The rightwing era of the NoBamans

Reposted from Plnderbund



As we're sure you're  aware of by now,   the White House is in the merciless throes of  the NoBama plague that has had everyone on edge.  For six years, the president has faced assaults from the NoBama GOP that will feverishly  grow  for another couple of years.  Even the party's newly minted African-American Democrat-turned-Republican , Ben Carson, a doctor from South Carolina of all places, has added to his  conservative star power  by accusing Obama of presiding over worsening race relations,which takes a lot of white guys off the hook, right?

Keep an eye on him.  He's an author, essayist and opponent of Obamacare who figures to get royal treatment  by his party.  There's already a "Run, Ben, Run" national presidential  draft movement under way .

But if you've been too busy to notice the rise of the NoBama phenomenon,  the right-wing pundits will hammer it into your consciousness.  Up in Cleveland, for example, a VIP Plain Dealer  editor/columnist showers NoBama thunderbolts from his aerie high atop the Ivory Tower.

Oddly enough, NoBama Kevin O'Brien's  column this week  led the reader over a path of direct orders to the NoBamans in Congress to stonewall the president's proposed appointments unless he cancels  his immigration plans (as if this crowd hasn't thought of it already!).  He wanted to punish Obama for "posterity".  I'm sure he knows his own choir well.

But wait, he is only warming up, and what comes next is an astonishing leap of  logic from a guy who is  offended by a president trying to execute  immigration reforms that have long been stalled in the Republican  Tea Party House.  For this disconnect, he singles out Congresswoman Marcia  Fudge, Democrat    from  Northeastern Ohio, archly accusing her of being "irresponsible"   for saying that Ferguson was a "miscarriage of justice".

From his perch, he didn't know how Fudge could possibly reach that conclusion from  her district 500 miles from Ferguson.

But since we're only talking about distance here and not of the right or wrong of the grand jury decision, I suspect your draconian dictates to Congress, Kevin,  have little force inasmuch as you live 363 driving miles from Washington.  So I am a tad impressed by such Palin-like  powers that enable you to see Capitol Hill from your front porch.

From Trayvon "justice" to Frog Jump, Tenn.

Maybe it's the tropical heat that followed a couple of weeks of rain that is causing a lot of public figures to say the strangest things these days.   Let me try to sort it out:

The post- Zimmerman trial has produced  talk of books and rumors of books to be written.   Not unusual.  Every national spectacle always  lures a wannabe author or two to tell you much of what you already know or don't really care to know. If there is to be a cash-conscious literary circus, someone should at least note the pointed words of Zimmerman defense lawyer Mark O'Mara, who paused long enough during his victory lap to remark that if Trayvon Martin's assailant had been black, he wouldn't have been arrested. Oh?

O'Mara didn't realize that he had just blown  another hole in the justice system.  If a black had killed Trayvon, why wouldn't he have been arrested?  Was the young black victim's death less important depending on the skin color of the person who killed him?    And if those are society 's acceptable rules for a justice system, where's the justice?  And what if a black had murdered a white?  In some quarters in the wake of the outrageous verdict  it would be asked why we even needed a trial to administer black-on-white  justice.

* * * * *

In the lead-up to the deal that confirmed Richard Cordray,   John McCain told us with a straight face that the problem could be solved if the president let Republicans make the nominations. Although Republicans said they liked Cordray but hated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that he manages, I think they also resented Cordray because he is intelligent.  Intellectual depth has never been helpful to politicians.  Otherwise Cordray, a former "Jeopardy" champ, would not have lost to Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine.  Way back, Jack Gilligan, another whiz, would not have been defeated by Jim Rhodes for Ohio governor.  I won't even mention George W.Bush's twin victories for president.

About McCain's pro-choice idea for his party:   I'm told he even agreed to sweeten it for the other side  by calling it Nominees for Democrats and encoding the names of the GOP choices in the Congressional Pledge of  Allegiance.

* * * * *

Ever hear of Frog Jump, Tenn.   Probably not.  It's not even listed on the Google map.  It's an unincorporated place near Elmore,  if that helps. It's also known as "Lightning Bug Center". (Trust me: I couldn't make this up.)

