Saturday, August 24, 2013

Ohio GOP 'grassroots' lead to an ordinary billionaire.



One of the benefits of laboring as a  political writer for many  decades is that you learn a lot of  new words, courtesy of the genius class. It's a perfect fit for a logophile, which I believe is a lover of words.  I have happily acquired a working knowledge of such verbiage as gravitas (no, not a shortstop on  the Los Angeles Angels!),  death panel, freedom fries and grizzly mom.

Just got a new one, a common everyday word that I have long assigned to another meaning:  grassroots.  It's posted on the latest Ohio Republican Party release below the rural scene and describes the state party's new political director, Katie Eagan,  as a grassroots kind of woman.

So far, OK. But then we're told that she once worked for Americans for Prosperity.  Whoa, there,  elephant!  That's the right-wing outfit whose work is fashioned  by billionaire David Koch.   No more of that sod-level grassroots talk. With Koch rooted as her spiritual guide, you'd  have to believe that there's nothing very shallow about Eagan's conservative experience in the newly defined  grassroots politics of the day.

I should also mention that the release directed the reader to the party's new PR guy, Chris Schrimpf, who once worked for Wisconsin  grassroots Gov. Scott  Walker, who hates unions. They're loading up for the re-election campaign of Gov.Kasich, and the air is already pierced with acres of tall grass with GOP-style faux roots.

P.S.  What's that white elephant doing in the GOP's logo?  Bad vibes, don't you think? 







No comments: