Brown and Portman: A tale of two senators

As we continue to plumb the depths of fear among Tea Party-NRA-bullied Republicans, you'll find no better contrast than in your Ohio.

Sen.  Sherrod Brown, a liberal Democrat, has cast the Tea Party and the NRA to the winds, twice winning his U.S.Senate seat against conservative Republicans - then incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine and again against Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, who ran with King Midas, Karl Rove and Wayne LaPierre at this back.

Now we turn to Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, among the most fearful of a Tea Party challenge, who joined the cavemen in the Senate in voting against the background check bill.

Now I ask you , on a scale of one to ten, where do you rank each of these guys on profiles in courage facing the same Ohio voters?

Marathon: Best of times, worst of times

As I spent  hours pinned to the TV coverage of the horrific Marathon event, I  recalled Dickens' "best of times, worst of times'' description of his day.  (Also, "it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." Also, appropriate!)

On one hand two young men  set out to kill and maim a mass of human beings,  the sort of dehumanized acts that have been  recorded in even greater numbers throughout history.  On the other hand, as the investigation  progressed with an army of law enforcement people risking their lives, it reflected the strength - and wisdom - of a nation with the profound ability to get it right.

A somber President Obama provided the defiant narrative when he said that we would finish the race.

Not everyone will be pleased, particularly those whose  anti-government fervor will  never be staunched.  Unimportant small minds that wanted to convert bloodshed  into their own off-humor;  senators who voted against the background checks supported by law enforcement agencies across the land.  Some of these officers were on the streets of Watertown for several nights trying to insure public safety.

Then, too, there were the politicians with their own personal elitest goals,  who immediately exploited the event to demonstrate the perils of immigration reforms.  No thanks to you in the post-Marathon benedictions,  Sen.  Grassley, as you and some of your colleagues look for a new ideological cave for your thoughts.

On the other hand we salute Adolphus Busch IV, the giant-distillery man who resigned  from the NRA board with a verbal firearm to the NRA:

"I am simply unable to comprehend how assault weapons and large capacity magazines have a role in your vision," he said.  "The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established.  Your current strategic focus places priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers, while disregarding the opinion of your 4 million individual  members." 

As for another heinous clue to the worst of times there was Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell, a Republican, who tweeted: "I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering  in their homes wishing they had a AR-15 with a  hi-capacity magazine."

Cowering? As in some of  the NRA-bleached folks on Capitol Hill, Nate?

Rayburn House Office building in an expanding mood!

BULLETIN:  We've just gotten word that as part of the Republicans' fix-up,clean-up, move-up Spring cleaning chores, they have cleared space in the Rayburn House Office Building  to accommodate some very important new residents.

One of the new offices adjoining Speaker John Boehner's digs will go to the NRA's Wayne  LaPierre, a non-elected VIP who will be conveniently on hand to advise the troops on their  next move in the gun control debate.  Just down the hall will be an office for David Keene, the NRA's president. And a few paces beyond that will be the double office  of the Koch Brothers, a nice office for Grover Norquist, as well as smaller offices for Karl Rove, Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh, and several bank and health insurance company lobbyists.

Boehner, who is in charge of the we-are-family overhaul, said it will be classified as another move by the GOP not only to satisfy its base but also to prove once again that the party is not ungrateful for the grassroots help it has received  from right-wing lobbyists.

"They will be closer than an e-mail away from the heart and soul of our business on Capitol Hill," Boehner said.

Some of the space will be sliced from Nancy Pelosi's office and that of a half dozen Democrats  who sit as a minority on House committees.  "They don't need the space anymore now,"  Bohner said, forcing a sly smile as he blew another smoke ring from his cigaret. "They don't have anything to do anyway."

The interview was interrupted by an aide who hurriedly advised the Speaker that Mr.LaPierre was on the phone and wanted to see him in the million-dollar gun lobbyist's office next door - without delay!"

Boehner rushed out without even asking what the call was all about.

Are schools ready for the Armies of the Right?

Let me see if I follow this:

Wayne LaPierre, the near-million-dollar a year megaphone for the NRA, first says schools should be armed against crazy gunmen.Then the NRA puts up another million for a task force headed by former Arkansas Republican congressman Asa Hutchinson to recommend ways to  confront the monstrous problem. Then Hutchinson appears at the National Press Club to declare,  "Eureka, we think we've found the answer!"

The envelope, please.  And the winner is...the NRA, which sponsored the study in the first place.  As Hutchinson went on to assert,  every school should have gun toters on the staff - the modern version, I assume,  of the well-regulated militia. But couldn't the NRA have saved its million  instead of purchasing an echo of its original idea?

When Hutchinson turned up on Lawrence O'Donnell's show Tuesday night, he dodged a number of questions embedded in the larger gun issues: less lethal weapons and magazines, mass killings beyond America's classrooms,  background checks et al.

He repeatedly reminded O'Donnell that his mission as the NRA's rising star was limited to school safety.  When O'Donnell asked him how much he was paid to produce an overlay on the NRA's position, Hutchinson snipped: "It's none of your business."

Nor, it's beginning to seem more likely every day, is the business of blood control that a great majority of Americans want.

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Speaking of the Armies of the Right, Summit County Republicans will be able to greet two of Ohio's staunch opponents of gun control at  the party's Lincoln (!)  Day dinner on April 27 in Quaker Square: Reps. Jim Renacci and Dave Joyce, neither of whom have yet qualified as rising stars in the increasingly crowded firmament.