We call all of this to your sober attention because it is the home of a farmer named Stephen Fincher, a Republican  who has a well-fed place in Congress.  He recently voted to eliminate food stamps from the big agriculture bill on Biblical grounds.  He says he was prompted by a verse in Thessalonians  quoting Jesus as warning that anybody unwilling to work "should not eat."

Rep. Fincher, however, can enjoy eating to his  belly's content inasmuch as he's received about $3.5 million in federal farm subsidies.

Maybe he can at least reenact the fishes and the loaves for the poor.

Political life can be odd, if not always beautiful.

Let me try to sort out a few mostly odd odds and ends this week:

When Joseph Palazzo, the former tech director of the Cuyahoga Heights School District, was convicted of stealing $3.4 million from the schools, the Plain Dealer reported, Palazzo apologized  to U.S.District Judge Benita Pearson and declared that he had suffered a "lapse in judgment" and would never do it again.  Given that he was sentenced to 11 years and four months in a Federal prison, it would have to be awhile.

The PD also told us of Allen Warner's day in court for "secretly recording nude images of two former mistresses and a teenage grirl  using cameras hidden  in clocks and video players.

The 60-year-old voyeur,who apologized, told the court he had no idea he was doing anything wrong..  The court thought otherwise and sentenced Warner to a 17 year-hitch  for "voyeurism, pandering  sexually oriented material involving a minor and pornography related crimes".

* * * * *

It was a better week for GOP  Reps. Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert, and a terrible one for Congressman Paul Broun, the nutty Georgia Republican. Bachmann once lamented that if the rascals in the White House continued to assault the wallets of Americans, some day "there won't be any rich people in America."  She can relax.  Several reliable sources have now reported that people with assets of more than $1 million soared  more than 11 pct.  in 2012 in North America, a continent in first place on the planet with $12.7 trillion in assets.

I needn't remind you that I have long considered Gohmert, the Texas guy, to be the perennial claimant to the congressional dunce cap.  No longer.  It is now claimed by Broun, an MD, who has never stopped Biblically ranting about the evils of science.  He has again told us of the planet's twin-evils: evolution and the big bang theory.

"God's word is true," says Dr. Broun.  "...All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is from  the pit of hell.  It's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior."  (Or. at least Broun, whichever comes first in politics.) Yadayadayada. ..  Move over,  Louie. Don't think you can top this for now.

* * * * *

Finally, I've figured out the heart of the congressional wingies' opposition to humane immigration reform.  They simply don't like Latinos. No way.

As for the abortion controversy,  I propose that we contact our congressmen to support  a law that serves two purposes:  Any congressmen who will be voting to restrict abortions must first present a photo ID - a photo ID  - to determine whether there is a tell-tale  scar from  a birth controlling vasectomy.  Those who fail the exam  will be barred from going to a Major League baseball game to watch a team with more than two  Latino players. Problem solved.

Robart boasts of his Cuyahoga Falls mission in ...Fairlawn!

The oddest entry in  Fairlawn's  Fourth of July parade was a  big truck with an accordion billboard promoting Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart.  It told us that the long serving Republican was "always putting  Cuyahoga Falls  first".

A rather strange boast, don't you think,  in a Fairlawn event where the local mayor, Bill Roth, is a low-key Republican  in a well-managed town.

In recent years, Robart, who is seeking his 8th term in November, has swung  over to the Tea Party wing, if not as a card-carrying member, then as a kindred  spirit.  He showed up at the teabaggers Rescue America Tax Day Rally in the Falls last year (Another of those events with a do-gooder  name) to praise the GOP insurgents as the conscience of America. Still, he's not been  reluctant to take federal money for his own projects.

He also stonewalled giving a wounded Iraqi veteran  and his male partner family rates at the Falls Natatorium. In this instance,  the mayor decided that gay couples  come second to putting his city first. So it  seems fair` to ask:  First in what?

Now after three decades in City Hall, he's being challenged by a popular Democratic councilman, Don Walters. It won't be surprising to see more of those Robart Falls-first trucks in the Labor Day parade in Barberton.  Maybe even Canton.

Jim Allen: the ex-county chairman won't be playing in Farmersville anymore

Just when you wanted to believe that with the Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks and Michele Bachmanns still on the loose  in full voice, nobody could top them with dumber-than-dumb political trash talk.  Well, someone just did, and so much for the career of an Illinois  Republican county chairman named Jim Allen of the unheralded village of Farmersville, Ill. (pop. 723) in downstate Montgomery County. (If you've just pulled out your Rand McNally road atlas,  Farmersville isn't that far from Divernon, Ill.)

