When friends meet to ring in the new...

The guy on the left was a Christmas gift from a 47 percenter;  the one on the right was a gift at an Akron Aeros baseball game. President Obama and Akron Mayor Plusquellic, both of whom are ending  the year as winners.  It was only fitting that they should be together  in this photo-op. Nancy also has a bobblehead of Omar Vizquel, a winner, too.  But for this historic photo,  three would be a crowd.

The full measure of Plusquellic in 15 minutes

IN HIS BRIEF ACCEPTANCE speech following his Democratic primary victory Tuesday night, Mayor Don Plusquellic offered the full mosaic of what has led him into his nearly completed bid for a seventh term. He expressed his humility ("overwhelmed and humbled"); his intense commitment to the city's welfare (the election wasn't "just about being mayor"); and his seething resentment of his critics' attempts to "mislead" the public about his policies and occasional abrasive personality ("Lies"). There you have it - and will continue to have for four more years.

Sorry, Republicans. You now have a Medina lawyer as a candidate for November. But let's not kid ourselves.

From the outset, I never considered the Democratic primary as a contest between Plusquellic and Mike Williams, the longtime councilman and fierce opponent, Mike Williams. With a mayor who has served in that office for 24 years, most voters would have made up their minds about Plusquellic and went to the polls to judge him, up or down. A majority decided it should keep him on the job.

The only new element from all of Plusquellic's previous campaigns was that Williams was an African American, which could have served the challenger in some quarters and hurt him in others. Unfortunately, that is one of the realities of politics.

The mayor's strategy from the beginning was to eliminate race as a decisive factor. Other issues could have arisen from a gang that has tried to move mountains in ridding City Hall of Plusquellic. A couple of years ago they futilely tried to have him recalled, an initiative that lost badly in the special election. You would have thought that enough is enough.

There were early signs that the recallers were back but I was told that even Williams decided they would not be helpful to his campaign.

Being mayor is not easy these days , a point that the mayor stressed. Plusquellic has been battered by state budget cuts and local personal assaults, some of which foolishly alleged criminality - an ancient curse that originated back at a frustrated Summit County Republican Headquarters. So, months ago, Plusquellic wasn't even sure that he needed more of the same by running again.

The city benefitted from his decision and the voters rewarded him with a likely seventh term. As the mayor's close friend, Council President Marco Sommerville, said afterward: "The city of Akron is in good hands. The people of this city understands what he's trying to do.'

Good for everyone concerned.

Was the mayor really raking leaves?

WEEKEND LEFTOVERS:

What? A whole week end passed and nobody called 911 to report that Mayor Plusquellic was seen in Halloween costume blowing leaves into his neighbor's yard?

The November issue of Harper's Index reports that the volume of the average human brain has shrunk 10 pct. over the past 10,000 years, which only partly explains Glenn Beck.

Connecticut Sen. Zelig (a.k.a. Joe Lieberman) is telling his critics that his waffling is really his effort to "do what's best for America." What would be best in his case is simply to get an offshore pizza route.

Since the National Football League has always been committed to parity among the teams, might it not consider giving the Browns 10 downs for each series - or, one per yard. It's a start.

A months-long study by McClatchy Newspapers revealed that Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street giant, quietly believed the housing market would crash as it was selling $40 billion in securities based on 200,00o risky mortgage loans. The scam has produced soaring profits ($50 billion plus in 2009, $20 billion in year-end bonuses) for the firm while its clients lost hundreds of millions of dollars and left countless homeless. It recalls the words of mobster Carmine Sabatini in The Freshman when he was questioned about his financial shell game:

"This is an ugly word - this scam. This is business. If you want to be in business, this is what you do."

Auditing Beethoven and City Hall credit cards

A COUPLE OF SPARKLERS from the area media:

The theatre critic of the weekly West Side Leader led off his review of the Cleveland Play House production of Beethoven, As I Once Knew Him, with the following tourist info:

"Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827) remains one of the premiere composers of what we now call classical music."

Classical, huh? That should clear up the most enduring mystery of what Ludwig was all about!

The front-page headline of the Akron Beacon Journal told the reader, New audit of Akron's paperwork says receipts are lacking. That reference to City Hall mischief sent me quickly to the the Community section, where a much larger headline boomed, Auditor cites mayor's receipts, above the story that was accompanied by photos of Republican State Auditor Mary Taylor and Democratic Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic. The story noted that Taylor advised City Hall to start adding receipts to credit card purchases, which amounted to $11,272 in 2008. Fair enough. More grist for the mayor's critics. But if you followed the story to an inside page you also found this paragraph:

"The 2008 audit contained no findings for recovery, and gave Akron an 'unqualified' opinion, which is the highest possible opinion and indicates there were no significant problems."

