Contrary to his soaring campaign rhetoric, John Kasich failed to land his plane at the Republcan debate in Milwaukee. Maybe his Ground Controlled Approach system that he's been trying to perfect in New Hampshire sent him back to Marysville or Lima instead. He didn't even enjoy a celebratory flyover.
Once again, our agitated guv kept bursting into the conversation (eight times) to the point where one of the others could have fairly called for a restraining order. GCA landings notwithstanding, he managed to get few kind words from his political and media critics. Oh, the non-partisan Associated Press did shelter him from further abuse by simply reporting in the last paragraph that he was "also on the stage".
On the other hand, polling guru Nate Silver likened him to Hensley "Bam'Bam" Meulans. It's OK if you don't know that Meulans was a baseball player of sorts who is now the hitting coach of the San Francisco Giants. Few people know the name, but that seems also to be the lot of Kasich's csmpaign. (In Iowa, 0 pct. in the polls)
National Review conservative Jonah Goldberg said Kasich is "done. He came across angry, condescending and uprincipled." It gets worse, but if there are any kids reading this, I'll stop right there.
His problem, as we've noted early in his first term, is his harsh, snappish, rough edges that presents him badly to people beyond the reach of the Columbus Dispatch as a school yard bully. There had been words that he's become the "New Kasich", with Biblical references on his lips and expressed concern for the underclass. Didn't last long because it didn't give his poll numbers a lift. So it was back to "no more Mr. Nice Guy", which we already knew he wasn't anyway.
Even in Ohio, his protective media custody has begun to falter. The Plain Dealer's Henry Gomez began his report with "Maybe John Kasich would have been better off at the kiddie table." And the Columbus Dispatch, his leading chaperone in Ohio, headlined: "Kasich heads back to New Hampshire amid unfavorable reviews."
But a Republican Party that was hospitable to the Tea Party and evangelicals when the latter began to invade it en masse years ago must now contend with the reality so vivified by Kasich's demolition by the hard right that doubts his conservative purity. No longer is the GOP the only party separated from Democrats. It must contend with being in third place, at least what's left of it, behind the fringe that encourages Ben Carson to blatantly lie about so many things and Donald Trump to make history with nonsense about shipping 11 million illegals back to Mexico.
Kasich's empty boast that he knows how to land an airplane (which qualifies him to handle government's course!) seems so trivial in comparison.
That much the Kasich campaign, as frivolous as it has been at times, has shown us with his mauling by the current proprietors of the old Republican Party.
Showing posts with label Gov. Kasich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gov. Kasich. Show all posts
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Outrage missing from the charter school schemes
Where's the outrage?
After all of the teasing talk by Gov.Kasich and state lawmakers that reforms for charter schools are on the way for the $1 billion tax-funded industry, the Ohio legislative class merely kicked the idea down the road until September at the earliest and left town for summer fun. Meantime Kasich scheduled more out-of-state visits for his presidential candidacy that he will officially announce on July 21, thus giving convenient reason to return to his home state.
As Innovation Ohio reported: "After months of bipartisan momentum to improve Ohio's nationally ridiculed charter school laws, the Ohio House left for the summer without acting on House Bill 2. This means that charter schools will receive nearly $1 billion in state funding in at least another entire school year."
Where's the outrage?
Where are the first signs of protests at the Statehouse door that $1 billion in taxpayer money will again be granted to the faltering charter system that has been embarrassing to Buckeyeland around the country?
Taxpayers have been conveniently excluded from the business-as-usual moments by budget arrangers who skillfully created a state budget for public schools with a formula that few without doctorates can understand. And the state's media have done a modest job in trying to explain the taxpayer stakes in the opaquely distributed revenue for charters that is bleeding the budgets of public schools.
For evidence, the Beacon Journal today editorialized at length complaining that "the new state budget doesn't include the better funding formula." So far, so good. But nowhere does the mysterious word "charter" appear.
Yes, school funding is complicated. It's costly. It's never had top priority in the legislative halls from the hacks and 10 o'clock scholars. Instead, the governor boasts with vacuous self-approval of his Ohio Miracle and now, a New Day for Ohio. New about what?
It's hard to be outraged when a billion dollar industry is swathed in unintelligible language for its politically disguised accounting system infused with dizzying numbers.
Mark Urycki, a reporter for StateimpactOhio, a consortium of WKSU, WOSU and WCPN, courageously explored the density of the problem of such funding. He reports that charters are more than an inheritor of the revenues that are stripped from public school districts.
''But because charter schools on average are assigned more state aid than traditional public schools, districts have to dip into their local levy money to give charters what the state demands". Right! For the 370 charter schools with about 125, 000 students.
As a I've written in an earlier column, you must contend with the powerful charter guy who founded White Hat Management as a for-profit investment in school kids, and then writing to lawmakers to remind them of where some of their political cash is coming from. Legislative hacks don't need much more convincing to discourage them from leaning on the state's horrific giveaway of your money.
Where's the outrage? You know, the kind you might hear from a neighbor who is reacting to a cost overrun on a street repair.
Kasich has talked of more transparency of the money spent. But if you asked him in the middle of a campaign stop, he'd have a hard time explaining what he meant. He leaves the gritty work to others. For example, in 2013 he appointed a pro-charter fellow named David Hansen, the ex-president of the right-wing Buckeye Institute, and husband of Kasich's chief of staff, to oversee charter school and voucher programs in the Ohio Department of Education. Sort of like the fox guarding the chicken coop, don't you think?
First things first for the governor and Republican legislature. That takes care of any threat from the public outrage thing. Unfortunately, it has been fail-safe.
(Reposted from Plunderbund)
After all of the teasing talk by Gov.Kasich and state lawmakers that reforms for charter schools are on the way for the $1 billion tax-funded industry, the Ohio legislative class merely kicked the idea down the road until September at the earliest and left town for summer fun. Meantime Kasich scheduled more out-of-state visits for his presidential candidacy that he will officially announce on July 21, thus giving convenient reason to return to his home state.
As Innovation Ohio reported: "After months of bipartisan momentum to improve Ohio's nationally ridiculed charter school laws, the Ohio House left for the summer without acting on House Bill 2. This means that charter schools will receive nearly $1 billion in state funding in at least another entire school year."
Where's the outrage?
Where are the first signs of protests at the Statehouse door that $1 billion in taxpayer money will again be granted to the faltering charter system that has been embarrassing to Buckeyeland around the country?
