Political Q&A...

On Capitol Hill and in Ohio, the Democrats are a miserable train wreck and the Republicans are an awful disaster waiting to happen.

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Betty Sutton: Don't just stand up to fight

REP. BETTY SUTTON reset the boundaries of this year's election in a few sharp words at the Akron Press Club yesterday. Dismissing the aimless rhetoric that has sent too many fearful politicians to their hideouts, Sutton asserted that our critical need today is for some plain talk, a vanishing ingredient in the flow of laundered comments from rostrums across the political landscape. Instead, Sutton, a Democrat, asserted that our representatives in

Washington need to "stand up and fight for solutions, not just stand up to fight."

That message would extend to both sides of the aisle. It hasn't been surprising that Republicans have used health care reform and other progressive breakthroughs as weapons against their opponents. But there's evidence everywhere that Democrats who voted for these measures have been seeking lower ground when challenged. As The Economist magazine observed in a review of the political season: "...most Democrats running for re-election are staying mum or apologizing for their votes for reform." That would dramatically exclude Sutton, who has been on the cutting edge of many issues (including Cash for Clunkers) from job creation to health care.

The problems with strategic retreats is that voters can rightfully ask why the candidates voted for this measure or that one in the first place. It's a sign of weakness that has given the Party of No new opportunities to pursue its mulishness with still greater zeal (if that's possible!).

It has been an election in which Republicans have called for solutions without a hint of specifics, and squirmy Democrats have meekly stood aside and conceded that even without those specifics, their rivals might be right. What a way to lose an election!

Wobbly politicians deserve to lose

IS IT BEGINNING to seem like all of the nation's business is being put on hold until the November elections? Isn't that what the "nervous Democrats" are saying about immigration reform and other issues that divide the country? Yes, they are saying that. It once again places the stamp of approval on safe passage to Election Day by hiding offstage until the votes are counted. Meantime, the races will be gauged daily by elastic polls rather than the substance of the candidates' positions which, in the case of some, change every day. .

One could dream that the the pathway to winning would change to invite leadership on the nation's business. But the reports from the summer meeting of the National Governors' Association tell us otherwise.

There, some Democratic governors were quoted as lamenting that the Justice Department has sued Arizona for its soon to be enforced new immigrant law. It would be naive not to believe that the first order of business of any pol is to win with the least provocation of the voters. If there is an ounce of courage in this notion, I have haven't seen it in more than four decades of witnessing politics in the trenches. With the internet so pervasive and immediate, it's only gotten worse.

So be it. The only remaining truth in all of this is the enduring cliche that the people get the government that they deserve. And if wobbly Democrats still lose, tee-hee.

John Kasich: After...and before

THERE'S AN unwritten rule in politics that the public tends to remember what the pol says first - no matter what he or she says later. It's a noose that has been slipped around John Kasich's neck, no matter how he tends to soften his original statement as the Republican gubernatorial candidate. I refer to his bombastic promise that he would eliminate the state income tax - even now that he and his allies are hurriedly saying that he didn't mean to do it by the next day's sunrise. Indeed, I'm not sure when he intends to eliminate the tax if he wins. Campaign promises often arrive in a haze.

The Columbus Dispatch reported today that opposition to Kasich's idea is quickly rising among school officials who fear that the absence of an income tax would further cripple their efforts to make ends meet. They have reason to worry. According to the Legislative Service Commission, seized as a convenient authoritative source by Democrats, the schools would lose $200 million in 2011 alone and God-knows how much over a 10-year period.

Not that Kasich doesn't have his supporters. For example, there is freshman Rep. Seth Morgan, the young (31) GOP candidate for state auditor, who accused the D's of turning the tax proposal into a heartstring issue and "using children as political pawns."

Something about Morgan, now that he has chosen to enter the fray from the political far right with Tea Party blessings. He represents the Dayton suburb of Huber Heights, and has posted his qualifications on his campaign home page: He says he would use his "passion for public policy, philosophy for a responsible government and love for Ohio" to make a difference. Here we go again: He has earned his spurs by once managing a Christian bookstore and attended Liberty Academy Satellite Schools. He got an online undergraduate degree but did manage to get an MBA summa cum laude from Dayton University. Forgive me: I recite all of this now because his name will be popping up regularly during the campaign season.

As for the income tax, the Dispatch reported today: "Ohio's income tax brings in a little more than $7 billion to Ohio's general revenue fund, about 44 pct. of all tax revenue. Kasich has said he favors its elimination but he has not set a timetable."

The election is many months away, but don't bet that the fuss over the state income tax - Kasich's original version - will go away. With political rhetoric, it is usually first things first.

Masschusetts and the words of Robert Frost

YEARS AGO, IN an interview with the poet Robert Frost, he mentioned the resiliency of Americans in the wake of a nuclear disaster. "They'll be up in heaven dusting themselves off," he airily predicted, "and saying, 'Boy, that was something, wasn't it?'"