Allen, beset by troubled reaction from GOP higher-ups, including National Chairman Reince Priebus, resigned in the wake of his comments that Erika Harold (shown here), a former Miss America running for congress in the Republican primary,  was a "street walker"  supported by her "pimps" among Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Limbaugh settled for "slut" in recklessly ill-defining Sandra Fluke's off-hours behavior.

But when guys like Priebus are so openly annoyed by  one of the party's official enablers that he called Allen's behavior "inexcusable'" and "not to be tolerated, you know that the ex-county chairman exceeded what's left of the levels of decency for the party's alleged brand. Allen recanted with an apology, but you know how those things go these days.

But Allen did earn a  citation from Grumpy Abe otherwise known as the Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award. Somehow,  I still don't feel it fits the slanderous crime by this party operative.

Oh, Allen also accused Harold of being a notorious "RINO" - a Republican in Name Only.  But as they genuflect  to a Tea Party culture,  isn't it a bit of a stretch to refer to any of them as a Republican?

Hey, Republicans finally claim a minority

It occurs to me that the Republicans have achieved a major break-through in their ancient mission to broaden their  base  by engaging minorities.  They are now, in fact, reeking with Tea Partyers - a minority that polls tells us  is hardly more than 30 pct. of the electorate.  Way to go, GOP.  Persistence finally paid off.

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?

Get ready for the invasion of Republican circuit riders

A million years ago, maybe a little longer, Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett (then in his earlier  term) and Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff  insisted to me that their party would expand its base to include you-know-whos. It would be a magisterial commitment by two GOP draft horses to make the party whole for generations to come.

Didn't happen quite that way.  Not even close.  So after its  Comeback Team Romney/Ryan debacle in November -  a presidential election that even Karl Rove and Peggy Noonan decided was in their party's victory column for the asking -  the Republican brass are at it again.  They will spend $10 million, it says here, to send an army of circuit riders into the boonies to preach  the party's brand.  Suddenly minorities have become the party's search for the Holy Grail.

If there is a true opposite to Knute Rockne's famous half-time dressing room oration to his wilting team before sending it back onto the field, Reince Priebus,  the less-than-inspiring  national Republican Party chairman will have to do. He says the voter roundup  will  include "hundreds of people - paid - across the country, from coast to coast, in Hispanic, African-American, Asian communities, talking about our party, talking about our brand,  talking about what we believe in---"

Hold it right there, fella!  Ohioans already know what the party believes in. Let me remind you:

Begin with the belabored effort to limit the voter turnout last November. None other than John Boehner, the funereal Speaker,  told a luncheon group  hosted by the Christian Science Monitor last August: "This election is about economics...These groups [minority and poor voters] have been hit the hardest.  They may not show up and vote for our candidate but I'd suggest to  you they won't show up and vote for the president either."

Oh?
Now the Ohio Republican pols want to cut back the time to gather signatures  for  referendums, a bill that Kasich signed a few days ago. It impedes any effort to challenge a law.

From Planned Parenthood, to abortion, to same-sex marriage (Sen. Portman gets an ad hoc  pass on this one), to gun control,  the governor and the Republican controlled legislature keep doing awful things that are running in the opposite direction of the public mood.

And I haven't even mentioned Republicans' failed attack on unions in SB5, which was mauled at the polls.

Come to think of it, when Priebus talks of a $10 million outlay to  woo new voters with the Republican brand, he does sound like  a cheapskate. It won't be that easy. Tea Partyers are talking about starting their own party in Ohio.  Nobody except the governor and his A-Team seems happy about his proposed tax plan.

 Politically, the Buckeye State for national Republicans has become Brand X. The only question now:  What has taken them so long to figure that out - if indeed they have?  

Dick Cheney: From chicken hawk to military expert

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, he of the robotic heart,  had some bizarre things to say the other night about President Obama's choice of cabinet members.  Speaking to a friendly audience  of about 300 Republicans in Wyoming, Cheney asserted that Obama has appointed "second-rate people" who can be expected to degrade the U.S. military.