Taxpayers have been conveniently excluded from the business-as-usual moments by budget arrangers who skillfully created a state budget for public schools with a formula that few without doctorates can understand. And the state's media have done a modest job in trying to explain the taxpayer stakes in the opaquely distributed revenue for charters that is bleeding the budgets of public schools.
For evidence, the Beacon Journal today editorialized at length complaining that "the new state budget doesn't include the better funding formula." So far, so good. But nowhere does the mysterious word "charter" appear.
Yes, school funding is complicated. It's costly. It's never had top priority in the legislative halls from the hacks and 10 o'clock scholars. Instead, the governor boasts with vacuous self-approval of his Ohio Miracle and now, a New Day for Ohio. New about what?
It's hard to be outraged when a billion dollar industry is swathed in unintelligible language for its politically disguised accounting system infused with dizzying numbers.
Mark Urycki, a reporter for StateimpactOhio, a consortium of WKSU, WOSU and WCPN, courageously explored the density of the problem of such funding. He reports that charters are more than an inheritor of the revenues that are stripped from public school districts.
''But because charter schools on average are assigned more state aid than traditional public schools, districts have to dip into their local levy money to give charters what the state demands". Right! For the 370 charter schools with about 125, 000 students.
As a I've written in an earlier column, you must contend with the powerful charter guy who founded White Hat Management as a for-profit investment in school kids, and then writing to lawmakers to remind them of where some of their political cash is coming from. Legislative hacks don't need much more convincing to discourage them from leaning on the state's horrific giveaway of your money.
Where's the outrage? You know, the kind you might hear from a neighbor who is reacting to a cost overrun on a street repair.
Kasich has talked of more transparency of the money spent. But if you asked him in the middle of a campaign stop, he'd have a hard time explaining what he meant. He leaves the gritty work to others. For example, in 2013 he appointed a pro-charter fellow named David Hansen, the ex-president of the right-wing Buckeye Institute, and husband of Kasich's chief of staff, to oversee charter school and voucher programs in the Ohio Department of Education. Sort of like the fox guarding the chicken coop, don't you think?
First things first for the governor and Republican legislature. That takes care of any threat from the public outrage thing. Unfortunately, it has been fail-safe.
(Reposted from Plunderbund)
Monday, February 23, 2015
Leftovers from the cave
The past week's leftovers:
With so many hawkish wingers who won't shave a budgetary dime in protecting the lives of Americans from terrorists overseas, it does seem odd that the very same hawkish wingers on the right continue to hack at Obamacare that protects the lives of millions of uninsured Americans at home.
* * * * *
That was another of Gov.Kasich's sunny performances in his CNN interview by Gloria Borger. It could have ended quickly after he said that all of his options were on the table, or at least after he again mentioned Matthew 25 (the part about feeding the poor!). He also shrugged off any interest in the vice presidency , cheerily saying he's been on the veep list since he was 35. He also called for an unspecified "battle plan"against ISIS and claimed to be "worried about America". He dismissed any thoughts about conservative opposition if he decides to run for the presidency (which at this very moment is an idea that controls every lobe of his brain) because right-wingers do not represent the culture of Ohio. You'd be better off if you didn't allow any of the above Kasichisms burden your lobes.
* * * * *
Re Matthew 25, do you think the guv might start showing up with John 3:16 on a placard in his public appearances - the way they do it at baseball games?
* * * * *
Hope you saw the angry letter in Monday's Beacon Journal from Brian Williams defending Common Pleas Judge Tammy O'Brien for recusing herself from more than 60 cases after her bailiff threatened to quit because the bailiff didn't like the assistant county procesutor assigned to the court. "Mercilessly vilified," Williams complained. But it does seem that a judge at the common pleas level should have weighed the consequences of her behavior. Indeed, she finally did by saying she would now preside over all of the cases from now on.
If you do crossword puzzles (as I do) Rep. Darrell Issa, the toothy mega-millionaire Republican from California, is manning the battlements against the army of Giuliani critics by asking us to thank the New York City mayor. But he also tests all of us to know the difference between "believe" and 'wasn't".
Here's Issa:
"Rudy Giuliani said he didn't 'believe' [that Obama doesn't love America] He didn't say the president 'wasn't'."
Yeah. Me, too.
With so many hawkish wingers who won't shave a budgetary dime in protecting the lives of Americans from terrorists overseas, it does seem odd that the very same hawkish wingers on the right continue to hack at Obamacare that protects the lives of millions of uninsured Americans at home.
* * * * *
That was another of Gov.Kasich's sunny performances in his CNN interview by Gloria Borger. It could have ended quickly after he said that all of his options were on the table, or at least after he again mentioned Matthew 25 (the part about feeding the poor!). He also shrugged off any interest in the vice presidency , cheerily saying he's been on the veep list since he was 35. He also called for an unspecified "battle plan"against ISIS and claimed to be "worried about America". He dismissed any thoughts about conservative opposition if he decides to run for the presidency (which at this very moment is an idea that controls every lobe of his brain) because right-wingers do not represent the culture of Ohio. You'd be better off if you didn't allow any of the above Kasichisms burden your lobes.
* * * * *
Re Matthew 25, do you think the guv might start showing up with John 3:16 on a placard in his public appearances - the way they do it at baseball games?
* * * * *
Hope you saw the angry letter in Monday's Beacon Journal from Brian Williams defending Common Pleas Judge Tammy O'Brien for recusing herself from more than 60 cases after her bailiff threatened to quit because the bailiff didn't like the assistant county procesutor assigned to the court. "Mercilessly vilified," Williams complained. But it does seem that a judge at the common pleas level should have weighed the consequences of her behavior. Indeed, she finally did by saying she would now preside over all of the cases from now on.
If you do crossword puzzles (as I do) Rep. Darrell Issa, the toothy mega-millionaire Republican from California, is manning the battlements against the army of Giuliani critics by asking us to thank the New York City mayor. But he also tests all of us to know the difference between "believe" and 'wasn't".
Here's Issa:
"Rudy Giuliani said he didn't 'believe' [that Obama doesn't love America] He didn't say the president 'wasn't'."
Yeah. Me, too.
