More leftovers - and those diehard Republicans

 

How well this banner describes the Republicans' preoccupation with women's personal choices instead of unemployment and other economic matters.  These women were engaged in a protest in Columbus where a legislative committee was considering a bill to ban public money from  going to Planned Parenthood.  Being  Republicans-tilted, the committee ignored  the protest and voted 11-9 along strict party lines to send the bill to the House floor for further consideration and a vote.  News of President Obama's election that gave him the edge on social issues had apparently not found its way into the GOP cave in Columbus.

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Speaking of issues, how did Paul Ryan arrive at the conclusion that during the campaign his side was talking about the "popular" issues (i.e., the ones supported by the voters, I guess)?  Ryan also scoffs that Obama won a mandate from the voters because the House of Representatives remains in Republican hands.   That overlooks the math that told us a majority of America's voters supported Democratic congressional candidates, but gerrymandering  remained the decisive factor in electing Republicans. Case in point:  Although the president carried Ohio, Republicans won 12 of the 16 congressional districts.  Go figure.

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Let's stop talking about "mandates" - fuzzy references to the width of a winner's margin to carry out his or her plans.   A wise old politician once told me he didn't have much interest in mandates.  Rather, he said, a true leader looks at a situation and simply says to himself, "I gotta do what I gotta do".  Makes sense to me.

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In case you felt overwhelmed by all of those TV political ads, there was a reason:  The New York Times reported 1.4 million ads were aired, estimated cost: $952 million.

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Biggest  losers in Ohio were Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted and Atty Gen. Mike DeWine, both of whom traveled down dark paths by mistakenly ignoring  the potency of  those voters who had been  profiled  to lose .   DeWine  worked with Husted in trying to shrink the vote.  And U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus assailed Husted's late-campaign directive   to further alter the vote , declaring  it was "surreptitious" and a"flagrant violation of a state election law." Clear enough?

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My column on Jon Husted's lashing by a federal judge and the GOP attacks on Planned Parenthood has been posted on Plunderbund
  

Kasich Lehman TV ads: "I just worked there. "

THE PLAIN DEALER reports today that John Kasich, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, has opened his TV campaign in Columbus and Cincinnati with an attempt to set the record straight about his non-intrusive work experience with his past employer. As you might suspect, he's quite sensitive about criticism that he was a well-paid human satellite when Lehman Brothers tanked in 2009. He continues to insist that "Don't blame me, I just worked there" from his isolated Columbus office. But his 2008 tax returns strongly suggest his usefulness as a Lehman manager who did more than to turn out the lights at the end of the day. The firm paid him $182,692 salary plus a bonus of $432,200 that year. (In addition he was a Fox News commentator that paid him $265,000).

Since Kasich is not a professional athlete, his income from Wall Street in the year that his soaring company flamed out seems a little extravagant for a self-described bench warmer. Still, he goes on likening himself to a detached hypothetical Zanesville car dealer who is blamed for General Motors' woes.

Nearly a decade has passed since the hypothetical Kasich left congress. Considering the voters' shrunken memories these days, it would be a good guess that he is not well known by many folks outside of the right wing spin bin. So you can be assured that some of his assistance will be coming from his friends at Fox as well as his Tea Party allies.

The Plain Dealer quotes him as saying that he denies dodging the mainstream media, except when he is asked a dumb question. That category, I would guess, includes asking him when he will release his full 2009 tax return. Or an honest assessment of what went wrong at Lehman Brothers. Or why he was paid so much to do so little. Or how the state can survive a 40 pct. loss in revenue if his idea to end the income tax is ever enacted (a disaster waiting to happen?).

All dumb questions, I know. But where do you start?