With Husted challenged, BJ's Douglas to the rescue

Secretary of State Jon Husted has been flitting around the state in search of a safe harbor  for his besieged voting "reforms", and he couldn't have found a more hospitable port   than Mike Douglas' Sunday column in the Beacon Journal.  In a piece that asks teasingly  "How hard is it to vote in Ohio?'  the BJ  editorial page editor solemnly went on and on to cast Husted as the Wizard of Oz in cleaning up an election system that has been  victimized by long lines, shfting polling places, shortened voting hours  and - I pause - the Zombie cheaters. Douglas concludes that it  isn't that hard to vote. Problem solved.  

Indeed, that has been Husted's rallying cry as he seeks reelection against a fiery Democratic opponent, Sen. Nina Turner.  The secretary prides himself in creating a new culture that makes it "easier to vote and harder to cheat".  On Sunday, Douglas oddly  bought into the  argument that is being scorned by some other newspapers as well as ordinary folks like you and me.  (A columnist in the Toledo Blade booed the Husted Hustle (my noun ) in  a piece headlined  ''Why Ohio's GOP is strangling voters' access to the polls."

On that point, I think I know why. It's the grand design by the Republican deep thinkers that emerged at the start of the Obama era as the party nervously sought ways to resist  voting trends that threatened its survival forever.  (Years earlier, a Republican county chairman expressed hope that it would rain on Election Day to lower the turnout in certain politically unfriendly urban precincts.)

The Republicans decided the whole idea could be sold as a  Boy Scout effort to eliminate wholesale voter fraud.  When none surfaced in studies, they turned to other  ploys.

Besides piling voter turnout on voter turnout that he compared  favorably with Husted's efforts, Douglas also lashed the New York Times - which is really too big to fail  - for an editorial that accused the Ohio GOP of rigging the election system to hurt the Democrats.  After a couple of Republican officials unwisely said  the so-called reforms were intended to help Mitt Romney, I can only respond:  Well?

Rather than deal with the numbers, I prefer to look at the nefarious ways that Husted and the hoofbeat Republican legislature   have carried out their game plan. The victims of two losses in presidential elections, they have been frantically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I am cynical enough to dismiss voter turnouts in past elections as the sole measure of the merit of Husted's handiwork. I prefer to look at the  wide pool of the carefully nurtured Republican efforts to close some doors in urban polling places. Shorter voting hours, the elimination (now restored) of Golden Week for same-day registration and voting, Republican attempts to bar universities from issuing residency IDs, and,  the measure that would make it quite difficult for a third party to appear on the ballot. It's not a playbook that inspires confidence in the party's  moves to purify the vote.

You might want to know, too,  that Republican Sen.Frank LaRose from Akron's back yard sponsored the measure to end Golden Week.

The issue has generated  a suit by the ACLU, League of Women Voters and NAACP. And not so incidentally, a federal judge in Cincinnati has ordered Husted to restore the early voting hours of the three days leading to the election.

Wherever you land on this, I believe this much is certain: Husted will be a key figure in one of the state's liveliest issues up to Election Day.  It has already cut to the quick the folks who will be most deeply affected. You know  who they are, even if Husted's side won't tell you.  

Marcia Fudge: Much work to do, including voting rights

Reposted from Plunderbund:  

In her  recent talk at an Akron Press Club/ Bliss Institute program,  Rep.Marcia Fudge covered the entire spectrum of  the unfinished business of combatting racism in America.  A Democrat who chairs  the Congressional Black Caucus,  she represents Ohio's  new 11th District stretching south from Euclid to Fairlawn - graphic evidence of the liveried Republican map-drawers' free-wheeling ability to redefine the upside of hometown politics.

A compelling speaker, Fudge surveyed  the legacy of Martin Luther's King's  place in today's world that has met with no more than mixed results in a nation  that is more polarized than at  any  time in a  generation.

As we have mentioned many times, the seating of an African-American in the Oval Office has inspired his opponents to the excesses  not seen during the two terms served by George Bush.  From being the alleged peacemaker with the invasion of Iraq, to the amassing of public debt by a guy who had no inclination to cap it, we allowed Dubya  to comfortably enjoy his dream-swept environment.