There are a lot of living Democrats dusting themselves off today, desperately trying to find the appropriate words to describe that historicastoundingepicbombshell event in Massachusetts. The pendulum in the Bay State not only swung, but also crashed through the firewall that has long protected the most liberal state in the Union.

I haven't heard anything that has made much sense from either side in the haze of the moment. Democrats say they have to do better; Republicans credit themselves with already having done better. You can expect a lot of this in the days ahead, depending how long it will take the congressional Henny-pennies to retreat from Foxy-woxy's lair to get back to work in behalf of the American people. It won't be enough for the conservatives, the immovable rock in the Senate and House, to gloat that "We told you so." Nor for the Democrats, a skittish group that takes cover against the slightest suggestion that the other side is lying in wait, to have shaky knees..

You can take your choice of what happened in Massachusetts:. A lackluster Democratic candidate, voter frustrations, a state that already had government framed health insurance,

a helping hand from the Tea Parties, a Republican candidate who pledged his first order of business in the senate would be the 41st vote against health care reform. All the while, the Democrats simply took the state for granted. After all, this was the seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, who dedicated much of his time to such reforms.

Meanwhile, back on Capitol Hill, it remains a mystery of how the Democrats forfeited their 60-40 numerical lead over the other party other than to notice that they have often appeared gutless and duplicitous - particularly those who shared the booty from the health care industry and the pharmaceuticals. The Republicans are now operating as the majority party on all major issues. Climate change will be next.

The election couldn't come at a worse time for President Obama, with Afghanistan, Haiti, sober unemployment figures, Wall Street excesses and such Blue Dogs as Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson on his plate with Joe Lieberman in reserve. His hospitality to the other side hasn't worked, and won't work, which leads me to believe that his only option is to say: This is where I stand, take it or leave it. Put up or shut up. (Nelson, who is not above political bribery to get his way, even managed to plug into the haggard Senate plan a special benefit for his red state of Nebraska, which will later vote for him but not Obama.

What a mess! It might be a good time for rest of us to spend more time at the movies.

The 'Joe' complex is getting to me

FOLKS, I'M getting a "Joe" complex. Mention Joe to me during this Christmas season and I cringe. I know you're not talking about Mary's husband. My complex began during the 2008 presidential campaign when John McCain used Joe the Plumber to fill in the wide gaps of his uninspired campaign. After the election, I figured that was the end of that nonsense. But now we have Joe the Zelig Lieberman. And it tells you something about the awful state of American politics today.

The current Joe is a pathetic human being who has moled way into the Democratic caucus and held it captive while he does the minority Republicans' dirty work. However, as he has continued to pull aces from his sleeve, the word has finally sunk in to the spent Good Samaritans among the Democrats that you wouldn't dare hand him a pin in the midst of gas filled birthday balloons. How can you trust a guy who spent this week condemning a Medicare expansion that he was championing 3 months ago? With his talent for bait-and-switch, he could have taken on the entire Medici family.

But now, finally, he is getting a taste of his own foul medicine. There are calls that he be recalled from office, although that is more symbolic than realistic. Connecticut does not provide for recalls. Rabbis have beseeched him to get out of the way of the health care reform bill. The Connecticut on-line news papers have riddled him with invective. Protestors have shown up to picket his home. Unkind things are being said about his wife, Hadassah. His rubbery smile has become a whimper.

His response is not surprising. He's being victimized by his enemies, he says. He's only serving his conscience. That's the Pat Robertson gambit: the evil people are victimizing Christians.

Joe doubtless knows more about what's in the Bible than I do. But I do know that somewhere it says, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." Right, Joe? But not soon enough.

The curse of Moses Cleaveland

• MORE THOUGHTS AFTER HOURS OF YARD WORK:

• A friend who is a Cleveland sports fan raises troubling questions after each loss, among them: What is it about Cleveland? A... It's the Moses Cleaveland curse! When the surveyors drew up the first maps of the settlement founded by Cleaveland, they dropped the "a" from his name. Horrified, he cast an eternal curse on the place. Or something like that. Won't make any difference whether Quinn, Anderson or Kosar is the quarterback. Moses was here first.
• As the White House hopes for a public option in health care continue to vaporize, I'll have to repeat my theory that Democrats have no guts, and Republicans have no conscience. The second part of that is that Republicans take no prisoners while Democrats willingly allow themselves to be the prisoners.
• Now that former congressman Dick Armey is making the rounds with his bloated Texas-size ego guiding the narrative of Tea Parties, he would seem to be a perfect dance partner for another Texan, Tom DeLay, in a record breaking 20 second marathon on the ballroom floor. What is it about Texas?
• Imagine how much better life would be if all of the things promised by the TV commercials were really true. Even half-true!
• Pity the poor company executives who are giving up choice seats for themselves and clients at baseball games because they don't want anybody to think that they are wasting big dollars on corporate excesses. Seems a rather strange sacrifice to me since millions of corporate dollars are being wasted on the .221 hitters in the dugout.

Chuzzlewit: Democrats' secret weapon?