I have a hunch that the auditor's report is well within Plusquellic's comfort zone, no matter the headlines.

Taxing rants about taxes, et al

AMERICA AT MID-WEEK:

Hearing Republican pols endlessly chant about the evils of taxes, I am forced to conclude that their greatest orgasmic experience would occur with the abolition of all taxes except those that provide for their daily wage, health care insurance and for some, therapeutic night life. . That would leave the voluntary construction of highways to neighborhood associations; the care of the national parks system to garden groups and law enforcement to the Lone Ranger. Too bad for the R-pols, it won't happen. All of which means they will go on and on talking about it.

If you've spent a few minutes listening to Sen. Max Baucus, the Medicare-eligible Montana Democrat, boasting of the merits of his newly released committee health care reform plan, you might agree with me that he is a Republican impersonating a Democrat. And he's damned good at it. He'd better be inasmuch as he's into the health-care and insurance industry's treasury for about $4 million in campaign cash. It proves that experience does count, considering that he's been in the Senate for 31 years and doubtless knows all of the unlisted phone numbers of the lobbyists who need his undivided attention. (Two of his former chiefs of staff now work as lobbyists for health and insurance related companies. I rest my case.)

Mayor Don Plusquellic's critics will not spare the rod in denouncing the 201 layoffs the city announced this week. So what's the counter-proposal for these troubled economic times that is affecting city governments from coast to coast? Raise taxes to pay for the services? What? Are you crazy? There would be a dozen Republican candidates for mayor if Plusquellic breathed such evil. Cut back more city services? Those who opposed this week's layoffs would be the noisiest critics of further shrinkage of the safety forces. Fortunately, FirstEnergy has made its community presence felt with a $2.2 million grant to the city to ease a little of the pain. Plusquellic has presided over the best of times in the city, and is now having to make the hard choices in the worst of times. If there are less painful solutions these days, I'm sure everyone concerned would like to know about them. (The mayor could take a cue from former President George Bush, who advised Americans after 9/11 to "go shopping.")

Former President Jimmy Carter, a bona fide Georgian, sounded quite sane when he bared the roots of southern outrage sgainst Barack Obama in the White House. Quite simply, he called it "racism", which too many others who know better are trying to ignore. And people like Rush Limbaugh are exploiting it Klansman-style with not-so subtle reference these days to a newly-minted ObamaWorld, which Limbaugh sees as clear evidence of black hatred of all whites. I used to believe that Obama's election would allow us to move on as a nation from the not too-distant past when the New York Yankees turned down a chance to sign a young man named Willie Mays because, you know... he was black. Once Mays signed on with the New York Giants and did his magic act on the field, many fans became color-blind.

The University of Akron is in the midst of dodging another hit on its image with the latest episode involving John Case, the U's vice president for finance and education, who was placed on leave after his arrest on a charge of driving under the influence. But Case, who was arrested once before for erratic behavior behind the wheel, will continue to be paid under his $242,625 annual contract that runs through next June. UA President Luis Proenza says he will find some special jobs for Case to perform in the meantime. My sources tell me that it amounts to a waiting game and that Case's contract will not be renewed in June 2010. Taking note of the contretemps, the Plain Dealer concluded editorially a few days ago:

"It's a generous reassignment that the University of Akron can ill afford. While Case has been whisked offstage at full pay, the university is balancing its $419 million budget by eliminating vacant positions and reducing other costs. Surely this could have been handled better."

At the same time, UA must still adjust to the two ethics convictions of Board of Trustees member Jack Morrison, Jr. who obviously has no intention of giving up his seat on the board.

Here they come - without the crumpets

WELL, THERE'S going to be some light "family oriented" discussion (and doubtless heavy breathing!) about tea next Wednesday evening on the Riverfront Mall in Cuyahoga Falls. It's billed as a Tea Party by an outfit called Summit912, a protest group inspired by weepy Political Philosopher Glenn Beck , the bizarre talk show figure who most recently suggested that Nancy Pelosi be poisoned.

The area group was founded by Amy Schwan, of Akron, who told a Falls news reporter that"we've been mad for a long time. Glenn Beck just motivated us to get off our butts and start to do something." Cool.

The event is being promoted as a non-political "meetup" and family affair to talk about - it says here on the 912 website - "over-taxation, nationalized health care, cap and trade and individual rights." Cool again. But why does it bill itself as "non-political" when the site carries an exhibit of an item called "The Clock. How many days Obama has left" and goes after all of the hot-button issues aimed at you-know-who? Not cool.

