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.

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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.

The GOP's love-hate relationship with Cordray

The Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee  are seeking a way to deny Richard Cordray a job by resorting to a variation of the tune sung by the late Jerry Falwell:  Love the sinner but hate the sin.  Where else except in  the loony political atmosphere of  GOP America would you find conservative senators praising the key witness for his competence while trying to strip him of the job he was hired to do?

Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general, is the still-unconfirmed director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a self-explanatory title. Republicans have all but declared the agency to be a front for Shariah Law. They insist Cordray would have too much power to raise hell with anyone ripping off consumers.  They assured Cordray that they mightily admire his good work, but...

But really, folks, how are these stonewallers qualified to recognize good work?

* * * * *

More hilarity  from Capitol Hill:  The Paul Ryan Show,  one-man stand-up  comedy that has played before, is continuing to amuse observers who scored more than a c-minus in arithmetic.  In a revival that could reach Broadway for its impudent gag lines, Ryan has retrurned to his self-styled abacus to present a budget filled with what can only be described  as a mathematical non-sequitur. Undismayed, Ryan invites everyone to come back in 10 years, when he  will be able to show you that even if the numbers don't add up, they work.

* * * * *

As if John Boehner doesn't have enough on his plate, a former Ohio Republican congressman who is back in street clothes from a prison term, has some untidy things to say about the Speaker in a  new memoir.  Bob Ney,  who spent 11 months in a federal prison for political corruption from his illegal handiwork with Jack Abramoff,   charges in the book that Boehner is a  "chain-smoking, relentless wine drinker" who engages in the high life of "golf, women, cigarettes, fun and alcohol."

An alcoholic himself,  Ney admits that his own crash "whichever way I look at it, was wrong, illegal, unethical and immoral."  He says he has found peace  through meditation   inspired by the Dalai Lama.  Will he now play nice and share the path with Boehner?

* * * * *

Finally, another "rising star". As you may be aware, I'm keeping a list of the designated rising stars in politics while the supply lasts.  Today's comes from the Associated Press,  which described George Prescott Bush, Jeb's son, a "rising star among Hispanics."
G.P announced Tuesday that he's running for Texas land commissioner.  A Bush grandfather,  an uncle and a father, and now a land commissioner?  How many stars can the universe accommodate?  No problem, George Prescott Bush says on his website:  "Texans are exceptional."

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

Landslide Romney on the march!

ONE OF THE things we've noticed in Landslide Romney's response to issues is that he seldom thinks before he talks. It's sort of a daring frontier quick-draw style that shoots first and asks questions later. So it was on Mitt's post-Iowa blast at President Obama's announcement in Shaker Heights that he had appointed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - a hitherto leaderless government watchdog that dyspeptic Republican lawmakers have likened to Willie Sutton inside Wall Street's bulging vaults.

Upon hearing of the appointment of the former Ohio Attorney General, Romney erupted that the move was "Chicago-style politics at its worst". Having spent some time in Chicagoland and reporting on dead bodies of hoodlums exported from Gary, Ind., it's obvious to me that Romney knows very little about Chicago-style politics - a city that runs very well. Very little. Besides Obama's many opponents four years ago were using the same insults and nothing came of it.

On many other questions hurled at the president, Romney has a nanosecond response: "He's failed!" But he never really defines failure other than resorting to it as a form of verbal gadgetry so spare of moving parts that nothing more need be said.

As for GOP complaints that Obama was guilty of abusing recess appointments,

ThinkProgress provided some curious information. During his presidency, Reagan

Augustus made 240, contrasted to Obama's 28 during his first term in office. Reagan raised taxes in seven of his eight years and...well, let's not get into that right now,

P.S. Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican from Romney's home state, has congratulated Obama for the appointment. But as everybody knows, Brown is trailing Democrat Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard Law School professor who withdrew from consideration for the consumers' job after Republicans stonewalled her for being too antagonistic to the one percenters.

