With SB 5, Mudville coming to Ohio

THERE CAN'T BE much joy in Mudville these days as Gov. Kasich and the Republicans in the legislature face what appears to be insurmountable odds that favor the repeal of Senate Bill 5.

That's the clear message from the Quinnipiac poll released this week showing the new anti-public union law going down to defeat on Nov. 8 by 25 points, 57 pct. to 32 pct. That same poll also shows that Kasich's slight gain in public approval in recent months has reversed, dropping him five points to 35 pct.

The Democrats have only the Republicans to thank for the mulish way the law's allies went after the unions - an astonishingly inept campaign that suggested the Kasich gang conceived of the law as a slam dunk. That's the governor, for you, a humorless, politically righteous fellow who should post on his office wall the words of one of the world's leading philosophers, Pogo.

Said he: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

The governor seems to be taking a more distant approach from manhandling the campaign to defeat the repeal referendum. He has said that he wasn't running the show but thought the managers were doing "fine." Should we mention that Beth Hansen, his chief of staff, is on a leave of absence serving as a media advisor for the anti-repeal campaign?

Was it her idea to pirate some words from a pro-repeal ad featuring an indignant Cincinnati great-grandmother who effectively urged voters to cast a NO vote against retaining the law? Unsurprisingly, when a bit of the film clips showed up in a TV ad that made it appear she favored the law, the sleight-of- handiwork gained wide attention in fetching political shorthand - Grannygate.

Such clumsiness ought to be shown in every political science class in the state as an example of how to be self-destructive in politics.

And these are the same folks who assure Ohioans every day that they damn well know what they are doing.