Friday, February 1, 2013

Kasich: Repent "liberal nihilists" who oppose me

I
There are days when it's  hard to separate Gov. Kasich from
Elmer Gantry.  That's when he berates inquiring reporters and critics in general about a lawsuit filed by ProgressOhio against  his economic development JobsOhio plan.

To a question asked by Gongwer News about the interest rates on the bonds that would pay for his privatization plan, it wasn't enough for the governor to refer to "liberal nihilists"  - which doubtless sent some of his own people to their dictionaries.  He became even testier  and warned that his critics were "going to have to answer to a much higher power than me."

Well, now.  For those of us who have been led to believe that there is no higher power than Kasich, this came as a revelation. As Plunderbund helpfully recalled,  it was the same pulpeteering Kasich who was quoted in the New York Times back in September as believing  that he had been sent by God to save the  state.

Why do Republican pols  consistently play the God card and say things like that as though they are so insecure about going it alone?  One comes quickly to mind: Sarah Palin, and where is she today?  

If I were to be a candidate against the governor the first words out of my mouth would be that I had also talked to God and  He reassured me that the governor had shamefully quoted Him out of context.

6 comments:

JLM said...

I've often found it interesting that those of Kasich's ilk often claim to have a pipeline to the Almighty.

Marv Katz said...

Why is it that the thought that comes to mind is of the old saying: "That must be his rear-end talking; his head knows better"?

Grumpy Abe said...

Don[t count on it, Marv

John J. Viall said...

Nicely put, sir, nicely put.

David Hess said...

As I recall from the dusty annals of Ohio politics, Kasich's "JobsOhio" proposal bears an uncanny resemblance to a 1960s scheme by the late Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes to float bonds to pay for a varied range of state construction projects, all under the guise of creating jobs. Big Jim called his plan the Ohio Bond Authority (OBA). Buckeye voters, alas, smelled a rat when suspicion arose that the chief benefactors would be bond brokers who would collect handsome fees for handling the sale and distribution of the bonds. The fact that a prominent Columbus law firm, headed by Republican luminary John Bricker, would have benefited financially from the transactions also stoked some doubts. Whatever the case, the state's voters, in a referendum, scotched the idea, and OBA was consigned to oblivion. Again, we see an example of how Republican officeholders are prone to dig up fossilized ideas that tend to fatten the purses of their political allies.

Grumpy Abe said...

You recall that era very well, Dave. Kasich has found much to charm him from Jim Rhodes