According to the Falls reporter (Schwan didn't return my calls), Schwan said Summit912 (Beck's reference to the day after 9/11 - at least he can read a calendar accurately, if nothing else) the Falls was chosen for the tea party because it has a Republican mayor, Don Robart, who only incidentally will be one of the speakers along with Frank LaRose, a Republican legislative candidate. I confess I do have trouble separating speakers with clear political IDs from politics. If they had wanted to liven up the party they should have invited, as a bipartisan outreach, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic. Now that would be cool.

I did check in with Alex Arshinkoff, the Summit County chairman, who forcefully denied any connection to the tea party. "I don't know anything about it," he asserted. "It's not a Republican Party event." But he did give it the party's Good Housekeeping seal of approval. "I am happy that they are having it. There are not a lot of right-wing Republicans in the Democratic Party and there are not a lot of left-wing socialists in the Republican Party." It's one of those careful separations of wheat from chaff, I think.

So we're back to politics, which is what I figured as soon as I read about Summit912. Cool - if not entirely forthcoming about who they are. And don't count on crumpets.

Recall leftovers:a turkey without the trimmings

AMONG THE MANY disconnects - and there were many - in Warner Mendenhall's failed attempt to eliminate Mayor Plusquellic short of Medieval poison, were his frequent references to democracy. It was a little surprising to me, at least, that a fellow with a law degree could find so little case history to justify his motives other than it was "democracy" in action. Having never spent a minute in a law school class, I can only refer to the cautionary words of John Ciardi, the late poet and poetry editor of Saturday Review and truly civilized human being:

"The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself."

Trouble is, Mendenhall was costing taxpayers a lot of money while he was trying to perfect his obsession against the mayor (another disconnect because he argued that his recall campaign was nothing personal against Plusquellic!).

Well, for all that, it ain't over yet. Mendenhall and his understudies are giving evidence that there is much more to come as he morphs into Batman's ever-troublesome Joker. His wife Kelly will run for council-at large and a couple of other seats will be challenged by Plusquellic haters. I don't have any problems with that. That's what regular elections are all about, a point lost in Mendenhall's haste to fast-forward a mayoral challenge with a recall election.

But given the failure to make Mendenhall's briefcase issues drive out Plusquellic, we can only wonder whether they will be revived in the council races. Wonder? Of course they will.

** * * *

On Monday night, I happened to tune in to this fellow Tom Erickson on WNIR at another person's request. Glad I did. It's pure comedy. Erickson, like some other right wingers on the station, is driven by demons that, among other bits of sophistry, try to raise doubts about the legitimacy of Plusquellic's Democratic primary victory in 2007. Erickson thinks conspiratorially that it should have been investigated. In a discussion about Akron's debt, an issue raised by his buddy Mendenhall, he declared; "Debt is a crime." But the real fun began in earnest when one woman caller complained that she didn't know whether she could vote in the recall election because she didn't know where she lived; and another caller expressed hope that the recall would fail because the governor shouldn't be kicked out.

Well, there's a lot of this crap going around these days, inspired by right-wing talk show hosts who merely tease their listeners into questioning such long-resolved matters as whether President Obama is actually an American citizen or, for God's sake, whether he is socialist-communist-underground Muslim-etc.etc.etc. And I would simply ask the anti-tax crowd to stay off the paved roads. My taxes paid for them.

* * * * *

Among the first orders of business in the post-recall hours should be finding a way to raise the threshold on the number of petitions to set up a recall election. It was the work of mice and politicians and unless it is dramatically improved, Akron may again find itself in a mayoral recall campaign. The current situation is as dumb as term limiting, which is costing legislators their jobs rather then letting the voters decide who will stay and who will go. The restriction cuts across party lines, of course, and even affects conservative Republican State Sen. Kevin Coughlin, of Cuyahoga Falls, who isn't thrilled with the limits, and must look for other work that doesn't require heavy lifting when his current term expires.

Mendenhall's recall campaign nears the 'finished' line

DON PLUSQUELLIC seemed a little subdued when I caught up with him at Democratic Headquarters on Grant Street Saturday. Many of the mayor's supporters had departed with anti-recall material that would be handed out across the city. There wasn't much left for him to do to respond to the slanderous campaign against him by Warner Mendenhall and the Akron lawyer's obsessing cadre of me-too followers. He could now only hope for a decent turnout Tuesday by his side to repudiate the wannabe political kingmaker (and maybe, even king) who has driven him and much of City Hall to distraction, intruding upon workers' time that could be a lot better spent serving the public at large rather than a single venting dissonant. Plusquellic briefly mentioned to me the fallout from the administration's obligation to tend to the serious business of a city. The costs to the human delivery system as well as the new expenses of running a special election are hideous. Least impressed by the burdens placed on Akron, of course, was Mendenhall, whose tunnel vision about what makes cities function begins well below ground level and ends at the same murky depth.