Cordray: The GOP threatens a filibuster

IN THE CURRENT chaotic state of the Republican Party, intelligence is never equated with public office. And so here we are , on the verge of another rejection of Richard Cordray, the former Democratic Ohio attorney general who had the terrible fortune to run for reelection in 2010 when Republicans of all measures waltzed into office, some whose only credentials were that they were the Other Party in bad economic times. Which is why we have a Republican, Mike DeWine, as our attorney general despite the fact that every major newspaper in the state had endorsed Cordray. (When the history of DeWine's term of office is finally written, he will be remembered primarily for having vigorously opposed the healthcare reform law.)

Cordray, exceptionally intelligent (Oxford scholar) , honest and progressive, has since been nominated by President Obama to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a product of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Law. When the confirmation of Cordray comes up in the Senate on Thursday, few Republicans say they will support him. But as everyone except a few Eskimos north of the Arctic Circle must know by now, anything that smacks of consumer protection at the expense of the financial industry is ghoulish. The GOP's price for their support: Across-the-board restrictions on the bureau's regulatory power. It would mean that Cordray would be all dressed up with no place to go.

Ah, the Republicans insist that it has nothing to do with whether it's Cordray or some parish priest. It's the threat of regulating their friends' daily bread.

But the aginners had better be careful about what they filibuster against. Obama's previous choice, Elizabeth Warren, pulled out under heavy attacks on her liberal reputation by the other side. (And we thought it wasn't the person but the agency that worried her opponents!)

She decided to run for the Senate in Massachusetts against Republican Sen. Scott Brown. It could cost the GOP a senate seat. She's running slightly ahead of Brown. Will this be an unintended consequence?

It's still DeWine vs. Cordray

OHIO ATTY. GEN. Mike DeWine has official priorities about when to appeal to Congress and when to take a pass. For the purposes of this piece, we are talking about Asian carp and Richard Cordray, the former attorney general whom DeWine managed to defeat - not on relative merit - in 2010 through the essential benefit of a Republican monsoon that swept the state. In that instance it was not an uplifting day for the electorate.

According to Plain Dealer business columnist Sheryl Harris, 37 attorneys general - Republicans and Democrats - strongly recommended the seating of Cordray as the first director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a letter to Congress from the National Association of Attorneys General, Cordray was described as "both brilliant and balanced." That was hardly a stretch for a person of Cordray's character and talent.

Wanna guess who refused to sign it? Our guy DeWine, of course, who had earlier described Cordray as "highly qualified" and one who would "do an excellent job. As a former U.S. senator, DeWine didn't think he should butt in to tell congressmen how to run their shop. Pure baloney!

I hadn't heard of a excuse like that one for a political no-show. But as he did in his campaign against Cordray in 2010, he will always find a way to rise above the battle, or at least disappear from the radar screen.

As for the Asian carp, Harris reported that DeWine did concede that he made an exception in contacting Congress about the rapacious fish eating their way through Lake Erie.

The only valid story here: The Republicans on Capitol Hill will not seat anybody to the consumers' job unless the consumer protection bureau is gutted. So Cordray will remain a hostage to the roadblock. DeWine is aware of that and will not do anything to discourage his GOP brethren. Maybe somebody will name a carp after him for his service.

.

The GOP's midsummer night's dreams

All the world's a stage

And all the men and women merely players...

--- Shakespeare

Of all of the charades being played in politics today, the leading entry must be the right-wing Republican choral group on Capitol Hill that is demanding a vote on a balanced budget

constitutional amendment before any agreement with President Obama on a plan to avoid default. Guys like Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell may be foolish, but they aren't stupid on their better days. You do have to wonder, however, how they intend to continue tilting windmills right up until the last seconds before the nation defaults from Wall Street to Beijing.

To remind you of the formidable task of adding an amendment to the Constitution:

It requires a two-thirds vote to pass in both houses, which would make it DOA in the Senate.

It requires the approval of three-fourths of the state legislatures.

The bad news for most of the Boehner-McConnell Republicans is that they wouldn't be around long enough to see it happen. Nor, for that matter the Ol' USA as we have come to love it. No matter. All 47 Republican senators are supporting this long day's journey into night - and many nights afterward.

So what's the point of this political theater of the absurd? There isn't any point aside from politics while the nation is held hostage.