ONE OF THE big reasons the Republicans get their way on so many issues is that they are profoundly clever in controlling the national story line. Clearly that's the way the line is going on the health care issue and who would think to challenge these pros? They have been aided and abetted, of course by the networks. A long time ago the networks laid off their fact-checkers as an economic move in anticipation of the recession, which as late as last September didn't exist because John McCain said the "fundamentals" were strong. That question having been settled, Republicans and their friendly broadcasters were free to cast the Obama clique as doomsayers and Obama himself in many wicked incarnations as socialist, communist, fascist, outer-space alien, and arrogant SOB, to name a few. Speechless from the absurdity of the GOP's designated hits, timid Democrats were unable to respond in kind, other than to describe Sarah Palin as an opportunistic hottie, which nobody outside her immediate family denied anyway. Democrats have a long tradition of being meaner to each other than to the other party.

But there is a way to handle such glaring linguistic deficits for Democrats to balance the playing field. They need to develop their own name-calling terms. Having thought about this for several minutes, I've concluded that the most effective start would be to refer to the other party as packed with chuzzlewits. When an acquaintance mentions that he heard Obama is a full-blooded Husseinian, you must bat it aside by referring to his accusers as dangerous chuzzlewits.

"Chuzzlewits?" you would certainly be questioned.

"Right. Chuzzlewits - and it could be quite effective in retaliating against the cliches that line the streets leading to Capitol Hill. It's fresh. It's provocative. It's full of non-meaning."

"But what is a chuzzlewit?"

"My dear sir, all I can tell you is that a chuzzlewit is so bad that you don't ever want to go there It doesn't mean a damn thing. It just has a dumb but fetching sound. Still, it will soon be the talk of the talk shows."

"But - "

"If you must know, l I can tell you is that it is worse than snoozing in the bathtub when an enormous 0ak tree falls smack on your house."

"Do you know any...eh...chuzzlewits today? I mean, really..."

"Sure. Think of Mitch McConnell."

"But he's a senator, right? How can he be a chuzzlewit, too?""

"See what I mean? Still not satisfied? Try John Boehner..."

"Who?"

"And Rush Limbaugh..."

"Wow! I never in a million years would have thought that Rush was, as you say, a chuzzlewit."

"Now we're getting somewhere. And if you really want to help your party, call all of your friends and tell them that Dick Cheney is not only one chuzzlewit, but two. Maybe even three."

"But I still would like to know what it means."

"Don't have to know what it means, my friend. The world is filled with things we don't know. But somehow we manage to survive."

"How awful."

"Right. Still such ignorance can work to the advantage of either side. If it helps, look at it this way: How many people on the other side know what a socialist or fascist is? Still, it works for them, just as chuzzlewit will work for you."

"Chuzzlewit."

"With 2 z's."

.

Frank Comunale, Ohio Senate candidate

YOU CAN expect an an official announcement soon from Democrat Frank Comunale that he will be a candidate for the Ohio Senate seat  now held by Republican Kevin Coughlin, a term-limit victim.  Comunale is a Summit County Councilman and will be running in the 27th Senate District that gerrymandering has well-protected the Republican interests.  "It's a daunting task," Comunale told me, saying he is currently going about the business of raising money for  the campaign.  One look at the 27th reveals a district that looks much like a Rorschack Test defined by a bunch of tipsy legislators on New Year's Eve.  Although it is heavily centered in Summit county, it also has a gaping  jagged gulf  in the middle left to Portage County, thereby eliminating a lot of Akron Democratic voters.  The last word from Republican chairman Alex Arshinkoff is that the party is looking  at several potential candidates.  

A chameleon returns

I HOPE THE Democrats in Congress knew what they were doing when they agreed to reward Joe Lieberman for his chameleon-like behavior in  this year's presidential campaign.  Whatever deal he made with the Democrats to hold on to his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee  will last only until he finds it convenient to break it.    Lieberman, in turns, has been a peacenik who became a hawk , a Democrat who became an Independent who supported Republican John McCain , and a senatorial candidate in Connecticut who enlisted Barack Obama's support only to betray  Obama as  McCain's slippery-tongued ally with an eye on a big job in a Republican administration that was only a failed dream. 

When it served his purpose Lieberman praised radical Muslim Louis Farrakhan , saying,  "I have respect for him...I admire what Minister Farrakhan is doing."  On the other hand, he found the Rev. Wright to be a political handicap for Obama, one of many ways he went after the eventual  president-elect.   Lieberman's dance mode has been watched over the years by many who find it repugnantly shameful.  Hear what Colin McEnroe, a home-state columnist for the Hartford Courant and radio personality had to say about his senator:  

"The way you always knew that Joe Lieberman was the kind of guy who 'rises above'  politics was that he always told you so.  The way you knew he wasn't was to watch him the rest of the time."

With his characteristic rise to the occasion, Lieberman said  the Senate's action was "fair and forward behavior".  Right, Joe.   On the other hand he had said that any attempt to strip him of his Homeland Security chair would have been "unacceptable".  To whom?  To him.  See what I mean?