The campaign has attracted the attention of many beyond Akron who are puzzled by the inexplicable siege on a mayor who as led the city to many honors. Indeed, Brent Larkin, the recently retired editorial director of the Plain Dealer , asserted in a Sunday column what I also believe:

"For the record, Plusquellic does offend. he's no Mr. Cogeniality. He is combative, acerbic and thin-skinned. Oh, he is one more thing: He is, by far, Ohio's best big-city mayor."

That won't impress the aginners who would risk losing a usually successful chief executive for...well, we don't really know, do we?

Over the the many years of working in Akron's political arena, I haven't always agreed with Plusquellic - and he hasn't always agreed with me. With similar temperaments, we were bound to bump into each other. But I grew to respect his style, convinced that he always had the best interests of his city at heart even when he erupted against a critic. As a political writer, I watched the mayor's service evolve as an idea-activist who, as Larkin noted, was not afraid to fail.

Well, with Tuesday's election arriving, I never thought I would be defending a feisty mayor who is perfectly capable of defending himself. As the panoply of corporate, business, professional and labor supporters lined up behind him, it should be obvious that he has been doing something right. That has left Mendenhall with nothing more than to boast wildly of a hair-thin endorsement of the recall by the Fraternal Order of Police. Some lonely mandate, huh?

I've felt from the outset that Plusquellic will survive the recall. I've seen nothing to change my mind.

FOP recall vote a flat-liner

HAVING THOUGHT about it for at least 30 seconds, it seems to me that the FOP vote on the recall of Mayor Don Plusquellic proved nothing. Indeed Warner Mendenhall's efforts to bestir the mayor's angry opponents in the department fell hopelessly flat. Even though Mendenhall declared to the Beacon Journal in his post-vote "victory" speech that, "I couldn't be any happier," you should also consider that he has been deluding himself with happy thoughts about his campaign ever since it started. Happiness, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

But the figures tell another story. THE FOP gave Mendenhall a two-vote edge - 168-166. That was an underwhelming percentage of the more than 800 eligible active and retired members of the FOP. The outcome was even less decisive when only a reported 64 pct. of the active members even bothered to vote. Ouch. Having worked as a reporter at police stations in other cities, I think it is fair to say that there is always some tension between City Hall and the Police Department. Both sides have tough jobs and grievances are normally expressed solely against the mayor.

That said, the FOP's recall vote was bad politics. There was nothing to be gained by it, and it came within a hair of undercutting Mendenhall's attempt to stampede the voters with more anti-Plusquellic propaganda. There isn't much mileage in the way it turned out.

(Meanwhile, Warner might take a cue from his favorite radio station, WNIR. with its daily lineup of fabulists, which (I'm told) is running commercials by an outfit called American Tax Relief. The ad promises to save you up to 85 pct. of your delinquent tax debt. Let's see....at $169, 000 in tax liens, that would come to...Oh, hell. That's Mendenhall's problem, not mine.)

Miss Tia's f-words don't refer to forte

HERE IS A well- deserved pat on the back to Bob Dyer, the Beacon Journal columnist, whose journalistic curiosity led him to the discovery of Miss Tia, who turns out to be   Miss Akron Garbage  Mouth of 2009.    And who, you might ask, is Miss Tia?  And why does she deserve her 15 minutes of attention  in a family newspaper? Read on.

Dyer ID's her as a "co-chair" of Warner Mendenhall's Change Akron Now recall website.  Inasmuch as I don't pay much attention to mysterious names because there have been some nasty ones sent to me in wrath before I put a filter on my blog,  I would have never thought to look into Miss Tia's internet profile.  Well, Dyer did and, among other tidbits, counted 32 f-words "in all of its glorious permutations" over the past three weeks. ( Note:  "f" doesn't translate into musical "forte".)

Unfortunately, the Guinness Book of Records doesn't track such   unladylike effusions, so we can only guess where Miss Tia would rank on her own developed scale of zero to one.  However, in the matter of neologisms, I think her reliance on "F---tard" as a noun would earn her a few more points in any alley fight.

There are other things that Dyer reports about Miss Tia, but he did all of the work so you should get it directly from today's column.  God knows. the BJ can use the readers.