Renacci, in particular, has been singled out as a leading recipient of NRA money, and both guys arrive in County Chairman's Alex Arshinkoff's circle with the authorized version of the Party of No:  Whether it be Obamacare, gun control, abortion rights, gay marriage or a lot of other right-wing guff, you can guess the drill.

As for Arshinkoff, the message in the party invitation was customarily over-the-top with his well-recorded hyperbole - even for the political world.  His two honored guests, he promised,  would help lead Obamacare into the "dustbin of history", guarantee that America would again "Stand tall" in the world and join in other fights on Capitol hill, including sending Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to the shadows of the unemployed. (The "stand tall" thing is worrisome.  Is he referring to a new invasion of Iraq?)


There was a time when Hillary Clinton, not Nancy Pelosi, was the Dragon Lady at these affairs.  Now she is leading all Republicans in the 2016 presidential sweeps.  Does that speak of a revival of Jane Fonda in these GOP klatches. And , by the way, whatever happened to Jane?

For Renacci, NRA check is in the mail

Thanks to the Sun News, the Cleveland weekly, we recently got a glimpse of Ohio Rep. Jim Renacci in action at a Town Hall meeting in Fairview Park.  The dominant topic was guns, largely because a  group of pickets showed up to protest his standardized Republican opposition to gun control.

As you know, the multimillionaire  businessman (reported by Roll Call to be $35.8 million!)  is comfortably operating out of the  new Ohio 16th congressional district created just for him in northern Ohio.

Still, Renacci, now in his second term,  is taking no chances  by slipping out of the right-wing mask  on this issue, even to the point of advising his listeners that guns don't kill people,  only the mentally ill do.   " I believe that when it comes to guns, the biggest issue is the mental health issue," the paper reported his comments to his restless audience.

Safe enough for the easily persuaded.  But it's right out of Wayne LaPierre's playbook.    The problem with it is,  nobody - particularly tight-fisted Republicans -  can tell us how, when, where and to whom does the country direct its attention?  (When the late Republican Gov. Jim Rhodes was advised of complaints about the state's shabby mental health system, he shrugged,  "Those people [patients} don't vote anyway."

No one can deny that the mentally ill need all of the attention that society can offer.  But it will  require a lot more money than the budget balancers would be willing to spend over endless time.  So when guys like Renacci try to divert attention from guns by addressing mental health, he should be asked:  Where do you go from here?  Specifics are never clearly offered and it becomes a talking points abstraction. On the other hand, simply limiting  the size of magazine rounds alone would be helpful.

Renacci,the former mayor of Wadsworth,  built his wealth with investments in nursing homes,  motorcycles and minor league baseball.  He  describes himself as a "common-sense congressman," and denies that that he  serving at the pleasure of the NRA - a group with which he was tied for first place nationally for  campaign support.  Renacci's cut of the pie was a mere $9.9 million, but when you have your very own safe district thanks to redistricting, you don't need much more,

"You keep saying that I'm listening to the NRA," Renacci protested to the Town Hall group, "but I've got to keep telling  you, the NRA has never come to my office and said anything.  I am a proponent of the Second Amendment.

Can we then assume that the check was in the mail?

Stranger-than fiction campaign dumbly moves on

AFTER A RELAXING Sunday afternoon family cookout, I've now  found my way back to the big shovel in the garage to report on the stranger-than-fiction presidential campaign.   These items fall into the category of, the more things  stay the same, the more they stay the same.


We can always count on John Boehner to give us a lift by continually saying things that are grimly foolish.   For example, without tearing up, Boehner  asserted that he fully expected Romney to win because he is a proven success and the voters don't like losers.  Was he thinking about President Obama as the loser who isn't worth a couple of hundred million dollars because his father, well...blah, blah, blah? As he put it:

"The American people don't want to vote for a loser.  They don't want to vote for someone that hasn't been successful.   I think Mitt Romney  has an opportunity to show the American people that they, too, can succeed." (As we've previously noted, there isn't a million or two difference between Dubya and Romney. )

At what point will Romney''s Midas card be shelved?


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Here's another  in championship political style:

Romney advisor  Hank Brown predicted  that his man can win the youth vote because...because..because at 65, Mitt is "younger'" and "more dynamic"than John McCain was in 2008.   He said what???  Pause, while I get another shovel.

(In the inspirational words of our former president: "Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job.")

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It was good to read this paragraph from Economist magazine's report on the NRA's recent convention in St.Louis:

"The [NRA's] future does not look bright , either.  Despite attempts to attract women, most convention-goers in St.Louis were  white men over the age of 40 - a segment of the population in decline. The classified sections in NRA magazines such as American Rifleman feature, besides all the weaponry, advertisements for gardening equipment and Viagra."

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Finally, what's with  the big stink from Republicans over President Obama's references to Osama Bin Laden?  And Romney's laughing remark that even Jimmy Carter would have acted in the same manner. Good grief, once again history has been trashed.   Obama, all authoritative accounts have since reported, was warned by some of his top advisors that it was a high-risk deal that could ruin him if it went awry.  And wasn't it the very same Romney who urged college students to take risks if they wanted to succeed in the post-collegiate world?  It's an opportunity that Obama can't replicate because the carrier is now headed for the Bush Library.  
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