**********

While we're on the subject of charades, I loved Gov. Kasich's official reason for not attending the forthcoming Ohio Republican Party's royal outing of the year in Cleveland - the annual dinner - coming on Friday. He has, it says here, a "scheduling conflict" in southwestern Ohio, his aides explained with a straight face. It's the most hackneyed explanation for a political no-show that the pol didn't want to attend anyway. Even in the day of Jim Rhodes, he was always out of town during civil rights programs in Columbus. He even showed up at a place where he wasn't expected.

Kasich's snub of his party, immediately set off hisses among Republicans that it again demonstrates the icy feeling between the governor and State Chairman Kevin DeWine dating back to the November campaigns. This could get interesting in a matchup of egos over who is really running the state party - or running away from it.

By the way, Kasich's sidekick, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, will be skipping the dinner, too. Another scheduling conflict. The state and county Republicans continue to look south for their after-dinner speakers. This year's state dinner will feature Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. It will be his second coming to Ohio for a free dinner. He's already appeared in the lineup of southerners who have become regulars on the dais of the Summit County GOP dinners.

**********

The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday that Richard Cordray, former Ohio attorney general, will be nominated by President Obama to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau scheduled to open this week. But wait. The congressional Republicans have already caused Elizabeth Warren , a Harvard law professor, to withdraw from consideration for the j0b even though the bureau was her idea in the first place. Republicans stopped short of calling for a Constitutional Amendment to abolish the bureau to satisfy objections from America's financiers on Wall Street.

Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown expects Cordray, among the Democratic Party's brightest stars, to be confirmed. Cordray was defeated by Mike DeWine in last Noember's Republican near sweep in Ohio as the economy played the major role.

P.S.: a GOP Constitutional Amendment against the consumer affairs bureau may still be in play.

Political stuff that won't cure a headache

ELECTION LEFTOVERS (Best if accompanied by aspirin ):

For all of the raging political attacks on the bailouts of auto companies, including critics like auto dealer Tom Ganley, did you happen to see that General Motors has paid back the Federal government in full, plus interest? Sales of GM and other companies have all risen, which analysts attribute to a rise in consumer confidence. They also note that without the

$50 billion bailout, which saved thousands of workers' jobs up and down the line, GM would have been liquidated. So may we now say, in the rhetoric of the times, that GM got its company back?

There's some fresh conjecture that when the Republican head hunters start carving up new congressional districts in Ohio to accommodate the state's impending loss of two seats, they will match up two Democrats in Northern Ohio - Reps. Betty Sutton and Dennis Kucinich - to kick out one of them. There's a precedent: to eliminate Rep. Tom Sawyer, the ex-Akron-based congressman, Republicans so butchered the county that it was divided among three congressmen. It later cost Sawyer his job, but the GOP and Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff netted nothing from it because Sawyer's district was pieced out to two Democrats and one Republican. Inasmuch as there isn't a Democratic congressman left south of Akron, the options this time are limited as to who will be sent into retirement.

Speaking of Arshinkoff, he told the Beacon Journal that he is now so happy with the election results that "I can't see straight." Careful when you get behind the wheel to head to your favorite restaurant, Alex. There are sure to be other cars on the road. Wouldn't it be safer if you hired a chauffeur and expensed it to party headquarters.?

More talk now that outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland will appoint Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray, one of the brightest Democratic officeholders defeated Tuesday, to the Ohio Supreme court vacancy. Good move, if it happens.

It's no small irony that six of eight Democratic representatives who opposed the extension of unemployment benefits and were on Tuesday's ballots are out of work, having been dispatched by the voters. Also, Blue Dog Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat who gave the White House a headache. also was defeated. Shouldn't that say something about sticking to your beliefs instead of appeasing the other side? Are you listening, President Obama?

Richard Cordray: No debate on the better candidate

MOMENTS AFTER Atty. Gen . Richard Cordray's speech to the Akron Press Club on Thursday, several people remarked that they fully understood why his rival, Mike DeWine, has turned down all invitations to debate him. It would have been a concession to human sacrifice for the former Republican senator. Not a pretty picture.