If there is a postscript to this madness, is this  an example of where we want to go with Mendenhall's preposterous rag-tag scheme to kick out Mayor Don Plusquellic?    Scary, right?  

THE RECALL: Plain Dealer slaps Mendenhall

MYTH-SLINGER Warner Mendenhall's decision to take his caravan to Cleveland in search of a more hospitable editorial voice (than the Beacon Journal's )  simply gave his many opponents something  more to cheer about.  Dissecting his hollow case against Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic that has prompted a recall election on June 23, the Plain Dealer on Sunday editorially accused Mendenhall's effort as "sour grapes" and urged voters to reject the whole notion. It noted:

"In Plusquellic's long record, there is not the least whiff of crime or scandal.  A recall is, therefore, out of place." 

Obviously, Mendenhall's attempt to argue his wacky position in a visit to the paper's editorial offices failed to impress anybody. The paper accused him of leading a "reckless and costly" campaign.  It twitted him for arguing that his attacks on Plusquellic were not "personal"  (one of Mendenhall's more bizarre "defenses" of his actions, I'd say)  and concluded:

"Mendenhall, a lawyer who has filed many lawsuits against Akron, swears it has nothing to do with  any desires of own to be the mayor. (And the revelation of $169,000 in IRS tax liens probably has slammed the door on the notion, anyway.) 

"He cannot credibly deny, though, that this battle has become personal - or that it is a huge distraction to a city caught, like many, in the throes of a worldwide recession."

I doubt that the PD's  editorial reprimand will lodge in Mendenhall's obsessed idea of democracy in action, but at this point he is no more than a willful hell-raiser riding a limping horse to the finish line.  More importantly now to the health of the city's future is how many of his  opponents' words will find their way into the voters' collective conscience. 

Plusquellic's forces girding for battle

THE 15 SUBURBAN mayors who joined  to oppose the recall of Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic  were another indication of the riptide that's emerging against Walter Mendenhall's ill-conceived notion of democracy in action. Letters supporting Plusquellic by prominent Akron area achievers are appearing regularly in the Beacon Journal and it's looking more like a non-partisan effort to wave off the recall crowd.  I have a hunch this is only the beginning of the counter-attack that will grow in visibility as the recall election day approaches on June 23. (The glaring exception to the mayoral group was Republican Don Robart of Cuyahoga Falls who said he didn't see any "upside" in the united action.  No surprise there.  Unlike some other Republican mayors, Robart has created his own universe in the Falls, thanks to the ineptitude of Falls Democrats to defeat him at the polls.) 

Plusquellic's  forces have already shown that they  will be a lot more aggressive than the lackadaisical 2007 Democratic primary  campaign against former city councilman Joe Finley that produced a low turnout.  It  gave his opponent an opportunity to show up better than anticipated and an opportunity for City Hall to reflect on the  political adage that nothing should ever be taken for granted. 

As for those 15 mayors,  I'm sure it occurred to some of them that this nonsensical recall effort could encourage similar costly and disruptive initiatives against any of them down the road for the dumbest reasons. As for Mendenhall. I was amused by his comment to the BJ that he was pleased a date had been set for the election.   To quote him as he envisioned the 6-term mayor being led to the gallows:  "After 22 years the city has  a chance of getting a new mayor." 

Wrong!   The voters have that chance every four years on election day.    

The historical Warner Mendenhall

WEDNESDAY IS the big day when the Overland Mendenhall Express arrives on the city's sidewalks with the latest crop of petitions to recall Mayor Plusquellic. Very soon we will know whether he will be successful in sending the issue to the ballot where the obsessive Akron lawyer will be consigned to history. If it gets that far, he will lose .

History has a short memory, if any at all, for such minor political figures as Warner Mendenhall, particularly when their ambition carries them over a cliff. Twenty-five years from now, the story will be something like this as two guys, Jake and Fritz, settle into the Country Manor Restaurant for the first time for their morning coffee:

Jake (looking up to a faded photo on the wall), asks the server: "Any idea who that person in the picture is? He looks like he was rather in a hurry. Just curious. "

Server: "I heard somebody say once that his name was Warner or Walter Munhall or somebody. I don't know for sure. He was a good friend of my boss."

Fritz: "If I remember my Akron history, I think it was Mendenhall....Yeah, Mendenhall."

Jake: "Some memory you have, Fritz. Why would you remember something as obscure as that? "

Fritz: "Dunno. Unless I'm mistaken, I think he tried to kick out the mayor with one of those recall elections. Hell, that was a good 25-30 years ago."

Jake: "Did he succeed?"

Fritz: "If memory serves, don't think so. Never happened."

