Political civility: Hardly concern for Kasich's guy

No one has taken on a more challenging mission in Columbus than State Sen. Frank LaRose of Copley, a Republican,  and former State  Rep. Ted Celeste of Cleveland, a Democrat . In their laudable bi-partisan effort to restore a hint of sanity to politics, they are pursuing a goal of creating more civility  in political discourse.  Good luck on that.

They have scheduled an off-the-record meeting on Sept. 17 at the Statehouse of dozens of lawmakers to work out a plan to advance  their goal. My guess is that it would be easier to squeeze the juice back into a lemon.

Until then, they could have a sitdown with Gov. Kasich's top spokespserson, Rob Nichols, who resorted to a sneaky form  of Red-baiting in his attack on Democratic Rep. Debbie Phillips, of Albany.

Phillips had written to Kasich and Scott Nally, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, demanding  an official explanation of why  the director of the EPA's surface-water division was forced to resign.

George Elmaraghy had informed his staff that his resignation was prompted  by  "considerable pressure" on the Ksaich administration from coal companies.  The coal industry has been among  Kasich's biggest political donors.  The Columbus Dispatch reported that King Coal has given $1 million to Kasich and some friendly lawmakers.

But we digress:  Asked about Phillips , Nichols snapped in an email to a reporter:

"You'd be hard-pressed to find a job creator that she hasn't opposed, vilified or protested at some point.  If she had her way, we'd all be living on a collective farm cooking  organic quinoa over a dung fire.  So, I think we'll take her views in context."

By the way:  Not being a quinoa kind of guy, I had to look it up.  Glad to know the people around the governor are so clued in these days. .

Will muni income taxes become a Kasich enterprise?

I DON'T WANT to sound like I'm picking on Rob Nichols, Gov. Kasich's media puppy, but as long as he insists on staring into the dark wall of Plato's cave, I can't avoid being a nag - or worse. It seems that not a day goes by the Nichols doesn't sound like a damn fool in defending his boss's latest assault on local government.

So when Kasich & Co. shows interest in taking over local income tax collections as progressive "belt-tightening" measures for the officials who run city halls - Democrats and Republicans - across the state, it is left to Nichols bring out his shovel to explain the latest bizarro from the executive palace in Columbus. First, Nichols describes mayors who huffily object to the idea "as advocates of the status quo." As in, the mayors love their fat cities the way they have been since America liberated itself from the British.

From his mentally embedded script, he then tells the Plain Dealer: "All of this has to be done if we are going to make Ohio more economically competitive. We can't afford the government that we have, and I think very few Ohioans feel that the government is so efficient that there isn't some room for things to become leaner."

Instead of portraying local officials as easy streeters with public money, a few belt - tightening facts (which are obviously of little value to Ohio's chief executive):

In 2013 , local government will lose the estate tax , 80 pct. of which goes to local government.

And the Republican legislature has already cut a third of local government funds.

Rechanneling local income tax revenue into the state's hands for distribution would be an administrative nightmare without anything more than second-rate guesswork to tell us how it would attract a company from Germany or China to invest in Ohio.

We await Ohio's corporate controlled editorial pages to refer to the scheme for what it is: another Kasich fiasco-in-the-political-making. He's already proved to be a master of such handiwork with Senate bill 5. If you don't think so, it's time to come home from the beach.

Whirlpool: Sorry Indiana, we're off to Mexico

WHILE ARIZONA IS engaged in a zealous full-court press against illegal Mexican immigrants, Whirlpool will close its refrigerator plant in Evansville, Ind., tomorrow (Friday) and move the operation to a new plant in....Mexico. Meantime, the move will cost 1,100 Whirpool workers their jobs in Evansville, where the plant had been operating since 1956. The company said it was " uncompetitive from a cost standpoint." Critics of the move have pointed out that Whirlpool had received $19.3 million in stimulus money to strengthen its, eh... resources. A thought: If enough U.S. companies follow Whirlpool to Mexico, will we have found a solution to the immigration problem, if not the U.S. unemployment problem?

Bonehead-of-the week is Rob Nichols, GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich's press secretary, Rob Nichols, who said this of Gov. Strickland in a press release:

"Not until Ted Strickland feared needing their votes did he give urban Ohioans a second thought. Having grown up in a chicken shack on Duck Run, he has all but ignored our cities economies and their workers."

Yes, the governor did spend some of his childhood living in a chicken coop because of family poverty. But even though Nichols' perspective is the view from Wall Street via Kasich, he's still worth a Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award. Or should it have gone to Kasich, himself, who said he was "not part of the chorus" in northern Ohio who wants James to stay in Cleveland.

A WEEK TO GO and LeBron is keeping the sports media and fandom on edge about his plans. Heavens. (I think he should remain here.) The tension seems to be increasing as free agency day nears. What will the hitherto mentioned sports media do for news in July other than another Browns training camp filled with optimism? Back to LeBron: It's like the countdown moments when the Russian ships were heading to Cuba against President Kennedy's blockade. Will the story end happily? Or will the Cavaliers be doomed?

President Obama appears to have gained a few points (some grudgingly) as a man of action in firing Gen. McCrystal, following in the footsteps of Lincoln (Gen. McClellan) and Truman (Gen. MacArthur). The same can't be said about Congress, where Republicans and half-hearted Democrats have yet to find a substantive issue that they can't butcher to death. And these guys and gals are paid well to be dysfunctional, including plenty of cash from lobbyists.