The political right has been so traumatized, in Ohio and elsewhere,  by Obama's successive victories so soon after the Civil War, that it has spent a lot of its time determined to have Obama suffer a similar trauma rooted in a disgraceful legacy.

One of its biggest contracts  is  called voter repression.  And you'd think that by now the Republican public officials who are working deep into the night to purify the vote would at least confess the motives of the their scandalous schemes.

"Cutting back on our voting options has a disproportionate negative effect on certain populations,  among them communities of color, urban voters, students,  elderly and low income, not just minorities," Fudge told her audience.

There've been too many  attempts to stymie the voters  with the  clumsy efforts of people like Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted  to shape the electoral outcomes according to his party's needs. From cutting back early voting periods, to voter IDs, to shortening voting days to align with  business hours, to rearranging precincts - even the failed  attempt to blockl third-party candidacies to protect Gov.  Kasich in November . Etc. etc etc.

State Sen. Nina Turner, Husted's Democratic opponent this year, summed it up with one word: "Immoral."

Without being tempted to predict the outcome of the November balloting,  I can vouch for one absolute that will be a leading issue in the campaigns  It's the  various ploys, sometimes peddled as eradicating voter fraud (Huh!), that will be driven home on the stump from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

You can take it from there.

 Oh.  And let the honest votes fall where they may.

Walmart: Gifts that don't keep on giving

The latest heartfelt story fully making the rounds about Walmart is that bins have been  set up at the Canton store that urge Walmart associates to deposit  Thanksgiving food offerings for their needy fellow workers.  Comedian Stephen Colbert found a lot not to like about the idea.  With his finger always on the pulse, he noted that he  couldn't agree with those who accuse Walmart of not doing enough for its employes. "Wrong," he said. "They don't do anything."  

* * * * *

The table tops at the  Summit Mall food court have inset space for posting ads.  The current ones promote Roto-Rooter with the troubling message for fast-food customers:  "Complete plumbing and drain service."

* * * * *

MSNBC's Ed Schultz and Ohio Sen. Nina Turner joined for a Happy Hour assailing the State GOPs multi-pronged attacks on voting rights. Schultz complained that such tactics, with Republican Gov. Kasich at the helm, hardly reveal him as the  political moderate creeping into some national media stories about him as a presidential candidate so many years from now.  Turner is challenging Secretary of State Jon Husted and is making the voting stink a major issue in the campaign. That's an easy case to make.

* * * * *

Why do I get a  headache when Dick Cheney, a Cyborg with a pulseless mechanical  heart, turns up on TV with still more lies?  I thought those days were gone for the unchastened veep after he told us that the Iraq war would end in a matter of weeks - and not a year longer. He also guaranteed the skeptics that  the freedom-loving Iraqi greeters would shower our troops with candy and flowers from their balconies.  Try to remember.

* * * * *

In case you missed it, the U.S. House has now voted 46 times to abolish Obamacare.  At the same time latest poll figures report that Speaker John Boehner is the most unpopular politician in the universe. They needed a poll for that?

A Valentine evening with local Democrats!

The annual Summit County Democrats' Valentine Party is a modest family reunion of officeholders and staffers for a couple of hours of schmoozing over  finger food and whatever the bar will allow. This year's $25-per-person event at the Tangier also offered the locals a glimpse of one and maybe two state candidates on the 2014 ballot,  

Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, one of the party's  fresher faces, made the rounds , clasping welcoming hands and offering a brief talk on the ills sprouting from the  Kasich administration from taxation to school district funding.  It's the sort of thing he's been saying all over the state in weighing his  own decision on whether to challenge the governor.

He told me afterward that he will decide in March on whether to run.  The big question, of course, is whether he can be encouraged by the campaign cash that will be available.  That won't be a problem for Kasich, who's isn't likely to be flying tourist class between now and election day.