The timing of his cheap shot  left no doubt that he was referring to John Kerry, the new secretary of state, and Chuck Hagel, who is awaiting confirmation as the secretary of defense. Huh?

As the record will show, both of his targets are war veterans who served well while Cheney preferred to comfortably sit out the battlefield with several deferments.  And as a strong infuence in guiding the U.S. into an invasion of Iraq, he demonstrated his profound understanding of warfare by assuring us the conflict might not last for more than several weeks. I needn't tell you  the rest of the story.

With Cordray, GOP haste could make waste

Irony can always find a home in the political world.  When, for example, Republicans on Capitol Hill determinedly stalled President Obama's nomination of  Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren as director of the new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,  she finally said, "To hell with it" and went off to Massachusetts to run for the U.S.Senate.

She defeated Scott Brown, the Republican incumbent, which, to the GOP's dismay,  cost it  a seat.  Do you think that in retrospect it would reconsider the trade-off that produced such  unintended consequences?

That Potomac vignette of the GOP's mulish  rejection of Warren could play out with a different setting this year.  The ruling by the all-Republican  three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals  disqualifying Obama's three appointments  to the National Labor Relations Board will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  But some observers  are saying that it could also affect former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray's recess  appointment  to the consumer's group after another Republican blockade on Capitol Hill.

If so, in the scheme of things, he would be without a job. It might even encourage him to return to Ohio to challenge Gov. Kasich's re-election bid.  Cordray is a name mentioned in most recaps of the potential Democratic field and, so the reasoning goes, could be the strongest tie-breaker  within his party's field.

I'd say that in the Republicans'  haste  to say no- no- no, they're getting somewhat careless these days  about their own welfare. It has often been shown that haste makes waste.

Note:  My column on the Columbus Dispatch travelogues covering  Kasich in Davos has been posted on Plunderbund

For Republican pols, no place like home

Just saw a report that the Republican lunatics in the U.S. House are planning to go home without voting on any Fiscal Cliff deal passed by the Senate, thereby guaranteeing  most Americans  an unhappy New Year.  I want my country back.  

Life challenges on the white-guy track

There's been a lot of attention  given to white guys , the pejorative term for white males,  during this election season.  That's because the polls once again showed white guys strongly favoring Mitt Romney, a self-iconic success story,  over President Obama.  Political thinkers, sociologists and the producers of Romney lapel buttons have all checked into the long-running phenomenon of why white guys prefer Republicans.

Still unsatisfied with the GOP quarry, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina went so far as to complain that "We're not generating enough angry  white guys to stay in business for the long term."  What he fears as a generic white Southern Republican is that minorities will become the majorities in the U.S.over the next decade and where will that leave the white guy party?  Well, where?

A number of theories are around.  The Economist recently reported a paper published in Psychological Science that suggests that muscles have something to do with the political profile of white guys.  Researchers Michael Petersen  (University of Aarthus in Denmark) and Daniel Sznycer (University of California, Santa Barbara) asked their subjects whether  resources should be redistributed to the poor.  Musculature identified those who opposed such redistribution.

The scholars didn't say so, but it does seem that one clue to the white guys'  preference for Mitt Romney could be their  desperate  remedy for erectile dysfunction against groups of rivals.

It comes down to fear of losing the dominance that only Republicans can offer in their campaign bombast about success in a rapidly changing marketplace.    Will, for example, the white guys'  traditional cookout role of grilling steaks  be diluted by pushy females who escape from the kitchen?  Or as Executive Chef Elisabeth Karmel asks: Is the grill the last bastion of masculinity?

As one who grew up in a family with many cousins of Republican toughs with Popeye arms,  I can say that yes, there is anger  and resentment over minorities and women's roles  that have been coming on for decades.  A college professor once complained to me that female professors were  getting too sassy around him.  And a former boss didn't know how he could survive  after his company had placed a woman executive above him.

Stricken by such thoughts of servitude to The Others, some fearful white guys still rely on holstered sidearms, barbells and hairy chests to prove they are not sissies.  How else can they disguise their resentfulness and insecurity over the threats to their masculinity?  To them, seeking refuge in the brave old world of Republicanism would at least give them a temporary  safety net.

Courage against the GOP fraud of charging voter fraud

I am calling today for a one of those sweeping waves at sports stadiums to honor a true American.