Jake: "Walter Mendenhall, huh? Interesting. You know, I do have a vague idea of what you're talking about, now that you mention it. Sort of..."

Fritz: " I seem to remember that it was Warner, not Walter."

Jake: "Refresh my memory. Why did he want to throw out the mayor?"

Fritz: "Only the Lord knows. I don't think they even knew at the time."

Jake: "So did Walt -eh, Warner - do anything else after that?"

Fritz: "Not that I'm aware of. He just sort of faded out of the picture - except for that one on the wall. There are a lot of people like him around on any day of the week. One-shot artists who make a big splash of paint and then drop out with a lot of bills to pay for their dumb schemes."

By now both men were losing interest in the whatever-happened-to-Warner story because there wasn't much else they could add to it. Moreover, they figured that in this instance the picture on the wall was hardly worth a thousand words.

Plusquellic supporters: Recalling recall signatures?

ADD THIS TWIST TO the final days of the mindless attempt to recall Mayor Don Plusquellic: Persons who signed  recall petitions  have an opportunity to change their minds before their signatures are validated in the final count.   At least, that's the goal of Citizens for Akron, the group supporting the mayor against Warner Mendenhall's forces. Letters will be sent to the signees this week reminding them that the City Charter permits them to withdraw their names from the petitions by contacting Akron City Council Clerk Bob Keith.  I'm told the rationale for the  home-stretch tactic:  There may be some who are now quite disenchanted with recall leader Mendenhall in the wake of reports  that there are nearly $170,000 in  federal tax liens against him.  

Mendenhall's forces fell 508 valid signatures short in the petitions filed on April 16.  The campaign is now working through a 20-day extension in its hope to satisfy the legal requirement of 3,179 valid  signatures.  It's my idea of having nothing more productive to do.   

Mendenhall's impossible dream sinking?

WHAT'S THIS?  Is the heat in the kitchen  reaching the boiling point?  You get this strong hint from Warner Mendenhall when he sends out advisories that he may want to slip out of the noose of his recall campaign against Mayor Plusquellic if it harms the cause. The sand under his forceful stride has shifted still more with reports that he has state and federal tax liens going all the way back to 1999.  In round numbers, he owes about $171,000 in back taxes!

Here's what he has to say about the lingering liens with a sort-of mea culpa to his supporters:

"If the co-chairs of this campaign and its thousands of supporters feel that my roles as spokesperson and treasurer of Change Akron Now is detrimental to the recall effort, I am offering to stop filling those roles."

Whatever joy that invigorated  "backdoor" Republicans  at the beginning of the campaign  to destroy Plusquellic is now dissipating.  "We had Plusquellic where we wanted him," complains  one Republican analyst, "with his close primary the last time and the defeat of his sewer issue.  Now this guy Mendenhall will turn Plusquellic into a hero. There's an old saying that if you shoot at the king, you had better kill him."  

Well, politics will be politics.  And, alas,  the IRS will be the IRS.  And who knows what will be left of  Mendenhall's dream  when his opponents finish him.  Does he have a Sancho Panza in reserve?  

UPDATE: THE CHANGE AKRON NOW RECALL CAMPAIGN FAILED TO MEET THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF VALID SIGNATURES, 3179.  OF THE 4,660 SIGNATURES FILED, ONLY 2,671 PASSED THE TEST.  ANOTHER 313 MAY BE DISQUALIFIED BECAUSE OF OTHER ISSUES.  WALTER MENDENHALL WILL NOW HAVE 20 MORE DAYS TO MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE.  

                                                             * * * * *

ANOTHER UPDATE:  Whatever happened to the ethics charges against Atty. Jack Morrison?  The court has delayed a pre-trial hearing until May 11.  Morrison's lawyers have filed for a dismissal of the 7 ethics charges on which Morrison was indicted in December.  Morrison,, an influential attorney who sits on the University of Akron's Board of Trustees and is the advisor to the Summit County Republican Party, was charged in connection with the purchase of a house by his son  that then was sold to the University for a quick profit.  

Warner's crime figures don't parse

WELL, WE are just hours away from the day we've all been waiting for.  It's deadline day (sort of) for Akron Lawyer Warner Mendenhall to end his surge for 3,200 signatures on petitions to recall Don Plusquellic, the city's mayor since 1987.  (Actually, if Mendenhall doesn't achieve that goal, he will have 20 more days  to knock on more doors to come up with the minimum number for a recall election whose systemic costs to taxpayers could crash through $400,000.  Some deal for a crusader who wants to spare the city of what he believes to be a free-spending Edward Scissorhands at City Hall.

