did he really mean to take down his friends at Bob Evans by talking about the shabbiness of working conditions there? Do the restaurant folks consider that as a compliment? Should all public union workers be treated shabbily? Does the governor aspire to the lowest common denominator in working conditions. Will he encourage all of us to start leaving bigger tips for public workers? Will he clean up the broken porcelain by hiring more teachers as entry level janitors?

Kasich is a veteran politician who earned his bread on Wall Street before moving into the Statehouse. Shouldn't he be in better control of his alleged thoughts. At least he didn't call the restaurant worker an idiot for accepting such terrible conditions.

PS: When asked whether he considered having state officials and lawmakers take pay cuts, Kasich said quite the contrary, we'll be giving them raises. You need good people.