He is a fellow named Christopher Broach, a Democrat who is an elections inspector in Colwyn, Pa., which is quite near Philadelphia.  Broach told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he has no intention of enforcing Pennsylvania's voter-suppressing  photo ID  law, explaining:  "To ask me  to enforce something that violates civil rights is ludicrous and absolutely something I am not willing to do.''

Although Broach risks a fine or jail, he's not backing off. The law has the potential of denying tens upon tens of thousands of otherwise eligible voters from casting ballots, particularly in the City of Brotherly Something,  where 43 pct. of the voters do not have a state-issued ID. This GOP inspired  witch's brew is now being challenged in court by the ACLU and the NAACP  and is being investigated by the U.S.Department of Justice.

All of this in the name of fighting voter "fraud".  But , wait.  As the case went to trial, the state has now said it cannot produce in court  any  evidence of fraud.  No evidence!!!.. We thought so.

And Pennsylvania's Republican Gov. Tom Corbett , who signed the law, concedes that  he can't remember what kind of ID's are acceptable.  Well,  a governor can't think of everything.

The  only honest view from a Republican in this matter is state House Majority  Leader Mike Tarzai, who inocently says the law "allows Romney to win Pennsylvania."  But the fraud, sir. The fraud...Oh?

Meanwhile, time to whip up the spirited wave for Christopher Broach.  I'm glad somebody is getting it right.  Wanna bet no Republican is dumb enough to charge him with breaking the law?  On the other hand, we're not really dealing with functioning brains on the other side.

Why am I now grouped with Cleveland voters?

To my despair,  I have learned that my neighborhood in Fairlawn, which is a few minutes away from Akron, is in the Eleventh Congressional District.  That means my vote will be dumped into the new boundaries that include Euclid, East Cleveland, Shaker Heights and  Cleveland. My  congresswoman will be Marcia Fudge, a Democrat,  the former mayor of Warrensville Heights.  I'm sure she is a competent representative.   But I live in Fairlawn, some distance from the bulk of her constituents. Excuse me if as a voter I feel isolated from the crowd.  Excuse me again if I say the Republicans responsible for  butchering the new congressional districts couldn't have cared less about the relationship between the People's House on Capitol Hill and me. Am I not a people?

Did I say People's House?  Defining people has taken some strange turns this political season.  Mitt Romney insisted that corporations are people.  And the   gang in Columbus that isolated my neighborhood in an alien  Cleveland  people zone was greedily at work in  building a still greater GOP force in Congress that already boasts of 12 of the state's 16 congressional seats.
Their math is telling.   May we conclude that three out of four Ohioans are Republicans even though the state went to Barack Obama in 2008?

A little history of this ridiculous scheme:  When I arrived in Summit County more than four decades ago , there was but one congressman,   Bill Ayers, a Republican.  He was ousted by Democrat John Seiberling in 1970.  To no avail, the local Republican front office spent many restless nights trying to figure out how to win back the county.

It didn't get any easier in 1987 when Seiberling retired and turned the seat over to Tom Sawyer, the city's Democratic mayor. After more restless nights,  the local and State GOP decided  the best way to rid the county of Sawyer after 15 years was to carve  up his district, pitting him against Tim Ryan, of Niles, in the Democratic primary.  It was a no-win  challenge to Sawyer with the eastern part of the county dumped into  Ryan-leaning territory.  The county has now evolved into three congressional districts with Fudge, Ryan and Republican Steve LaTourette (a bit of the northern patch  of the county).

It's a mess  from the Master Carvers of Columbus. (There was a moment or two when I thought my neighborhood would end up in Toronto).

Ah. but others have taken note of this villainous handiwork.  Voters First, set up by the League of Women Voters, has filed petitions with the Secretary of State - more than 430,000 signatures - to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to create a non-partisan  citizens commission to draw up district boundaries.  I hope it works , but at least I am now assured that there are 430,000 others in this a state who care about fairer representatation as much as I do.


UPDATE: Thanks to a reader, I now can tell you that the goulash called Summit County congressional districts is even more tasteless.  The county actually has four congressmen - four!   I have overlooked Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton, which  ended up with a horribly malformed district  zigzagging south across part of the county  from Lorain to Green.       How did my new district escape Toronto?   I stand corrected.  