We might not know much more by day's end tomorrow. I won't speculate on whether the accuser has already passed the finish line. He claims he has, but the signatures will have to be carefully checked.    For all that I know, the valid numbers may be locked in a Swiss Bank. (Was it John McCain who said he only wanted change that he could believe in. Huh!  A lot of good that it did him.)

Mendenhall's self-drawn map to glory has had a strangely disorganized response to his critics.  He accused me of trying to create a fight between him and Plusquellic, asserting that is not really his purpose. But for the life of me I don't know anybody else he is trying to recall.  He has often accused the mayor of public corruption while his campaign material works to link Plusquellic to the corruption scandal in Cleveland.  But as early as 2003 when Plusquellic was engaged in a lightweight challenge from the GOP nominee, Bryan Williams, I was told by Republican operatives to be on the lookout for federal indictments of the mayor.  Those whispers have been hanging around with the mayor's opponents for six years.  You do the math. 

But of all of the charges and innuendo in the 47 page campaign document the one that stands out as the most egregiously wrong is the attempt to show the mayor as soft on crime in his city.  On Page 26 of the strangely crafted statistics,   Mendenhall  attempts to show that Akron is falling behind other Ohio cities in controlling property crime. Some examples, all undated:

   Although Akron  experienced only a one pct. decrease in property crimes, all of the other Ohio cities were much more successsful, with Toledo  having a 13 pct. decrease.  (For what period, who knows?)  And the same is true in other categories, with the greatest urban gap in arson, with Akron registering a 69 pct. increase and Cincinnati showing a 14 pct. decrease. Scary, right? Why isn't the mayor personally slinking down alleys by the light of the moon to hose down the arsonists' matches?

However, I can date some crime figures for Akron:  the latest FBI city crime rankings - this date is important, for 2007, the latest figures available - shows Akron to be in much better 

shape than  the cities quoted by Mendenhall in his report.  Cleveland ranked 11th nationally for the highest number of crimes; Youngstown, 15th; Dayton, 26th; Cincinnati, 28th; Columbus, 43rd;  Canton, 46th;  Toledo, 64th; and finally, Akron, 79th.   

Akron the greatest den of iniquity?  Not according to the FBI, only to Mendenhall.  I rest my case.  For now.  So what point is he trying to prove at such great expense to the city?  

But of 

Warner "learning" to become mayoral candidate

WARNER, LET IT GO.  You've been preaching hellishly to your choir for months.  You are merely asking them to greet your costly  plan to recall the mayor with an off-key Hallelujah  Chorus. I have read your version and choose not to accept it as Handel's masterpiece but rather the words of a desperate man who is trying to create a political environment  for his own long-festering mayoral schemes. Isn't that, after all, the root of your ambitions? Show me any councilman, present or past (as you are) who wouldn't like to be the chief executive at City Hall.  

Do I exaggerate your ironic insincerity in carrying out your avowal to clean up the debris from the Plusquellic administration?  Come now, Warner.  I haven't been a political journalist all these years who only attended the Saturday matinees for the free popcorn. The transparency hurts the eye. 

 Want to know what some of your friends (and enemies) are saying about this?  One fellow who claims you as a friend, despises  Plusquellic and has signed your petition,  casually mentioned to me that win or lose the recall, you are really involved in a learning experience to prepare you for your own mayoral campaign.  Well, there  is much  for you to  learn and a couple of years of creating turmoil for the city is hardly enough time to capture the imagination of a big city electorate.   As of now you only have your fixed chorus, who would never support the mayor anyway. After all, how common is it for any elected public official to be seated  by acclimation?

And don't count on all of those folks who have signed the recall petitions to be an electoral resource when you decide to convert your "learning experience" into a bid for the mayor's office.  Some of the recallers are Republicans who are using you to return to City Hall with their own candidate after   26 frustrating years of denial.   ( Curiously,  somebody was passing out recall petitions at the recent Republican Lincoln Day Dinner.)

Along the way you have lost support from key people who might have been expected to support the recall.  Are they captives of the Plusquellic mystique?  Would they vote for him in a mayoral election?  Probably not.  Would they pick you out of the crowd and vote for you?  Probably not. Why could that be, Warner?

 Having read your campaign material, I must say that it took years to assemble (Right?) in preparation for  your auspicious coming-out party.  God knows how much it cost the taxpayers for the lost hours for the city to respond to your  (or Bob Smith's) countless requests from Day One.    