The contrast of Cordray's remarkably effective unassuming style, unfettered by a single note nor the usual cliches of partisanship, and DeWine's deadening talk at the same rostrum a week ago, was stunning. You couldn't attribute it to the contrast in the number of luncheon guests. (The incumbent drew nearly 150; DeWine, 31 (with no help from the local Republican Party) . While DeWine insisted that he could "do better" in the office, a political chestnut that is meaningless. Cordray articulated the role of his office with unembellished clarity (in the heat of a political campaign!) and dealt with each of DeWine's accusations without hyperbole nor a hint of common political arrogance.

For straight talk, modesty and logic, I haven't heard a virtuoso performance like this one in years. There are others around the state who have been just as impressed with his work. He's won a slew of endorsements from various organizations, law enforcement and firefighters groups, and several major newspapers (none for DeWine).

All of this leads me to say that it would be a terrible loss for Ohio if Cordray lost to the other fellow because of an economic environment over which he had no control. At 51, he has revealed an intelligence, honesty and grasp of the state's challenges that rarely emerges in the gang wars that we call political campaigns.

Did I say intelligence? How about this: Cordray once won 5 consecutive rounds on Jeopardy, the popular TV quiz show, back when you were limited to that number.

"I was term-limited," he told me with a smile. Let's hope that doesn't apply to his promising long-term political career. At the Press Club rostrum, it was no contest at all.

DeWine: Bland speech, tiny audience: Recipe for disaster

WELL, IT has to be called a train wreck for the candidate and for his host. I refer to Mike DeWine's solo (in nearly more ways than one!) appearance at the Akron Press Club luncheon Tuesday. DeWine, as you may know, is the former Republican senator who is trying to unseat Ohio Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray in November. Speaking almost inaudibly, head down, into his prepared text, DeWine wanted to leave us with the the notion that as attorney general, he would provide "leadership" and would "do better." At least, that's what I think he said. He also opined that the Tea Party had brought into the system "a lot of people passionate about politics." Right.

He reminded the sparse audience (fewer than 35!) which included a few Cordray aides, (one of whom filmed what there was of the speech) and DeWine's wife Fran, that being an unyielding defender of the law and the Constitution, he would file suit against ObamaCare because he considers it unconstitutional. He also attacked Cordray for a sloth-like work of BCI, the state crime lab - delays that have since been dismissed by such independent sources as the Plain Dealer's PolitiFact/Ohio.

DeWine had turned down a Press Club invitation to debate. If he had been the futurist that he claims to be, he would have also rejected the later Press Club offer to let him speak alone. It was an embarrassingly inertial moment for some of the folks. and it could be felt hovering in the dead air. (Cordray, accepted the Press Club's debate invitation, and had to settle for his own solo appearance on Oct. 7.)

He did score a first, however. The skimpy crowd was the smallest audience for a statewide candidate since the Club started sponsoring debates at least a decade ago. Even his former part-time employe, Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff didn't show up for his ex-paymaster. Nor was there a table reserved for Republicans, which was the chairman's call in the past. Tsk. Tsk.

Ok, the event wasn't a total loss. Dewine passed out his wife' s recipe booklet - "Fran DeWine's Family Favorites" - before heading to the lecturn. Besides recipes, that booklet prominently showed his wide-ranging belief in God, Mother and Country. The back of the booklet featured a photo of Mike and his wife, an American flag and what might be mistaken for a religious leaded window. Actually it depicted blind justice.

It couldn't have been more unsettling for the candidate, what with the rain outside and chill in the room.

FOOTNOTE: It was a troubling day of setbacks for the DeWine campaign. The Ohio Tea Party PAC had just announced its endorsement of one of its own, AG candidate Robert Owens of the Constitution Party; the Dayton Daily News, the newspaper in DeWine's Southern Ohio neighborhood, endorsed Cordray, saying the case for him was "overwhelming"' and the Toledo Blade hardly mentioned DeWine in editorially supporting Democrat Cordray for his "honesty and dedication."

