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.

Independence Day: Religion, parades, politics

Independence Day weekend notes:

We read that the high priestess of the Tea Party was fully occupied with her business at hand: Speaking from her space station high above the usual political crowd, Michele Bachmann soared into the pages of the Biblical Chronicles as she urged the worshippers at two evangelical churches in Iowa to get right with the Lord . According to the Des Moines Register, Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate, drove home her message with her scriptural route to salvation for America. She assured her audience that "if we do as Chronicles tells us, if we humble ourselves, and pray and confess our sins, and turn away from our wicked ways, and ask an almighty God to come and protect us and fight the battle for us, we know from his word, his promise is sure. He will come. He will heal our land. And we will have a new day."

Tall order, even for God.

Meanwhile, we also have read that Michele's husband, Marcus, who refers to himself as her "strategist', operates a Christian counseling service in Minnesota largely directed at making homesexuals "ungay". Indeed, he believes that gays are ...well here's exactly how he has put it:

'We have to understand: barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined.''

The quadrennial tent revivals in Iowa, otherwise known as the Republican caucuses, can't come soon enough.

**********

We spent some time as spectators Monday at the annual Fairlawn Fourth of July Parade. It is an annual Tootsie Roll shower and horn honking blast, the latter exercise as a means to liven up the pageant. I'm a sucker for Sousa marches but this parade has only one marching band in a mile of firetrucks, classic cars, politicians, martial arts and landscaping promoters. Well, the kids got pocketfuls of candy and loved it.

One surprising entry was Michael Williams, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic's chief adversary in the Democratic primary. It isn't every day that a candidate in one city tries win favor in one of the suburbs. Meantime, Plusquellic was at Lock 3's big Fourth of July rib festival to introduce the Akron Symphony Orchestra performance and later the fireworks. It's where I should have been to hear the missing Sousa marches.

* ********

Less surprising in the series of weekend events was the unanimous nomination of Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff to the Board of Elections - a seat he had held before he was unceremoniously thrown out by former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. When he is reappointed by Jon Husted, Brunner's Republican successor - not IF - he will succeed Brian Daley, Arshinkoff's early choice to keep the seat warm until the boss was able to return with the changing of the guard in Columbus. But as the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. After his nomination on Saturday, Arshinkoff was full of humility to return to doing "the people's work," as he described it, and spent the rest of the time slamming board member Wayne Jones, the county Democratic chairman. Here we go!

Drumroll, please: Arshinkoff is back

ALEX ARSHINKOFF'S return to the Summit County Board of Elections is all but official! Only a couple of routine technicalities separate him from the seat from which he was ousted in February 2008 for causing so much mayhem on the board, as is his nature. All that remains now to make the Summit County GOP chairman's return to the board seat official is a recommendation by his party (a no-brainer) and the appointment by Secretary of State Jon Husted, the recipient of a $150,000 contribution from Alex's county treasury during the last campaign. Obviously Arshinkoff had already carefully planned his triumphal return long before today.

Still, why were we served so much uncharacteristic humility by Arshinkoff in today's Beacon Journal report? If he were asked to serve, he said, he certainly wouldn't turn it down. If?

Of Husted's role in appointing him to the $17,000 a year job, Arshinkoff said: "It's up to him. He's secretary of state. We haven't had any deep discussions." (English translation: Nature will take its timely course, much like the current roaring over Niagara Falls. No deep discussion necessary.)

And more coyness from Husted spokesman Matt McClellan, who told the BJ that it was much too early to predict the outcome. "We'll review whatever nominee the party makes." (English translation: We know who the nominee will be. Why is it even necessary to ask?)

Wayne Jones, the county Democratic chairman who is on the board, was circumspect about the imminent arrival of his political a adversary, telling me: "I hope he's not confrontational."

And good luck on that.

For several months, Arshinkoff has been recovering from serious foot surgery caused by diabetes and has been relegated to running his party by telephone from his home in Hudson. You can be sure that he didn't fill in all of his time watching VCR's of The Sopranos.

In praise of concealed weapons, fa-la-la-la-la.