Friday, November 7, 2014
More on the case of that NEOMG disappearing video
The Plain Dealer finally took an official but less than persuasive step toward explaining why it pulled a video of the gubernatorial candidates' group meeting with the editorial board of the Plain Dealer and the Northeast Ohio Media Group.(NEOMG)
In a long and painful la nostra culpa today, Ted Diadiun, NEOMG's reader representative, courageously led the reader along a bumpy path to the cut-and run decision that lay squarely in the hands of Chris Quinn, NEOMG's vice president of content. But soon after the video's brief appearance on cleveland.com, Quinn turned to damage control as the shameful inexplicable maneuver went virile on social media as well as that of Columbia Journalism Review.
That produced some panic, as though someone had been caught with his hand in the news jar. Panic? Quinn even harshly threatened to sue Plunderbund from posting some clips from the original video. (A Cleveland TV station even flashed the quips, which is where I saw our casually attired govcrnor turning his head away from Ed FitzGerald and Green candidate Anita Rios with a satanic laugh.
We later learned that he never bothered to answer the board's questions nor fully acknowledge the other two candidates. That, my friends, was the full, nasty Kasich that we have come to know as a guy entirely without social skills. Even a football coach whose team has been thrashed by the other guys will push onto the field to meet the victorious coach.
According to Diadiun, Quinn, now the veep of discontent, had realized that he hadn't informed the candidates that the session would be released for public consumption.
"When the governor's staff saw the video on cleveland.com., they were chagrined, and contacted NEOMG," Diadiun wrote. Quinn's explanation: He had "gotten busy as the candidates and board members arrived in staggered groups, and he never followed through."
Diadiun said Quinn's reasons for pulling the video were a matter of fairness and defensible. But he did write that Quinn's delay in explaining it were "indefensible."
The reaction to the messy wake was guaranteed. Diadiun noted that the mystery led people - including me - to believe ''something more sinister was afoot than the obvious, people began advancing crazy ideas, such as that Kasich had ordered the video to be deleted, or that it was taken down because it made the endorsed candidate look bad."
Quinn said nobody had asked him to remove the video. Oh?
I am among those who believe that Kasich played a role in the disappearing act. As one who organized and moderated Akron Press Club debates for several years, I can tell you that the panelists always wanted to know all of the rules, which were either sent to them or explained at the site. That's how you do these things. There were never to be any surprises.
I simply can't - and won't - believe that Kasich, who spent much of his campaign dodging reporters and refusing debates, didn't know all of the rules well ahead of arriving at the PD and demanded that the PD cool it, or words to that effect. The rest of the details have the appearance of Reddi Wip. .
In a long and painful la nostra culpa today, Ted Diadiun, NEOMG's reader representative, courageously led the reader along a bumpy path to the cut-and run decision that lay squarely in the hands of Chris Quinn, NEOMG's vice president of content. But soon after the video's brief appearance on cleveland.com, Quinn turned to damage control as the shameful inexplicable maneuver went virile on social media as well as that of Columbia Journalism Review.
That produced some panic, as though someone had been caught with his hand in the news jar. Panic? Quinn even harshly threatened to sue Plunderbund from posting some clips from the original video. (A Cleveland TV station even flashed the quips, which is where I saw our casually attired govcrnor turning his head away from Ed FitzGerald and Green candidate Anita Rios with a satanic laugh.
We later learned that he never bothered to answer the board's questions nor fully acknowledge the other two candidates. That, my friends, was the full, nasty Kasich that we have come to know as a guy entirely without social skills. Even a football coach whose team has been thrashed by the other guys will push onto the field to meet the victorious coach.
According to Diadiun, Quinn, now the veep of discontent, had realized that he hadn't informed the candidates that the session would be released for public consumption.
"When the governor's staff saw the video on cleveland.com., they were chagrined, and contacted NEOMG," Diadiun wrote. Quinn's explanation: He had "gotten busy as the candidates and board members arrived in staggered groups, and he never followed through."
Diadiun said Quinn's reasons for pulling the video were a matter of fairness and defensible. But he did write that Quinn's delay in explaining it were "indefensible."
The reaction to the messy wake was guaranteed. Diadiun noted that the mystery led people - including me - to believe ''something more sinister was afoot than the obvious, people began advancing crazy ideas, such as that Kasich had ordered the video to be deleted, or that it was taken down because it made the endorsed candidate look bad."
Quinn said nobody had asked him to remove the video. Oh?
I am among those who believe that Kasich played a role in the disappearing act. As one who organized and moderated Akron Press Club debates for several years, I can tell you that the panelists always wanted to know all of the rules, which were either sent to them or explained at the site. That's how you do these things. There were never to be any surprises.
I simply can't - and won't - believe that Kasich, who spent much of his campaign dodging reporters and refusing debates, didn't know all of the rules well ahead of arriving at the PD and demanded that the PD cool it, or words to that effect. The rest of the details have the appearance of Reddi Wip. .
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Anybody know what really happened to PD video?
If further proof of the media's loss of credibility with disjointed editorial endorsements during this election season was needed, the Plain Dealer's shameful stunt in removing a video from its online page will serve nicely. Since the video of Gov. Kasich's abysmal true-to-life performance with two challengers seated before the NEOMG/Plain Dealer editors was inexplicably pulled, the story has traveled widely. Columbia Journalism Review associate editor Greg Marx filled the blank darkly by describing it as "weird".
Still worse has a been the stonewalling of the decision as inquiries, including mine , were flagged to others on editors' row, where it's possible that the janitors were told to close all of the blinds. Calls and emails from a number of news outlets were ignored, or shoved up the ladder to Chris Quinn, vice president of content. Nick Castele of WCPN reported that Quinn "politely declined" to explain the story behind the story.
My hunch is that the decision was made to protect Kasich, who made such a mess of himself with his casual campaign slouch, ignoring Ed FitzGerald and Anita Ruiz and shunting editors' questions. It was Quinn, after all, who threatened a lawsuit against Plunderbund, which posted some clips before the video vanished. (Next day, the PD endorsed Kasich.)
But here again was Kasich's M.O. throughout the campaign, and with considerable help from FitzGerald's missteps, friendly newspapers and millions in campaign money, we will have to live with him for a while longer.
When he arrived in office four years ago he dismissed the press - said he never read newspapers and seemed to be the perfect model for former iconic film critic, Pauline Kael, who once twitted the New Yorker's debonair critics for being "so superior to the subject that they never dealt with it".
Hardly debonair, Kasich, rough edges and all, still seems to fit that description quite well.