DeWine, Ganley: Candidates on cruise control

IT'S NOW official that there will be NO debates at the Akron Press Club involving two Republican candidates who appear to have put their campaigns on cruise control. Both Tom Ganley, the GOP challenger to U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, nor Mike DeWine, who is trying to unseat Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray, have unequivocally turned down invitations to debate their Democratic opponents.

As one who moderated many of the previous Press Club debates before stepping aside a couple of years ago, I'm not inclined to salute this wary twosome for their political wisdom and courage. For better or worse, debates come with the territory, particularly for these guys whose yearnings tell them they ought to be in political office for awhile until something better comes along.

Item: Ganley, the mega-auto dealer who is relying heavily on TV ads, did make a solo appearance at the Press Club last fall when he was running for the U.S. Senate. But he has flinched at the thought of facing an incumbent now that he is running for Congress. (He didn't even show up for Alex Arshinkoff's big finance dinner.) DeWine finally agreed to speak alone on Sept. 28 without the bother of an opponent staring him in the face. So Cordray has had to settle for an appearance sans DeWine on Oct. 7.

There has been a long tradition at the Press Club that when both candidates are invited, there would be an empty chair for either candidate who didn't show up. The Cleveland City Club has played by those rules, too. In this instance, however, Press Club board members tell me that club president Bruce Winges, the Beacon Journal editor, is skittish about having Sutton speak alone without offering Ganley another date for his solo even though he's already been there in a campaign mode. Inexplicably, Winges, in a conciliatory mood, is said to feel that unless he gave Ganley a similar opportunity now it would look too "political" by the Press Club. Good grief! Will there next be an agreement to have Ganley address the club's audience from his patio?

Time out for a little history here: Over the years Democrats have always agreed to debate their opponents. The late Rep John Seiberling never turned down a challenge from his opponent. When the Press Club series began a decade ago, neither Mayor Don Plusquellic nor former County Executive Jim McCarthy failed to show up at the Martin Center on time to face their rivals.

The rules of combat have now changed and the Press Club's front office is riding the fence when there shouldn't be the slightest question about what it should do. Why now?

Ganley, DeWine in a political game of dodge-em

WITH TWO MONTHS to go to the November Election, Republican Tom Ganley seems to have decided to become the stealth candidate against 13th District U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton. His team has flatly refused an invitation to debate Sutton at a luncheon co-sponsored by the Bliss Institute and the Akron Press Club. The refusal comes from a man who would have you believe that as a bold rookie congressman lacking seniority he would still be forceful enough to make significant changes in how they do business on Capitol Hill.

So if you want to know what he thinks and are bored by the TV political commercials, you can get a copy of the right-wing Human Events in which he was recently quoted as seeking to "reopen" all entitlements. There was a bit of a backlash at his automobile agency in Akron yesterday as a group of senior citizens picketed in the fear that he would try to slash Social Security and Medicare, non-discretionary programs .

Ganley is the second Republican to dodge a Press Club debate with the same sponsors. Earlier, former Sen. Mike DeWine rejected a shared dais with Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray. I'm told that he would agree to a solo performance , but not a debate. How will we ever survive all of this forthright action from Mssrs. Ganley and DeWine?

New rule: If you don't have to debate, don't.

IT'S BEGINNING TO appear that Ohio's Republican candidates are so confident of victory in November that they are reserving their presence for the friendliest of partisan audiences. A case in point is Mike DeWine's decision to reject an invitation from the Bliss Institute and Akron Press Club to debate Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray. You'd think that a former U.S. senator, lawyer and seasoned GOP soldier would not hesitate to cast himself before a mixed audience, no matter his opponent. But then, who is more confident than DeWine of returning to office under the radar from his imposed retirement after his loss to Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2006?

On another GOP front, Tom Ganley's 13th District congressional campaign manager now says no decision will be made on a similar Press Club/Bliss invitation until at least the end of August. By then, of course, program dates should be filled for the hosts. As one who spent years as the Press Club's program chairman before stepping aside two years ago in merciful relief, I always interpreted these long delays as a "Thanks, but no thanks."

