Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Cornstalker-style Ohio political culture

The Ohio Republican congressional delegation continued to reveal itself on Tuesday as a committed right-wing hit squad  in its near unanimous opposition to the  emergency funds for  Hurricane Sandy's devastation.  The only Republican supporting the relief package was Michael Turner of Dayton.  Speaker John Boehner didn't vote.

That's enough to tell you that Republican David Joyce, the successor to Steve LaTourette,  joined the gang despite earlier hugs that he would be a moderate like Lake County's LaTourette? ( Does anybody recall that LaTourette retired with a condemnation of the partisanship in  politics today?)  Rep. Jim Renacci, who defeated Democrat Betty Sutton in a monstrously  redesigned district that favored him, cast a no vote.  Renacci is occasionally described  in national reports as a "moderate" but you wouldn't know that from the regularity with which he cavorts with his  party's most conservative diehards.

'Twould be refreshing to boast that the Buckeye State had entered the 21st. Century by twice supporting President Obama's election;  but with Gov.Kasich hanging out with the gun  enthusiasts and pro-lifers, and the cornstalkers running the  General Assembly, it would premature to rate the state's  political culture as anything more than clucky.


3 comments:

David Hess said...

Thanks to the unapologetic gerrymandering by the GOP-controlled redistricting system, not only in Ohio but in many other states, the U.S. House remains in the hands of unyielding conservatives whose self-proclaimed purpose is to render the federal government impotent in natural disasters, sensible gun restrictions, universal health care, infrastructure rebuilding, education assistance and retraining, campaign finance reform, etc., etc

Anonymous said...

David Joyce is a joke. I wonder if Steve LaTourette regrets selecting him.

I hope we recruit a decent candidate to run against him because he is definitely vulnerable.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on, David Joyce is an independent. His Twitter feed shows a bunch of photos of him with democratic mayors. That makes him a moderate, right?