UPDATE NO. 2:  A Republican called to inform me that there were four congressmen with bits of Summit County in 1972 when Democrats drew the lines.  The one that escaped me was a single township  assigned to the late  Rep. John Ashbrook.  So I must ask:  Is there anyone out there who can report five?  

Democrats leave dinner formalities to Republicans

THE SUMMIT COUNTY DEMOCRATS  met under one roof this week for the party's annual
FDR dinner (Franklin Delano Roosevelt for anyone with a short memory).  The 400 or so who arrived at Todaro's party center early enough for a head start on  wine and buffet nibbles  assembled the party's first team - County Executive Russ Pry, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic,  chairman Wayne Jones et al - to begin  an evening of Democratic pep talks featuring Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley,  who some folks are already casting as a fellow of great potential.  Say, 2016?

O'Malley, the former Baltimore mayor,  and Plusquellic developed a lasting friendship when the latter served as the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.  As Plusquellic told the audience of his friend: "He's qualified to be the president". Say, 2016.

Well,  that's a long way off and the local event served as the platform  for O'Malley to drive home the need to reelect President Obama in November, the governor's current mission as he travels about  to engage new voters and rev up the old ones.

All in all, it was an informal  evening that once again contrasted how Democrats and Republicans go about their business at celebratory occasions in this county.  The Democrats provided a venue for collegial banter, some decent food, a lively speaker, and awards to its workers, all of which took no more than a few hours.   Having attended a score of Republican dinners before new rules barring certain media were exercised, I  can tell you there is a world of difference here.

Republican dinners are pure pageantry: A live band, drumrolls, an off-stage voice calling out the names of each Republican grandee who proceeds to his or her seat on the dais with applause,   and an evening filled out - in recent years, at least -with  prominent ultra-conservative speakers symbolic of the party's servile acquiescence  to the far right.

There also is the customary  bellowing harangue by the County Party chairman, Alex Arshinkoff, with his laundry list of grievances against the Beacon Journal, a former editor, a local law firm and whatever else needs to be aired out for the dinner guests.  Heavens!

Trust me:  Whatever your politics, the Democratic events hereabouts  are always more fun, even without the drumrolls.

Yes, Dad was a a first-class Republican

I'M SURE THAT my late father would have been among the folks who have created so many front-runners in the Iowa Republican marathon. Depending on the day of the week and what he might have heard on the 6 o'clock news, he would have felt comfortable supporting whoever was "surging" in the polls at the moment.

Yes, Dad was a Republican like so many others in our extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. You know the kind. But for this glimpse of the political loyalities of the clan, I would caution you that I can only guess why Dad was a Republican. (Mom was different: She could never give me a clear answer on how she voted, and didn't think it was all that important anyway. She had things to do in the kitchen.)

For Dad, it was doubtless class consciousness, even though he never belonged to a country club, nor would he, a modest car salesman and grease monkey, have been invited to join one. For him, Republicans represented a better class of people, certainly better than Democrats. He believed that telling people that you were a Republican was the first step in approaching wider public approval. There was no point in trying to change his mind. He knew Republicans in our hometown and they all seemed to be doing a lot better than those fellows who trudged home from the coal mines each day.

He hated the Kennedys, which seemed to be a conversation gambit when a noisy quorum met in our living room. It was Kennedy this and Kennedy that, and the press coverup of Chappaquiddick.(He read every report in the local papers.) Meanwhile, Some of the family elders complained that they didn't make the long journey from the Old Country to be victimized by Washington's wasteful tax-hungry Democrats .

Fortunately, when another tall pot of coffee was being brewed, they would summon me to play the piano so that they could sing away their blues. On some evenings, they assembled in Uncle Alec's kitchen and with little prodding, he would leap from his chair, click his fingers and dance with a knee-bending motion through several rooms. I admired his energy, doubtless fortified by a half-dozen cups of strong coffee. This particular Uncle Alec - there were three in the family - had been a free-spirited steel worker and cared little about politics. There were also four Georges, each with a different surname. And three Abes! It could get confusing and led to some other issues. But that's another story.

My father's political convictions led to tense moments with his only son. He had seen some of my liberal writings in a magazine and could not believe how far I had strayed.. By then he had locked in as a Reaganite and somehow blamed Democrats for trying to abolish his Medicare.