Still worse has a been the stonewalling of the decision as inquiries, including mine , were flagged to others on editors' row, where it's possible that the janitors were told to close all of the blinds. Calls and emails from a number of news outlets were ignored, or shoved up the ladder to Chris Quinn, vice president of content. Nick Castele of WCPN reported that Quinn "politely declined" to explain the story behind the story.
My hunch is that the decision was made to protect Kasich, who made such a mess of himself with his casual campaign slouch, ignoring Ed FitzGerald and Anita Ruiz and shunting editors' questions. It was Quinn, after all, who threatened a lawsuit against Plunderbund, which posted some clips before the video vanished. (Next day, the PD endorsed Kasich.)
But here again was Kasich's M.O. throughout the campaign, and with considerable help from FitzGerald's missteps, friendly newspapers and millions in campaign money, we will have to live with him for a while longer.
When he arrived in office four years ago he dismissed the press - said he never read newspapers and seemed to be the perfect model for former iconic film critic, Pauline Kael, who once twitted the New Yorker's debonair critics for being "so superior to the subject that they never dealt with it".
Hardly debonair, Kasich, rough edges and all, still seems to fit that description quite well.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Hey, Guv. Where are Ohio's wackadoodles?
Broken news for Gov. Kasich: Did you notice that the team from the state that you have scorned as the home of "wackadoodles" won the World Series for the third time in five years? Yep, the San Francisco Giants claimed the high honor while you were probably busy trying to convince the voters that you should be re-elected by acclimation. I'm only sorry that Ohio's wackadoodles aren't ever able to thrust the Indians into the playoffs. Wouldn't that be a more convincing affirmation of your "Ohio Miracle"?
Friday, October 17, 2014
From Kasich's Wackadoodles to National League pennant
We're confident that you've heard by now that the San Francisco Giants won the National League pennant with one of those walkoff things - a 9th inning home run on Friday after a walkoff error a game before.
If you don't understand the joys and heartbreaks of walkoffs, it's not the purpose of this blog to explain them. Rather, I'm also confident that many of you learned in grade school that San Francisco is in California. That's the West Coast state that our Gov. Kasich, in one of his trademark moments of hubris, knocked as the "wackadoodle Californians".
If so, shouldn't the Cleveland Indians spend more time wackadoodling instead of hopelessly trying to upgrade their players into better fielders, Guv?
Monday, September 8, 2014
The wash from the week that just ended - finallyl
Summit County Democratic chairman Jeff Fusco drew a good turnout - 100 or so - for a pep session of party activist sand candidates on a rainy Saturday at the Dems' Grant Street headquarters to deliver a single message: Hit the streets.
The centerpiece was the launch for delivering 80,000 sample ballots in the county. "It will take a couple of weeks," Fusco told me afterward. "But we'll get it done."
* * * * *
Finally unwinding after the near-collapse of the Steelers. The game saver: Ben Roethlisberger, who never knows enough to panic and led the team to a field goal spot on the field in the final minute.. It was known as winning ugly, but worth a win in the standings. Whew!
* * * * *
When Eric Cantor joined aWall Street investment banker after his loss in the Republican primary, his new career offered perfect symmetry to Gov Kasich's own line of work when he voluntarily left congress to become a very rich man at Lehman Brothers (now defunct). For the one per centers who are ideologically with you, there's always room for one more.
* * * * *
So eager are the Obama haters to find fault with his every breath, Dana Perino - former president Bush's press secretary - noted that Obama's brief tourist walk at Stonehenge had bad "optics". I wonder how many divisions the optics army has.
The centerpiece was the launch for delivering 80,000 sample ballots in the county. "It will take a couple of weeks," Fusco told me afterward. "But we'll get it done."
* * * * *
Finally unwinding after the near-collapse of the Steelers. The game saver: Ben Roethlisberger, who never knows enough to panic and led the team to a field goal spot on the field in the final minute.. It was known as winning ugly, but worth a win in the standings. Whew!
* * * * *
When Eric Cantor joined aWall Street investment banker after his loss in the Republican primary, his new career offered perfect symmetry to Gov Kasich's own line of work when he voluntarily left congress to become a very rich man at Lehman Brothers (now defunct). For the one per centers who are ideologically with you, there's always room for one more.
* * * * *
So eager are the Obama haters to find fault with his every breath, Dana Perino - former president Bush's press secretary - noted that Obama's brief tourist walk at Stonehenge had bad "optics". I wonder how many divisions the optics army has.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Kasich heads to Medina for the true believers
As Gov. Kasich's election-year caravan prepares for a rousing visit to Medina on Monday for the annual state-of-the-state speech, the town's Republican upbringing will provide the perfect festive comfort zone for his words. Such occasions, after all, are meaningless if not revealed with political pageantry marked by hyperbole.
There's even talk that Kasich is infusing a softer touch to his hard-edged disposition as he reaches out to voters for a second term. When he arrived in the governor's office in Columbus we can all remember his verbal assaults on a Columbus police officer who stopped his car (an "idiot," he supposed to a Columbus audience). And he wanted it known to his opponents - lobbyists (Oh?) and the education class - that either should join him or be run over by the bus. Read: there was a new sheriff in town. He didn't impress us as a candidate for a Mr. Geniality award.
Don't think there will be much of that bravado in Medina. Still, in weighing Kasich's words, let me point you to the sage advice that Sherlock Holmes gave to his friend Dr.Watson after solving a murder mystery in A Study in Scarlet:.
There's even talk that Kasich is infusing a softer touch to his hard-edged disposition as he reaches out to voters for a second term. When he arrived in the governor's office in Columbus we can all remember his verbal assaults on a Columbus police officer who stopped his car (an "idiot," he supposed to a Columbus audience). And he wanted it known to his opponents - lobbyists (Oh?) and the education class - that either should join him or be run over by the bus. Read: there was a new sheriff in town. He didn't impress us as a candidate for a Mr. Geniality award.
Don't think there will be much of that bravado in Medina. Still, in weighing Kasich's words, let me point you to the sage advice that Sherlock Holmes gave to his friend Dr.Watson after solving a murder mystery in A Study in Scarlet:.
"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done."
Monday, September 30, 2013
Will shutdown cast pall over Summit GOP event?
Are you ready for the government shutdown that the experts are now conceding? No, still not necessary to start storing extra food and water in the basement. But we are still facing a mess dumped on us by the weird collection of anarchists on Capitol Hill who insist they only want to do what's best for the American people, imaginary or otherwise.