DURING THE HOLIDAY season, we should all be singing the praise of State Rep. Danny R. Bubp (sic), a Republican pol from West Union , Oh. (It's not that far from Kentucky and just a short mule ride to Blue Creek , if that helps). Offering his voice to humanitarian needs, Bubp believes Buckeye citizens should be able to carry concealed weapons into saloons and restaurants that, you know, serve hard likker, even without the careful watch of Sheriff Andy Griffith or Barney Fife. He's busily seeking support from his colleagues to vote it into law. Shouldn't we all feel better that a considerate state lawmaker has the state's greatest needs in mind in these days of economic stress?

Speaking of holiday compassion, Summit Country Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff was quoted in the Beacon Journal's story about his Democratic counterpart Wayne Jones' struggle with Parkinson's disease. "I wish him a speedy recovery," Arshinkoff said. "That's a terrible disease. I wouldn't wish it on a dog." That wasn't quite as ill-mannered as some of the things that Alex has snorted about Jones in the past, but should he have also victimized man's best friend in a matter in which friendship between the chairmen never existed?

The latest litmus test for congressmen descending on Capitol Hill in January is said to be, Is he or she Tea Party compatible? Is that like high-definition compatibility for your TV set? Or a toxic conflict between prescriptions that could kill you, as the ads constantly remind us about

Viagra and such. Could we wire up a senator for a 30-day trial period to determine a compatibility comfort zone with a full money-back guarantee if the subject fails to satisfy Tea Party standards?

A comedic recall scheme expands to oust Wayne Jones

THERE'S A scene in Seinfeld in which Jerry and George Costanza turn up in the office of a TV network producer to hawk their proposed comedy series.  When he is asked about  the theme of the still-unwritten series (nor will it ever be) , George has a confident response:  "It's a show about nothing!"  Ha, Ha.  

About nothing?  I recall those prophetic words every time the hyperkinetic Mendenhall Mud Machine lowers the bar still further in the recall campaign against Mayor Don Plusquellic. It just happened again with comedic force  with the word from the front that Warner  & Co. now want to remove  Summit County Democratic Chairman Wayne Jones from the Board of Elections and have asked Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to do the heavy lifting.  The charge against Jones:  He's "overly partisan" in the recall competition.  I can't make this up.  

I have to think about this, while Mendenhall obviously hasn't.  Long before there were hi-tech voting machines and other far-out paraphernalia, partisanship  was never a disqualifier to serve on the Board.   Each party is allotted two seats to duke it out.  Even the Board's Deputy Director, Bryan Williams, a Republican still brooding over his loss to Plusquellic in an earlier election,  has said that he has offered Mendenhall "spiritual"  guidance.  (My hunch is that it is a lot more than that.)

Another curious element in all of this:  Brunner is a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in what is shaping up as a tough primary campaign and I'll let you guess how deeply she wants to be involved  in an effort against Plusquellic, the most prominent Democrat in the city. (I thought you'd see it that way.)

No, mark the paper-thin challenge to Jones as still another stunt that, like George and Jerry's ill-fated comedy shows,  is about nothing. 

Summit Board interns get zero pay!

FIVE COLLEGE STUDENTS who have worked as interns at the Summit County Board of Elections are learning early in their young lives that, as Jimmy Carter once put it, life can be unfair.  Having worked part--time at the Board for two to three weeks, their promised paychecks are now being held up by Republican Board chairman Jack Morrison, who doesn't think they should have been hired in the first place.  In other words, the students are being treated as hostages while  Morrison insists on  some kind of unlikely compromise with the two Democrats on the Board.  

Morrison, an Akron lawyer and member of the University of Akron Board  of 

Trustees, is in enough hot water following his indictment on seven misdemeanor ethics charges and has rejected calls for his resignation from  as high up as Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut.   Now this.  How exciting can one's life be?

He had asked Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to resolve the interns issue, but she sent it back to Summit County and called for the Board to take care of its own business.  But it's not likely he'll gain any ground with Wayne Jones, a Board member and chairman of the county Democratic Party who supported the summer hirings.  The blood on the board is darker and murkier than the stuff old men dig up in the Irish bogs.  

Oh, regardless of the political feuding,   it will eventually be resolved, which shouldn't be the point here.  If the kids were promised a paycheck, shouldn't they be paid for their work? It's an old-fashioned idea no matter how modern the world is.  I wonder how far Morrison is willing to go to ignore the Board's obligations.  Or as the legal advisor to the County GOP, is he counseling the interns to learn  the value  of pro bono work?  Jeez.