There's a lot of this happening on the path to the Iowa caucuses. If he were alive today, Dad quite likely would be rooting for all of the candidates to win on Tuesday (Maybe not Romney!) It was time to defeat Barack Obama before he ended Medicare and Social Security. Not that the liberal media would ever tell you that.

LaRose; the Kasich era is doing just fine

I USUALLY DON'T spend much time reading newsletters from politicians. By nature, they are far more self-serving than newsy. But in a day when the hometown dailies are giving so little coverage to the area's lawmakers, I may have to change my habit of ignoring the home-grown dispatches from Columbus.

For a blatant example, the latest copy of Ohio Senate News from Akron-area freshman Sen. Frank LaRose is full of feel-good stuff about how well Republicans from Gov. Kasich on down are serving the vital interests of Ohioans by eliminating wealth-tilted estate taxes by Jan 1, 2013 (current tax is on estates of more than $338,333). Another GOP perk for the big dogs.

Public education? Says Rose: "No public school district will receive less state aid than they are currently receiving (excluding federal stimulus spending)..."

Ahem, there , Senator. According to the Ohio Education Association and other sources, the budget provides $2.9 billion less in the next biennium.

But for the purpose of this piece, I want to mention LaRose's defense of so-called GOP election reforms. Such notorious tactics are often used as a defense against mythical voter fraud. Republicans are good at defending their reforms in a way to disguise their intention to block millions of eligible voters from voting. That would include minorities, young people and seniors. (They still haven't found a way to disfranchise garden-variety Democrats, who may be none of the above.)

I shouldn't be picking on LaRose, I guess. He's new at his party's sleight-of word. It wasn't that long ago that local county chairmen were referring quaintly to African-Americans as "the Colored" and they cannot change at this late day, even if their guy Herman Cain accuses his brothers and sisters of being "brainwashed."

We've been down this road so many times and each time voter fraud has been exposed as a souped-up myth. The classic example was in 2009 in Cincinnati when the Hamilton County Prosecutor, Joe Deters, a Republican, subpoenaed the records of about 600 voters on suspicion that they were playing games at the polls. It was enough to serve as the searing legislative catalyst for new and tighter voter restrictions. In the end they turned up one case: a man described as a"half-breed Muslim " had been in Cincinnati from Connecticut to visit his sister and cast a vote. One - from several hundred thousand votes that had been cast. OK, you can never be too careful these days, right?

In the name of electoral honesty, the GOP is advancing it's nefarious campaign across the country with the potential of restricting millions of legitimate voters with the notion of voter fraud like the ohh-soo horrible one in Cincinnati. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, more than 5 million eligible voters will find it much harder to vote because of walls erected by GOP politicians. (Ohio did retreat from a government photo ID requirement, but other issues still stand in the way of the voters.)

If Frank LaRose is proud of this, so be it. The rest of us shouldn't be. I'm not.

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GOP issues: abortion, photo ID, unions, But jobs?

IT'S A PITY that men can't get pregnant.

Considering the proclivity of some politicians and their stablemates to get into trouble over sexual mischief, it might slow the lawmakers' pace to rule over women in such matters as abortion (among other things).

You are reminded of the biological injustice of unisex pregnancy when the Republican majority in the Ohio House of Representatives preoccupies itself with Draconian anti-abortion legislation that is said to be the most restrictive in the nation. Some supporters would even sacrifice the mother rather than permit an abortion. Nice work, guys! How did the Buckeye state survive for so many years without the benefit of your medieval wisdom?

It should be clear to all of us by now that this GOP group of intellectual stragglers, fattening up on God knows whose money, is moving in for record legislative insanity in hopes of completing their mission before the fat lady sings. Or at least until the public becomes fully aware of the highly inflammable perils of the merging of poisonous ideological lunacy with politics.

There is, for further example, the Photo ID bill passed by the Republican gang in the House (action is pending in the Senate). It would cost the state many millions to administer (at least the abhorrent poll tax of yore produced a bit of revenue.) And it supposedly addresses a fraud menace that the bill's promoters are unable to show exists. Rather, it is the Republicans' fast track solution for their longstanding commitment to blocking you-know-who Democrats from reaching for a ballot.

Sen. Tom Niehaus, the Republican who serves as Senate president, wants to hush such slandering of his party, having been quoted as insisting:

"I do not believe this is any way a voter suppression issue. This is about maintaining the integrity of the voting process."