Easy for them to say. While a sea of Americans will lose paychecks and other government services, the laws are so devised that the Capitol Hill gang of Tea Party lawmakers will still get paid, even if their employes will not. To the topside goes the spoils.
And it took not John Boehner but another Ohioan to put the anarchists' self-styled noble work in context. That would be Rep. Jim Jordan, from somewhere down in central Ohio, a hard right Republican (!) who believes it's all a matter of "basic civics" to do what has to be done for the people.
"Sometimes I go back to basic civics. We're the House of Representatives. We're the body that's supposed to be closer to the people," he said. "That's why the founders gave a chance for the people to throw us out every two years."
From his rural Republican-pure district? He's kidding, of course.
He also s didn't mention that a majority of his colleagues in the People's House would disagree with his sophomoric civics lesson.
Meantime, a shutdown might cast a pall over the annual Summit County GOP finance committee dinner Tuesday night at the Akron-Fairlawn Hilton. For $300 a plate (or more) the guests will get to hear yet another boast from Gov. John (Ohio Miracle) Kasich. A big honor for Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, I might add, inasmuch as he's paid $10,000 a month to be the University of Akron's guy to lobby...John Kasich.
Once again at these annual moneyfests, Alex will get his chance to slam every titled Democratic leader with scandalous behavior that would even force the late Ray Bliss to blush. Whatever's going wrong, he will tell them, is the fault of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and such without once mentioning chief Republican/Tea Party anarchist Ted Cruz.
Long ago I chose the wrong line of work to make a good living.
P.S. I would provide you with an on-site report of the event as I did for many years when Bliss was chair. But a couple of years ago Alex closed the doors to me, thus doing himself and me a favor.
Easy for them to say. While a sea of Americans will lose paychecks and other government services, the laws are so devised that the Capitol Hill gang of Tea Party lawmakers will still get paid, even if their employes will not. To the topside goes the spoils.
And it took not John Boehner but another Ohioan to put the anarchists' self-styled noble work in context. That would be Rep. Jim Jordan, from somewhere down in central Ohio, a hard right Republican (!) who believes it's all a matter of "basic civics" to do what has to be done for the people.
"Sometimes I go back to basic civics. We're the House of Representatives. We're the body that's supposed to be closer to the people," he said. "That's why the founders gave a chance for the people to throw us out every two years."
From his rural Republican-pure district? He's kidding, of course.
He also s didn't mention that a majority of his colleagues in the People's House would disagree with his sophomoric civics lesson.
Meantime, a shutdown might cast a pall over the annual Summit County GOP finance committee dinner Tuesday night at the Akron-Fairlawn Hilton. For $300 a plate (or more) the guests will get to hear yet another boast from Gov. John (Ohio Miracle) Kasich. A big honor for Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, I might add, inasmuch as he's paid $10,000 a month to be the University of Akron's guy to lobby...John Kasich.
Once again at these annual moneyfests, Alex will get his chance to slam every titled Democratic leader with scandalous behavior that would even force the late Ray Bliss to blush. Whatever's going wrong, he will tell them, is the fault of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and such without once mentioning chief Republican/Tea Party anarchist Ted Cruz.
Long ago I chose the wrong line of work to make a good living.
P.S. I would provide you with an on-site report of the event as I did for many years when Bliss was chair. But a couple of years ago Alex closed the doors to me, thus doing himself and me a favor.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
legislative rumors to cancel 2014 gubernatorial election
With encouraging predictions from the GOP's resident gurus, Karl Rove and Dick Morris, that Gov.Kasich would defeat Democrat Ed FitzGerald by 47 points, several low-ranking Republican lawmakers from southern Ohio are rumored to be putting the final touches on a bill that would eliminate the 2014 gubernatorial election altogether. One of the probable legislative sponsors, an entry level statistician in JobsOhio, the secret Skull and Bones-style fraternity, said he was impressed by crunching the numbers of campaign dollars and votes. "It would save the state money and create 627,492 - maybe even 627, 501 - jobs," he said. "Who could be against jobs?" he asked rhetorically. Who, indeed?
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
GOP's Schrimpf; Only investors qualify for governor
When anybody tells me that Republicans are cold-blooded predators and don't have a sense of humor, I look for ways to disagree. For example, there's Chris Schrimpf, who is proving to be good for a laugh now and then.
Never heard of this fellow? Well, he's the communications director of the Ohio Republican Party. His career path included a stint as communications director for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the anti-union exec who was reported to have exchanged high priority conversations with Gov. Kasich before the ill-fated Senate Bill 5 was left for dead by the Buckeye voters.
Who could have a greater sense of humor than Schrimpf , who decided to strike a fatal blow at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald's core values by disqualifying him as a worthy candidate.
Here's where the humor begins: Schrimpf said FitzGerald doesn't have "investments," no portfolio and stuff that would prepare him to handle the grave business of the state. Kasich, we know, not only had investments; he also had the experience of being a managing director of Lehman Brothers, the bankrupt Wall Street investment firm.
In one shattering breakthrough from politics as usual, Schrimpf has decided: No portfolio, no governor."
He's kidding, right?
Alas, upon further reflection, I don't think so.
Never heard of this fellow? Well, he's the communications director of the Ohio Republican Party. His career path included a stint as communications director for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the anti-union exec who was reported to have exchanged high priority conversations with Gov. Kasich before the ill-fated Senate Bill 5 was left for dead by the Buckeye voters.
Who could have a greater sense of humor than Schrimpf , who decided to strike a fatal blow at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald's core values by disqualifying him as a worthy candidate.
Here's where the humor begins: Schrimpf said FitzGerald doesn't have "investments," no portfolio and stuff that would prepare him to handle the grave business of the state. Kasich, we know, not only had investments; he also had the experience of being a managing director of Lehman Brothers, the bankrupt Wall Street investment firm.
In one shattering breakthrough from politics as usual, Schrimpf has decided: No portfolio, no governor."
He's kidding, right?
Alas, upon further reflection, I don't think so.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
The GOP CAN keep them down on the farm
GOPers running the Ohio legislature as "rustics". Being old-fashioned enough to believe that a picture is worth a thousand words, I again refer to the official photo logo adorning the top of every official press release from the Ohio Republican Party as the symbol of the party of regressives. I don't see a single skyline of an Ohio city nor an urban thoroughfare. Simply a barn and silo. Tell me that "rustic" doesn't befit the ordinary Republican politicians, even the ones who live in Upper Arlington or Hudson.
