The Husted-Dewine axis challenging Federal court order

Man, these Republican guys aren't kidding in their mad-dash campaign to block early voting on the pre-Election Day week end despite a federal court ordering them to play nice and keep the doors open.  Secretary of State Jon Husted (top photo) has boasted of his leadership in ending the 2008 benefit for pre-election voters, and Attorney General Mike Dewine says he will take the issue onward and upward, to the U.S.Supreme Court, if necessary. Some people define leadership in other ways.

Both men, of course, have their eyes on a Romney election that holds a little promise for their own political future.   Dewine began his term with a promise to join others in appealing Obamacare. You have to wonder whether he has nothing better to deal with his time than to  obstruct  anything that might be favorable for the other party.

As for Husted, well, he's got a tiger by the tail with this one and it's too late to run his office for everyone in Ohio rather just those who vote Republican.

Some Ohio newspapers have already called on the Husted/Dewine twins to obey the court order. But Husted has said he will do nothing until the higher court rules on the appeal. Early voting begins Oct.3, fellows.

I continue to ask:  why have these two state GOP officials given the issue top priority in the workaday world?  I have a hunch that they are looking out solely for their political future.  Dewine, after all, has never seen a possible self-serving opportunity that didn't send him up into the the ether.  He's the fellow, you might remember, who abruptly switched his allegiance from Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum in the final weeks of the Ohio campaign when he was downright sure Santorum would carry the state.  You know the rest of the story.

NOTE: My column  on Josh Mandel's bad habits has been posted on Plunderbund.com