Warner, why don't you end the charade?   If you want to be mayor, I would be the first  to say you have a right to go for it.  But you have not yet explained why your impatience should be hastily served by  a self-serving  inflammatory recall campaign rather than the normal election year process used by Don Plusquellic and all of his  predecessors.  

Unless, of course, you need the learning experience as the warrior in the Trojan Horse.  Warner, let it go.  

Arshinkoff, the recall spectator

IF WARNER MENDENHALL and his assemblage of political outriders press on with their notion of recalling Mayor Don Plusquellic, they will have to do it without the support of another Plusquellic thorn:  Alex Arshinkoff, the Summit County Republican chairman.  Arshinkoff  has uncharacteristically  kept a low profile  during a political melee, maintaining that it is nothing more than a spectator sport for Republicans as Democrat Mendenhall assails Democrat Plusquellic.  But let him explain:

"I"m watching the Democrats fighting each other with great interest.  It's not my fight.  But they're going to have to have one helluva smoking gun to take Plusquellic out." 

Having tried on more than one occasion himself to dislodge the mayor ,  Alex speaks with the profound  experience of the ages.  

Sunday morning e-mails...

MAX ROTHAL'S morning routine has taken a significant turn since some people foolishly decided that  Akron's only salvation lay in recalling Mayor Don Plusquellic from office.  Each morning or so, Rothal - the usually unflappable city attorney - finds one or more e-mails demanding satisfaction from a long-time nemesis, Hudson real estate man Robert Smith.   The fellow has apparently thrown in with Atty. Warner Mendenhall to create costly havoc to the Plusquellic Administration with their recall movement.  "I even see some e-mails that were sent on Sunday morning,"  Rothal said.  "The guy never stops."

So what does Mr. Smith want in what appears to be a non-stop search-and-destroy mission? "Oh, public records of this and that, documents and other things,"  Rothal says, unhappily.  And of course, because they are public records, Rothal won't refuse Smith's requests.  "But it goes on and on," he says, "as we have our  staff at City Hall try to locate the records that Smith wants.  It's time consuming and it's costly.  It takes people away from the jobs they normally do." 

 Largely, it's a fishing expedition that leads to nothing other than more requests in an effort to find something that might embarrass the mayor in a recall ad. Another word for it is "pestering" at public expense, both the records' searches and the cost of a special election if  Mendenhall and his cronies follow through on their threat.  

Frankly, it's hard to know the motives behind the notion other than Mendenhall has a vendetta against Plusquellic, regardless of  how it might harm to stability of the city at a time  when economic survival is on everybody's mind.    Plusquellic,  after all, was one of  a group  of mayors who have been meeting with President Obama and congressional leaders to get a share of the stimulus money for their cities and has repeated his proposals on national TV  this week.  It's hardly a time to be bombarding  the mayor's administration with ludicrous requests and political threats.  That says a lot about the ones who recklessly remain unconvinced of the gravity of  the current economic crises, don't you think?   

Recalling the recall

AKRON MAYOR Don Plusquellic  has not been in a giving mood to his political opponents during the holidays and you may expect to see the consequences in the weeks and months ahead.   The mayor's team is girding for battle.  It has had several high level  meetings to counter a recall campaign against him by former councilman and Plusquellic thorn, Walter Mendenhall. Around City Hall, the mere mention of Mendenhall's name is always accompanied by the soundtrack from "Jaws".   Neither side expects the latest clash to be gentle: recall campaigns are never pretty.  And this one would be at a desperate time in the economy when the minds of public officials should be on something more productive.  .

The mayor's strategy, I have been told,  will be an across-the-board appeal to civic and business leaders to defend the mayor's work during his six terms in office by sending the message down through the ranks of their companies and institutions.  If this strategy is effective  - and I think it probably will be - it will stave off a recall in a special election.  But that isn't certain.  As Plusquellic learned in his last campaign against Mendenhall ally Joe Finley,  nothing in politics can ever be taken for granted.  City Hall has set out to make sure that there will be no more close calls.

It will be costly for the city. Plusquellic advisors are talking about a six-figure outlay with some forecasts of upward of $500,000.    And the internal advice that will be given to the often outspoken mayor:  For this to be a success, you have to hold your tongue.  

The danger, of course, is that Mendenhall  may be able to get the 3,200 or so valid signatures on the recall petitions to force a disruptive special election. That's why there will be an intense effort to amass support from the top rung of the city's movers and shakers - many of whom have been supportive of his leadership in the past.  There is more than enough evidence of Plusquellic's productive initiatives for Akron to offset his setbacks over the years.  

So let the spitefully silly season of his opponents begin.  With so many other things on our collective minds to worry about, why do I feel that we are instead heading off to Wally World?