* * * * *
Speaking of the Ohio legislature, the GOP sausage machine that ground out the new budget also produced some of the oddest defenses that edge out the best of Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, today's gold standard of loony utterances. There was Rep. Ron Hood, the Ashville, Oh. Republican who introduced an abortion bill in mid-June that was augmented in the final hour as a budget amendment. Referring to the American Cancer Society's rejection of the notion that abortion leads to breast cancer, Hood said he didn't think these issues needed to be stated as fact. Only, he said, as a possibility. Or not.
Then along came Rep. Terry Boose, the Norwalk Republican, insisting that a state budget is a statement of numbers, not top-heavy policy. But Democratic Sen. Tom Sawyer of Akron would have nothing to do with that kind of talk that stresses numbers over policy. "He doesn't know what he's talking about," Sawyer said. "The budget is 80 pct. policy and 20 pct. numbers". Right. Working from the same column of numbers, the budgeteers will find a way to inject their own policies. (Remember the adage that figures don't lie, but liars do figure!)
* * * * *.
Dear me. My copy of the Beacon Journal arrived Monday morning without a single word about the budget that Gov. Kasich signed (as a guy thing, no less) on Sunday evening. The Plain Dealer, however, nicely filled the vacuum with a long piece that topped the front page. So how much longer can the BJ sustain its motto of Informing Engaging Essential? I'm not awaiting a reply.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
From today's news heap, Kasich pleads ignorance
Today's latest news, Hot off the Mess:
Leave it to our governor to produce another Kasich Kerfuffle in response to a question following his speech to the Cleveland City Club on Wednesday. It occurred when a woman in the audience asked him whether he agreed with fellow-Republican Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike Dewine's fellowship with some other Republican AG's in a lawsuit involving employers and contraceptives insurance.
Dewine has never let anybody forget since the day he ran for the office that he wants to slay the Obamacare dragon and has channeled it with religious fervor into an assault on the legality of whether employers should include contraceptives in their employes' insurance coverage.
It's been in all of the papers. The governor, however, batted away the issue by saying he had not heard of the Dewine gambit and ducked the question. Besides, as the governor has boasted, he never reads newspapers because sometimes they leave him unhappy.
* * * * *
Is it just me, or do you find it a bit odd that two obstinate anti-gun control congressmen will be the featured guests at a dinner celebrating an historic Republican icon?
Yep, that's a reference, folks, to the annual Summit County Republican Lincoln Day dinner. L-I-N-C-O-L-N. The anointed guests are Ohio Reps. Jim Renacci and Dave Joyce, sworn opponents of restrictions on guns.
Is this Lincolnian crowd, who will be dining quite well the night of the repast, April 27, aware of how Lincoln's life was abruptly ended? Was it from the gun of John Wilkes Boothe, the Confederacy sympathizer?
Oh, to be fair, maybe they missed the movie.
* * * * *
We close with this bit of gloomy insight into the American Century:
According to the respected Public Policy Polling (PPP), 20 pct. of registered Republicans believe President Obama is the Antichrist. ( 6 pct. of Democrats agree!) 37 pct. of Republicans believe global warming is a hoax; 7 pct. says the moon landing was a hoax.
In my poll of today's Plain Dealer op-ed page, one right-wing columnist (Kevin O'Brien), wrote that the Connecticut gun-control law was"ridiculously restrictive" because nothing could have prevented the Newtown massacre. He also threw in the notion that "teaching children is a side job for public schools".
On the other hand, the Beacon Journal reported that charter schools - the answer by the governor and his ilk to creating an enlightened nation - can expect a dismal report card from the Ohio Department of Education's new grading standards next year. Get this: 89 pct. of tax-supported charter schools will get an"F" for their graduation rate; public schools, 7 pct. would receive an "F". Who knew?
.
Leave it to our governor to produce another Kasich Kerfuffle in response to a question following his speech to the Cleveland City Club on Wednesday. It occurred when a woman in the audience asked him whether he agreed with fellow-Republican Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike Dewine's fellowship with some other Republican AG's in a lawsuit involving employers and contraceptives insurance.
Dewine has never let anybody forget since the day he ran for the office that he wants to slay the Obamacare dragon and has channeled it with religious fervor into an assault on the legality of whether employers should include contraceptives in their employes' insurance coverage.
It's been in all of the papers. The governor, however, batted away the issue by saying he had not heard of the Dewine gambit and ducked the question. Besides, as the governor has boasted, he never reads newspapers because sometimes they leave him unhappy.
* * * * *
Is it just me, or do you find it a bit odd that two obstinate anti-gun control congressmen will be the featured guests at a dinner celebrating an historic Republican icon?Yep, that's a reference, folks, to the annual Summit County Republican Lincoln Day dinner. L-I-N-C-O-L-N. The anointed guests are Ohio Reps. Jim Renacci and Dave Joyce, sworn opponents of restrictions on guns.
Is this Lincolnian crowd, who will be dining quite well the night of the repast, April 27, aware of how Lincoln's life was abruptly ended? Was it from the gun of John Wilkes Boothe, the Confederacy sympathizer?
Oh, to be fair, maybe they missed the movie.
* * * * *
We close with this bit of gloomy insight into the American Century:
According to the respected Public Policy Polling (PPP), 20 pct. of registered Republicans believe President Obama is the Antichrist. ( 6 pct. of Democrats agree!) 37 pct. of Republicans believe global warming is a hoax; 7 pct. says the moon landing was a hoax.
In my poll of today's Plain Dealer op-ed page, one right-wing columnist (Kevin O'Brien), wrote that the Connecticut gun-control law was"ridiculously restrictive" because nothing could have prevented the Newtown massacre. He also threw in the notion that "teaching children is a side job for public schools".
On the other hand, the Beacon Journal reported that charter schools - the answer by the governor and his ilk to creating an enlightened nation - can expect a dismal report card from the Ohio Department of Education's new grading standards next year. Get this: 89 pct. of tax-supported charter schools will get an"F" for their graduation rate; public schools, 7 pct. would receive an "F". Who knew?
