Sen .LaRose: the non-maverick McCain maverick

ONE OF MY chores this week end was to clear out some of my paper files - the soaring pile of stuff often mindlessly hoarded from newspapers, magazines and the Internet. Still, it did offer a few items worth attaching to the moment. Of particular interest to me was the Oct. 4, 2010 Beacon Journal endorsement of a young Republican candidate for the state senate, Frank LaRose. (OK, guys, based on what I am about to write you can accuse me of hindsight, but the endorsement never made much sense to me from Day One and I wrote as much at the time.)

LaRose made it to the Senate. And here is how the BJ hailed his credentials to send him to Columbus as the candidate who would represent northern and western Summit County from Barberton to Cuyahoga Falls:

"What is appealing about LaRose is his fresh perspective on public life, his willingness to learn and his understanding about the importance of reaching across the aisle to advance the larger interests of the state.

"LaRose makes a point of wanting to get beyond the polarizing attitudes at the Statehouse....'' The editorial praised him for supporting a "prosperous economy" through investments in such things as education and public works.

But unless I missed something that occurred in the Senate between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., across-the-aisle LaRose has voted down the line with the ultra-conservative Republican majority on every major polarizing issue from concealed weapons in bars and Senate Bill 5 to drilling on state parklands and harsh anti-abortion measures - public hospitals would be barred from abortion services. (He also told the BJ that he didn't think it was time for cutting taxes, but end the estate tax anyway!)

LaRose spent his political apprenticeship working in the presidential campaign of John McCain, the alleged maverick. Whatever the case, LaRose hasn't shown evidence that he is one. He'a too deeply ensconced in Planet Kasich.

By the way, the editorial also referred to LaRose's Democratic opponent, Frank Comunale, noting that he "made a strong case for his candidacy".

Health care reform: halfway home

WELL, THE SENATE finally passed the damn thing. It wasn't easy, nor perfect, given the opposition from a handful of Democrats and all of those politically correct core-value Republicans ambling around the halls of congress on their knuckles, snorting that the end of the world was near.

This was the disloyal opposition at its worst, from the racket of "death panels" to Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn's unspeakable appeal to Americans to pray that someone would not show up for a vote to block a Republican filibuster. It didn't take a second or two to realize that he was tallking about Sen. Robert Byrd, the ancient and infirm Democrat, to either lapse into a deep coma or pass 0n to wherever Democrats go when they die. (As the talks now move to the House, the Coburn Prayer will still be on the table if and when an accord is reached to pass the bill.) I wonder when a U.S. senator last prayerfully called for a colleague's absence. Fortunately his avenging angels decided to sit this one out.

The nearly year-long debate was a made-for-TV (and cable) extravaganza in which fiction far overwhelmed fact. It was often played out by role-players who saw little reason to speak in behalf of rational differences. If you are looking for an explanation of how so much of this got out of hand, remember there is no better way to secure your 15 minutes of fame than to to sit in front of a TV camera arguing that health care reform doesn't necessarily turn on its axis and could easily knock the whole planet out of whack.

I couldn't resist thinking of Dick Cheney, recently applauded by the ultra right-wing Human Events, as the conservative of the year. The guy has been on the prowl for most of this decade with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator(ICD) that regulates the heartbeat - a device that the doctors figured might extend his life after his four heart attacks and a quadruple bypass. The total cost of his medical bill was reported to be nearly $3 million. But even pampered penny pinching vice presidents have a right to stay alive. One of his aides said his Blue Cross/Blue shield policy would likely cover all of it. Cool.

On the other hand, folks without health insurance are not vice presidents or senators.

As they say, rank has it privilege.

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Ohio Senate: Life on the lifeless track

I SELDOM WRITE about the Ohio legislature. I have found the place to be a bore. I know. Those senators and house members in Columbus shape our daily lives, from taxes to such diversions as slot machines. For their part-time labors they are well paid and receive other benefits that those of us back home seldom see. On many days they predictably sit around doing nothing at all.

As Plain Dealer columnist Tom Suddes rudely pointed out on Sunday, ignoring the minor courtesies you might expect for the near-unemployed, of the 219 bills introduced in the Republican-controlled Senate, only three made their way to the governor. And as Suddes, a veteran of seizing indolent politicians by the neck, also pointed out, they did give a hint of exhalation by forwarding to Gov. Strickland a measure to create an 18-member War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission, an event still three years away. Bless 'em! It was bipartisan. That will give them a little something to write home about when the next check arrives in their $60,584 a year payday.

Meantime, the sedentary senators don't seem to be in a hurry in plugging up a desperately current $850 million hole in the state budget, creating an aching impasse that is stalled on the issue of whether to delay a tax cut for Ohioans. You'd think they are trying to resolve the issues in Cornelius Vanderbilt's will. A foolish Ohio tax cut should be a no-brainer for the GOPers to go along with Democrats who insist it would further deepen the state's budgetary woes. But Republicans are genetically wedded to such dumb considerations. And who knows? Since they are term-limited, some may even move on to Congress to advance their troubled concepts of tax math.

All of this led Beacon Journal Statehouse columnist Dennis Willard to report that there is still a lot of gravy in doing next to nothing down in Columbus. In addition to the lawmakers' base salary for a few days a week, they are entitled to huge tax deductions by various self-serving devices amounting to the efforts of living ghosts. Legislators not only get tax breaks for days they are in session but also for those in-between idle days if the legislature adjourns for four or fewer days. They also qualify for deductions on holidays and weekends.

Willard figures it's possible for a state senator to reap $55,144 in tax deductions if he or she lives outside of Columbus. That would make the tax burden akin to that of the underemployed. Depreciation will likely come next.

None of this accounting might have surfaced if the Senate had been doing what it's paid to do.

It seldom does.

Was Morrison's ouster a ground breaker?

IN THE WAKE of the Ohio Senate's dismissal of Jack Morrison from the University of Akron Board of Trustees, I don't know of another instance where a trustee has been removed from a campus board by political action. Was this the first time? Tell me if you know.

Ohio Senate: Finally, enough is enough

NOW THAT THE Ohio Senate has persuasively (30-3!) stripped Akron Lawyer Jack Morrison of his seat on the University of Akron Board of Trustees, might he now conclude that there are times to fight and times to go quietly to your room? Ever since his convictions July 29 on two ethics charges that grew out of a real estate deal between his son and UA, his ouster seemed to be inevitable. The only question was how long would he remain on the board as he challenged the court's ruling and state officials, including Gov. Srickland, at every turn. We now know.

Not that he has quite returned to his room. He still is fighting Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's decision to remove him from the Summit County Board of Elections, where he sits as the chairman. Maybe Morrison is simply the tenacious bulldog as he has been described by others. Or maybe it was a case of political arrogance by an influential Republican activist and a generous contributor to the county party. He is, after all, GOP Chairman Alex Arshinkoff's lawyer.

Although the debacle began with a couple of misdemeanor ethics charges, it fleshed out in a nose count on the UA Board. Morrison's dismissal from the board would give the Democratic governor the windfall of an appointee, and a 5-4 Democratic majority when the next seat opens in 2010.

Political considerations? Elementary, my dear Watson. (Holmes never said that, but you get my point.)

Frank Comunale, Ohio Senate candidate

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