Having followed the evolution of such blather for many years, I would be happy to lay up a dime that it has everything to do with voter suppression, senator. I would only hope that these integrity-minded folks would stop lying about their motives. Besides, what does any of this have to do with Kasich's daily avowal to create, eh... jobs?

For all of this wickedness however, there is another report out of Columbus that may have kept more than a few members of Team Kasich up a little later on this day. We Are Ohio, the group that heads the effort to repeal the anti-union meaures so eagerly enacted by those Republicans in the legislature and signed into law by the governor, declared overwhelming success Wednesday as it delivered nearly 1.3 million signatures on their petitions to cap its drive to place the repeal on the November 8 ballot.

For Team Kasich, it is cost of doing overreaching business. There isn't a politician alive in Ohio who wouldn't like to ignite a campaign with those petition numbers. It's time for Gov. Kasich and his soul brother, Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker, to get on their cell phones to figure out what went wrong in their feral assault on public unions. And if they don't know, there are more than a million folks in Ohio who can tell them.

But aren't Kasich and Walker only trying to create jobs in their states?

Nobel's Diamond vs. Sen.Shelby: No contest

A PERFECT EXAMPLE of how far into the muck the current Republican political class has burrowed has now arrived in the abysmal assault on Nobel laureate Peter Diamond. The MIT economics professor was cited for his outstanding work in unemployment and labor. Despite that distinction, his nomination by President Obama for the Federal Reserve was blocked by GOP Sen. Richard Shelby, of Alabama, who questioned Diamond's credentials. (It seems that in Alabama, the only credentials for getting elected to the U.S.Senate are an empty head and willingness to champion extreme conservatism as a blood sport.)

Rather than put up with such idiocy, Diamond withdrew as the nominee to devote all of his time to the friendlier and more rewarding culture of academia. But in response to Shelby's blockade that accused Diamond of being unqualified to engage in monetary policy, the distinguished economist wrote in an op-ed piece for the New York Times:

"To the public, the Washington debate is often about more versus less - in both spending and regulation. There is too little public awareness of the real consequences of some of these decisions. In reality , we need more good regulations and fewer bad ones.

''Analytical expertise is needed to accomplish this, to make government more effective and efficient. Skilled analytical analysis should not be drowned out by mistaken ideologically driven views that more is always better or less is always better. I had hoped to bring some of my own expertise and experience to the Fed. Now I hope someone else can."

Meantime, we can look at the insidious Shelby Factor as another defining moment 0f where his party is trying to take the nation.

When is right thing not the right thing?

MICHAEL DOUGLAS, the Beacon Journal's editorial page editor, treated the reader to a symmetrical essay in his Sunday column about Summit County's newest state senator.

Symmetry? He began in the opening line by telling us that Frank LaRose "did the right thing." He closed with the line that the senator "did the right thing". But in between, the reasoning lost traction and distanced itself from Hemingway's literary classic, For Whom the Bell Tolls, that profoundly began and ended with Robert Jordan lying on the floor of a "pine-scented" forest.

Douglas generously credits LaRose with tempering some restrictions on collective bargaining while offering public union workers the right to negotiate wages - a fig leaf, as it's been called - although workers, in return, would give up their right to strike. The last time that I'm aware of that happening was back in the late 1980s when the Guild foolishly agreed not to strike during negotiations with the Beacon Journal.

Contract negotations extended three years beyond its expiration while salaries for guildsmen were frozen. By the way, the Guild also agreed not to make pay increases retroactive!

In the current fray, unions consider collective bargaining - the only generic issue here - with the same sanctity as big-time executives do with stock options and other perks. Secondly, and maybe even more importantly, the issue could lead the way for right-to-work legislation.

For now, LaRose's mistake that is costing him so much loss of credibility is that he had convinced so many that he was a friend of collective bargaining while he worked to restrict it. Had he sold himself as a garden variety anti-union lawmaker from the beginning there would have been less at issue here. But he set the stage for it with his repeated pro public union collective-bargaining assurances. Yes, there were other Republicans with whom he sided in the 17-16 decision. But his vote was critical to both sides. Had he voted against it, he would not now have to be spending so much time explaining his back-channel efforts to soften the blow to unions. Now he is being held accountable. There is a right way to do a right thing.