If anything is certain at this stage it's that State Sen. Nina Turner, a Clevelander,  is already making her presence felt as an energized  candidate for Secretary of State.   She became a frequent guest on national television during the presidential campaign as a leading critic of  Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted (he, of the Husted Hustle)  who was dead set on restricting the turnout in November.    His mission, he said, was to eliminate fraud - a chestnut that a few other Republicans conceded was a not-so-sly  effort to elect Mitt Romney.

Turner has also placed herself on national TV as in  the most outspoken vanguard for women's rights.   She didn't hestitate to tell the Democratic Valentiners that she's just getting started.  Cheaters, she insisted,  should never win.  With her on the stump, it won't be a campaign for the faint-of-heart.

Time for IQ tests for lawmakers in the abortion debate

HARDLY A DAY passes that some Republican politician doesn't come up with a new way to oppose abortion. There's even a move in Tennessee that could force a physician to disclose the name of a woman seeking an abortion. Hundreds of bills are floating around state legislatures with one goal in mind: stop abortion with whatever law that it takes while the GOP controls all of those legislative bodies, aided and abetted by Christian conservatives. It is a national obsession that has risen to the top of the charts in many states, and not the least targets of its sweep is the health care reform act and Planned parenthood.

Some counter measures have been satirically proposed, including Ohio Sen. Nina Turner's plan to have men who want Viagra to prove that they are impotent and have sought sex therapy. I have my own proposal: Men must take an IQ test as the prerequisite for Viagra. Not only that. Their scores should be published in their hometown papers. They must also write an essay on why conservatives want the government off their backs while demanding that a woman submit to lying on her back. It would be interesting, don't you think?

Dittoheads, pinheads and scorned women

"The climax of all evils is when a man rooted in some false opinion grows fatally persuaded that his course is right." - Petrarch

How prescient of the great 14th Century Italian poet and humanist to define someone we all know today, say, Rush Limbaugh. Or Bill O'Reilly? Or Sean Hannity? Limbaugh is not inclined to rise for a moment from his spasmotic derangement. He's been at it again slamming two women journalists with glee for no other reason than to convince his dittoheads that he's da Man. It has reached the point of monstrous random slander, which is his only strong point that is apparent to me.

Meanwhile the Republican leadership(?) and first-row candidates are still cowering in their bubble to escape any mention of Rushbo. On another front,however, they are baring their chests to annihilate Iran. Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all have been on the stump mindlessly huffing and puffling about Iran while characterizing President Obama as the weenie in the room. (Are we having any fun over their war games yet?)

Unsurprisingly, their hawkishness belies their own interest in military service. None has worn a uniform, thanks to various deferments in times of need. That takes us back to a previous administration when George Bush and Dick Cheney found a way to dodge the draft while serving as the biggest bullies in their playground. (In fairness, Bush did land on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit.) In fact, Romney explained four years ago why none of his five sons had been in the military: They were needed in his 2008 campaign. This fellow never gets it.

* * * *

Ohio State Rep. Nina Turner's remedy for vaginally fixated lawmakers has widely resonated with other women and could produce a growth industry in helping overreaching males in the controversy over birth control. In Illinois and Virginia women legislators are playfully hastening to help the guys subjected to medical or psychological assistance since their health might be at risk by taking sexual stimulants. One proposed law calls for rectal examinations; another mandate seeks treatment for "persistant erections". My opposite-sex spouse likes the idea of "sperm limits". It's never been truer about the fury ignited in scorned women than by the current Dark Age (Plutarch's term) male wannabe gynecologists.

Kasich's "your people" retort gets a wider audience.

Our new governor is already grabbing national attention - but unfortunately it's not likely to enhance Ohio's woebegone image. POLITICO, the national Republican-tilting Web site, topped its page with this AP photo of John Kasich over a report on his choice of an all-white cabinet. It quoted Sen. Nina Turner, a black Democrat, who told the Columbus Dispatch that she and the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus are demanding a meeting with Kasich to express their concerns.

Turner says that when she personally raised the question with Kasich, he replied that that he "didn't need your people." Huh?

A Kasich spokesman said the governor was actually referring to Democrats, not blacks, which was not at all persuasive to Turner. In any event, Kasich is demonstrating a deaf ear to the fallout from his clumsy remarks. And now the entire country is hearing about it.