.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
The big White Hat bulging with taxpayers' money
For the past 15 years Akron mega-businessman David Brennan has been been passing the hat - the familiar white one big enough to bleed the state education treasury of enormous sums. It began in 1998 when Brennan, as savvy an entrepreneur as you'll find on Planet Romney - founded White Hat management to establish a series of charter schools in Ohio and elsewhere.According to Plunderbund, the flow from the state treasury to White Hat's account has reached nearly $1 billion and is continuing with a friend like alleged budget hawk Gov. Kasich and a Republican legislature. Such success was not based on results and the offhand chance that his presence as a big GOP contributor would be ignored. And if the pols didn't already know, he told them so. It didn't fail.
The cozy enterprise ran into problems three years ago when the governing boards of 10 charter schools sued White Hat to learn what happened to 96 pct. of the money that the for-profit company received. And as you might suspect, White Hat stonewalled that since it is a private company its ledgers are not open to public scrutiny. The suits have passed through court after court, finally landing in the 10th District Court of Appeals in Columbus, which supported the charter boards' claims. Kasich just went through the same challenge - and lost - to Jobs/Ohio.
But as the Beacon Journal editorially noted, the charter schools' case could now head to the Ohio Supreme Court, with a 6-1 Republican majority. That, said the BJ, means White Hat "could evade transparency for a long while yet." Did I tell you that Brennan was a savvy entrepreneur?
For now, may I ask about the costs of the long legal battle which, I'm sure, are coming from White Hat's taxpayers' gifts?
Did I tell you that Brennan was a savvy entrepreneur?
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Will there be life for Kasich's big ideas after Lima?
For a day or two, Lima, Oh., dressed itself up as the proud center of the universe to welcome the governor. From the reports I read, the Kasich-led assault on the town with a mobile army of politicians, media and curiosity seekers from Columbus had to be the biggest quake since a ruptured crude oil line sent 77,000 gallons into Lima's sewers, with the ensuing explosions and fires forcing the evacuation of 7,000 residents. That happened in the days of Gov. Jim Rhodes, no shy huckster himself even though it never occurred to him to move the State of the State address out of the state capital to, say, Jackson County, his childhood home..
That makes Kasich, who doesn't mind reminding you with his own steely rhetoric, an even bigger thinker than Rhodes. As he told us in a speech I watched on TV in the security of home, "We must not fear big ideas".
Before he uttered that challenge, everybody seemed to have had a grand time in town. The Lima News reported that he had "enjoyed a quick Kewpee Burger"and his wife Karen delightedly bought a new outfit while shopping at Nitza's, which I'm guessing is one of Lima's iconic women's stores.
We also learned from the hometown paper that state officials, including Ohio Board of Regents Interim Chancellor Stephanie Davidson, sat down to lunch prepared by the Apollo Career Center culinary arts students and ate well. (State officials always do.)
Once everyone made it to the Veterans Memorial Civic Center amid the big photos of the governor stuck to every Lima News coin box, most of the thrill of an out-of-town junket seems to have worn off when they settled into their seats.
Oh, they managed polite applause for each saber-like thrust from the the governor's jutting lower lip and rocking shoulders, but you must remember that they had heard all of the words in the earlier reports leading up to Lima. In this soaring moment, they were merely hearing the music and clapping to the beat.
Kasich doesn't deal with anything unless it is in brusque hyperbole. Europeans are so impressed with Ohio's progress, he told us, that some will be arriving along the Olentangy River soon to start building stuff. That's if they get to the Buckeye State before all of the real estate is bought up by eager companies from other states who want to call Ohio their home. Once again, there was no mention in the closing credits of the Obama administration's bailout of the auto industry that is the mainstay of rising employment health in the state. Instead:
Jobs are increasing faster than Ohio's State's grid victories and he's proud to be in the forefront of this great economic revival that will permit him to cut taxes, reform education and fix bridges. His enthusiasm has never been in doubt for his "big ideas".
Of course, the governor's big ideas are already driving some nervous Republican conservatives to the seclusion of the legislative cave. And that's not his only problem: There's an outfit called the Ohio Liberty Coalition - Tea Partyers, if you haven't already guessed - that has threatened with extinction any politician who supports the governor's expansion of Medicaid and sales tax base.
As we've seen in other states, Teabagger -invaded Republican primaries can create a helluva mess for any incumbent trying to escape the consequences. And there aren't enough people living in Lima to save them.
That makes Kasich, who doesn't mind reminding you with his own steely rhetoric, an even bigger thinker than Rhodes. As he told us in a speech I watched on TV in the security of home, "We must not fear big ideas".
Before he uttered that challenge, everybody seemed to have had a grand time in town. The Lima News reported that he had "enjoyed a quick Kewpee Burger"and his wife Karen delightedly bought a new outfit while shopping at Nitza's, which I'm guessing is one of Lima's iconic women's stores.
We also learned from the hometown paper that state officials, including Ohio Board of Regents Interim Chancellor Stephanie Davidson, sat down to lunch prepared by the Apollo Career Center culinary arts students and ate well. (State officials always do.)
Once everyone made it to the Veterans Memorial Civic Center amid the big photos of the governor stuck to every Lima News coin box, most of the thrill of an out-of-town junket seems to have worn off when they settled into their seats.
Oh, they managed polite applause for each saber-like thrust from the the governor's jutting lower lip and rocking shoulders, but you must remember that they had heard all of the words in the earlier reports leading up to Lima. In this soaring moment, they were merely hearing the music and clapping to the beat.
Kasich doesn't deal with anything unless it is in brusque hyperbole. Europeans are so impressed with Ohio's progress, he told us, that some will be arriving along the Olentangy River soon to start building stuff. That's if they get to the Buckeye State before all of the real estate is bought up by eager companies from other states who want to call Ohio their home. Once again, there was no mention in the closing credits of the Obama administration's bailout of the auto industry that is the mainstay of rising employment health in the state. Instead:
Jobs are increasing faster than Ohio's State's grid victories and he's proud to be in the forefront of this great economic revival that will permit him to cut taxes, reform education and fix bridges. His enthusiasm has never been in doubt for his "big ideas".
Of course, the governor's big ideas are already driving some nervous Republican conservatives to the seclusion of the legislative cave. And that's not his only problem: There's an outfit called the Ohio Liberty Coalition - Tea Partyers, if you haven't already guessed - that has threatened with extinction any politician who supports the governor's expansion of Medicaid and sales tax base.
As we've seen in other states, Teabagger -invaded Republican primaries can create a helluva mess for any incumbent trying to escape the consequences. And there aren't enough people living in Lima to save them.