And speaking of confidence these days, there's Ganley's campaign manager, Jeff Longstreth. "We're just positioning ourselves to win this." he cheerily told me on the phone . "And right now we're in such good position today that I wish the election was tomorrow."(That projection against Ganley's campaign opponent, Rep. Betty Sutton, does seem a trifle euphoric at this moment, even with Ganley's millions that will be funneled into TV ads. But one of the essentials of a campaign manager is to be euphoric.)

One long-held theory is that the only candidates who accept invitations to debate are those who are running second or worse. The late congressman from Akron, John Seiberling, dashed that theory by accepting all comers even though he was heading for another landslide victory. But Seiberling stubbornly believed in the public's right to know about the candidates who sought their votes, no matter the probable outcome on Election Day. Obviously times have changed for some of today's candidates. And not for the better when a flood of television hyper-ads are created to make a stronger case for you.

DeWine: A candidate who enjoys his non-debate privacy

MIKE DEWINE - you remember him, former U.S. senator who was trounced by Sen. Sherrod Brown?- apparently has a new theory about confronting his opponent in this year's race for Ohio attorney general: You can run, and you can hide.

That was the gist of a report in the Plain Dealer that DeWine has turned down invitations to debate Ohio AG Richard Cordray at the Cleveland City Club, the Bliss Institute and its program partner, the Akron Press Club.

The DeWine team would consider these comments unfair. After all, they maintain , he agreed to "debate" Cordray at Lakeland Community College, a rather controlled Q&A with no audience and a couple of news people who ask each a set of questions without the candidates responding to each other. Laura Kessler, the managing editor of the Lake Country News-Herald summed up the sterile event this way: "It isn't a debate of any kind. We invited all of the candidates and we ask them all the same questions. It's not a debate. They don't talk to one another unless they happen to turn and talk to each other." In other words, she says, "There's very little interaction." ("In case you are are still interested in this phantom exposure of DeWine's views, that exercise will be televised later on the college's public access channel.

His rejection of debates runs counter to the way it usually works when a challenger demands to debate the incumbent. But I'm told this is the new world of politics.

Other than his lofty promise to Ohio's voters shortly after his nomination that his first noble act as AG will be to repeal the new health care law, we haven't heard much of interest from him. Just as well, DeWine is not the liveliest ostrich in the sands. (I remember a time when I tried to interview him for a half-hour TV program and ran out of questions in the first 10 minutes as he peppered me with responses that were stoically quite brief. He wasn't the deer in the headlights but rather the one under the bus.")

And he wants to be Ohio's vibrant next attorney general. Anything good on TV tonight?

DeWine heads for the anti-health care trough

DID YOU HAPPEN TO catch Mike DeWine's screed against the new health care law in the Sunday Plain Dealer? It was an op-ed counterpoint piece in his bid to unseat Democratic Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray. In brief, DeWine lauded those attorneys general in other states who are conspiring in lawsuits to repeal the law. And DeWine says that when (if?) he is elected he would heartily do the same.

Poor Mike. If he is half the lawyer that he says he is, he would heed the constitutional lawyers who say that any action to repeal the law is a fool's errand. As a politician who could blend easily into the wallpaper of any old house, he and the A-G's that he's longing to join are giving grandstanding a bad name. If his threat ever came to pass he would add Ohio to the Old Confederacy Republicans at a critical time when the state needs to root itself in an imaginatively progressive future. (There's also some rumblings from the earlier GOP knee-jerkers that the costs of such legal action couldn't come at a worse time for their states' enfeebled budgets.)

DeWine's been out of the show for awhile since his days as a U.S. senator, so I wonder if he's given much thought to the risks of killing health care reform. For one thing, the new law will enable young people to remain on their parents' health insurance until age 26.

The GOP may find them a little more difficult to add to the mix when it again, and again, and again swears that it wants to broaden the party's base.

I can only wonder who is giving him such antebellum advice on his campaign. Or maybe he just enjoys hanging out with his own crowd in hopes of raising campaign cash from the insurance companies. Surely there is something else more sensible that he can find to offer the state in which he wants to be its top legal brain. Jeez!