PD: For wealthy Ohio GOP donors, it's a case of regifting

In a remarkable example of investigative journalism,  Plain Dealer Washington Bureau Chief Stephen Koff has exposed the cutting-edge hypocrisy of Ohio's Republican businessmen who took the money and ran.

A must-read piece in the Sunday paper told of wealthy donors who accepted stimulus money from Uncle Sam and then forwarded some of it to Mitt Romney's campaign cash box while Mitt went around the country damning the program.

Among the ungrateful players were billionaire Les Wexner, chairman of Limited Brands, and retail designer Yaromir Steiner, the top guys associated with the Easton Town Center in northeast Columbus - a site that Koff described as a "paradise of a shopping Center" that reels in 21 million shoppers and others annually.

Wexner, the Easton developer, and Steiner sought and received a $911,356 grant from the Feds  to "install new, energy efficient lighting in its parking garages."  A dedicated supporter of Republicans,  Wexner handed over $250,000 to Restore our Future, a super PAC opposed to "reckless spending".     Steiner, Koff reported, also has given money to Josh Mandel, another Republican who noisily opposes the stimulus.

Among the others caught up in the same spirit of giving was the Timken Co., of Canton, which received $1.175 million in stimulus money.   The Timken family has long been a major Republican sugar daddy and along with Steiner this year has included Mandel in its political benevolence.

There are other businessmen and companies mentioned who expect a gift from their giving, hypocrisy be damned.  This much we can assure you: Some of them didn't build their enterprises  themselves.

Sherrod Brown: It was even worse than you figured

THE PLAIN DEALER has set up its own version of a truth squad by subjecting the words of politicians to what will henceforth be known as a Truth-O-Meter. That's a rather ambitious undertaking inasmuch as pols aren't necessarily the silent types and in today's heated political culture are likely to say things today that they will deny tomorrow.

The first subject to undergo testing in absentia was Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who told Rachel Maddow that 22 million jobs were created under President Clinton, but only 3 million during President Bush's two terms. "The quantitative claims seemed worth checking,"wrote Stephen Koff, the PD's Washington bureau chief.

In checking out those lopsided figures, Koff wrote that Brown erred because Clinton's record was even better, and Bush's much worse:

"In doing so we found a surprise: Brown was wrong - but not in a way he's likely to mind. No fan of President George W. Bush , Brown grossly understated the poor job growth that occurred on Bush's watch.

"The comparison should have been this: Job growth through Clinton' s two terms was 22.7 million. Through Bush's two terms, it was 1.1 million."

Does anybody think that the Democratic senator won't be more than happy to revise his figures the next time the issue comes up?