Monday, February 11, 2013
The governor's food for political thought
Privately run prisons, as the New Yorker recently described the TV series "Girls," has become a "trending topic". That's because Gov. Kasich, determined not become privatized himself when the voters head out to the polls in 2014, has found still another way to downsize the government he manages with swagger each day. He wants to turn over food services at Ohio's prisons to the non-elected entrepreneurial class that swells with each new opportunity for its investments. He says it will save the state maybe $16 million a year.
Like so many of his "bold'" initiatives, once the headlines fade into yesterday, you have to pay more attention to second opinions. Privately run prison services have a history of failure that equal the inmates they're supposed to contain.
Cost savings for taxpayers? As Paul Krugman has pointed out, a study by the U.S. Department of Justice has concluded that such savings in other states "have simply not materialized.''
"So let's see," Krugman wrote, "Privatized prisons save money by employing fewer guards and other workers, and by paying them badly. And then we get horror stories about how these prisons are run. What a surprise!"
Reviewing earlier consequences, Plunderbund reported an audit by former Republican State Auditor Jim Petro of privatized food service at the Noble Correctional Institution in Caldwell, Oh. The audit showed Aramark, the company involved, "failed multiple sanitary inspections and was unable to provide acceptable portion sizes as agreed upon in the contract. What's more, Plunderbund said the audit revealed that "Aramark ended up billing the state for millions of meals it never actually served resulting in $2 million in overpayment being made to the company."
Never mind, the Kasich people contend, we're looking at $16 million in savings even though a transfer to private hands would eliminate 456 state jobs. Oh, it says here, the private operators would hire some of these people.
And now we come to the real bottom line. Kasich, who has no use for unions, would eliminate that many jobs covered by Civil Service. Christopher Mabe, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employes Association, is already preparing for a brawl. "This is unfair, unsafe and hurts us all and we will not stand for it," he told the Columbus Dispatch.
From the standpoint of purely practical politics, after being drubbed in his fight against public employe unions with Senate Bill 5, is Kasich really prepared to provoke labor again in an election year?
Like so many of his "bold'" initiatives, once the headlines fade into yesterday, you have to pay more attention to second opinions. Privately run prison services have a history of failure that equal the inmates they're supposed to contain.
Cost savings for taxpayers? As Paul Krugman has pointed out, a study by the U.S. Department of Justice has concluded that such savings in other states "have simply not materialized.''
"So let's see," Krugman wrote, "Privatized prisons save money by employing fewer guards and other workers, and by paying them badly. And then we get horror stories about how these prisons are run. What a surprise!"
Reviewing earlier consequences, Plunderbund reported an audit by former Republican State Auditor Jim Petro of privatized food service at the Noble Correctional Institution in Caldwell, Oh. The audit showed Aramark, the company involved, "failed multiple sanitary inspections and was unable to provide acceptable portion sizes as agreed upon in the contract. What's more, Plunderbund said the audit revealed that "Aramark ended up billing the state for millions of meals it never actually served resulting in $2 million in overpayment being made to the company."
Never mind, the Kasich people contend, we're looking at $16 million in savings even though a transfer to private hands would eliminate 456 state jobs. Oh, it says here, the private operators would hire some of these people.
And now we come to the real bottom line. Kasich, who has no use for unions, would eliminate that many jobs covered by Civil Service. Christopher Mabe, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employes Association, is already preparing for a brawl. "This is unfair, unsafe and hurts us all and we will not stand for it," he told the Columbus Dispatch.
From the standpoint of purely practical politics, after being drubbed in his fight against public employe unions with Senate Bill 5, is Kasich really prepared to provoke labor again in an election year?
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.
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.
Monday, October 8, 2012
The NY Times may be on to something
Here they are:
Gov. Kasich, McKees Rocks, Pa., 6,118
Secretary of State Jon Husted, Village of Montpelier, 4,071
Senate majority leader, Tom Niehaus, New Richmond, 2,582
Atty. Gen.. Mike Dewine, Cedarville, 4,033
(I purposely left out this list of small-town politicians House speaker Bill Bachelder, who, compared to the others, arrived in Columbus from the megalopolis of Medina, pop. 26,827.)
* * * * *
As Mitt Romney continues to back away from his 47 percenters and other odd numbers, is it possible that he might be suffering from percentile dysfunction? After all, as he has shown, percentages aren't for everyone. If side effects persist, he should call his doctor, but only if he has coverage for pre-existing conditions.
* * * * *
The Sunday Plain Dealer reported at length that Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has been hit b y a $19 million avalanche of radio and TV ads that have made the race closer than it deserves to be against Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. The money is from outside groups , including Karl Rove's vault. I haven''t heard much from Josh's cheering section, which says it's an up-and-down race about Brown by Super PACs and corporate interests who care little about the challenger and would be satisified to replace Brown with Donald Duck without a pleasant nod to Mandel. If Mandel's money machine happens to pull an upset - Good heavens, don't even think about it! - will he stand up in the winner's circle on Election night and declare that he built the victory himself. He will because he has a very inventive mind when there is a need to say, "I am Josh Mandel and I approve this message."
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Note to GOP pols: Women jokes ain't funny
When Gov. Kasich told his audience that his wife was home "doing the laundry" (ha, ha), if maybe only in jest, it was another example of how some Republicans simply don't get it in their references to women these days. It quickly recalled how Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat, was dissed in a Republican newsletter during her reelection campaign in 2010.
Remember? The newsletter, sent out by Medina County GOP chairman Bill Heck, urged voters to "take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen".
Heck latter apologized for such opaque insensitivity, saying no one should have been offended because "We were just trying to get the attention of the voters."Which, of course, he did.
Ever notice how these ha-ha's are always directed at a woman's role in the scheme of things? When was the last time you heard a Republican woman pol tell the crowd that her husband could not join her because he was home tending to his regular chore of scrubbing the basement floor?
Do we need ask why President Obama is ahead with the women's vote by a double-digit majority?
Remember? The newsletter, sent out by Medina County GOP chairman Bill Heck, urged voters to "take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen".
Heck latter apologized for such opaque insensitivity, saying no one should have been offended because "We were just trying to get the attention of the voters."Which, of course, he did.
Ever notice how these ha-ha's are always directed at a woman's role in the scheme of things? When was the last time you heard a Republican woman pol tell the crowd that her husband could not join her because he was home tending to his regular chore of scrubbing the basement floor?
Do we need ask why President Obama is ahead with the women's vote by a double-digit majority?
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