Mandel becoming a PolitiFact regular

IF YOU'VE BEEN following the PolitiFact/Ohio column in the Plain Dealer, you'd have to think that Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has been consigned to the non-partisan fact-checker as a repeat offender. The whiz kid's latest encounter with the truth was featured Thursday in his confused slam at U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown's stance - his rival in this year's senate race - for impeding an emissions rule to clear the air. PolitiFact's long and complicated research into Mandel's claims also did some air-clearing, thusly:

" It is true that Brown voted against an amendment to strip the EPA of its power to regulate greenhouse gases. But the rest of the claim is inaccurate and invokes issues that don't exist in reality. In fact, were it not for this shred of truth, we might consider the claim for a ruling of Pants on Fire. "

Reality? So far in this campaign, Josh has yet to distinguish between fact and fiction. But he is beginning to be a regular in PolitiFact/Ohio, which will cost him credibility if not a dime of campaign cash to tell people that he's the Republican candidate.

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Did you see that the Center for Health Transformations, the think tank that also operated as the Gingrich Group - yes, that Newt Gingrich - has filed for bankruptcy? The group was best known as a health care consultant, from which Gingrich, who passed himself off as a health care guru, has now divested himself. The New York Times reported that CHT had issued a promissory note of between $5 million and $25 million to McNewt, the figure appearing on his financial statement last year.

Candidate Gingrich, it's time.

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McMitt Romney has found a new love, in addition to Michigan's trees and streets ("They're just right."). Oh, and Detroit's cars. He now says he loves immigrants. "We are not anti-immigrant," he declares. "We are the Party that loves people coming to this country as immigrants."

Allowing them to vote is another matter, we presume.