Miss Tia's f-words don't refer to forte

HERE IS A well- deserved pat on the back to Bob Dyer, the Beacon Journal columnist, whose journalistic curiosity led him to the discovery of Miss Tia, who turns out to be   Miss Akron Garbage  Mouth of 2009.    And who, you might ask, is Miss Tia?  And why does she deserve her 15 minutes of attention  in a family newspaper? Read on.

Dyer ID's her as a "co-chair" of Warner Mendenhall's Change Akron Now recall website.  Inasmuch as I don't pay much attention to mysterious names because there have been some nasty ones sent to me in wrath before I put a filter on my blog,  I would have never thought to look into Miss Tia's internet profile.  Well, Dyer did and, among other tidbits, counted 32 f-words "in all of its glorious permutations" over the past three weeks. ( Note:  "f" doesn't translate into musical "forte".)

Unfortunately, the Guinness Book of Records doesn't track such   unladylike effusions, so we can only guess where Miss Tia would rank on her own developed scale of zero to one.  However, in the matter of neologisms, I think her reliance on "F---tard" as a noun would earn her a few more points in any alley fight.

There are other things that Dyer reports about Miss Tia, but he did all of the work so you should get it directly from today's column.  God knows. the BJ can use the readers.

If there is a postscript to this madness, is this  an example of where we want to go with Mendenhall's preposterous rag-tag scheme to kick out Mayor Don Plusquellic?    Scary, right?  

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. 

THE RECALL: Plain Dealer slaps Mendenhall

MYTH-SLINGER Warner Mendenhall's decision to take his caravan to Cleveland in search of a more hospitable editorial voice (than the Beacon Journal's )  simply gave his many opponents something  more to cheer about.  Dissecting his hollow case against Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic that has prompted a recall election on June 23, the Plain Dealer on Sunday editorially accused Mendenhall's effort as "sour grapes" and urged voters to reject the whole notion. It noted:

"In Plusquellic's long record, there is not the least whiff of crime or scandal.  A recall is, therefore, out of place." 

Obviously, Mendenhall's attempt to argue his wacky position in a visit to the paper's editorial offices failed to impress anybody. The paper accused him of leading a "reckless and costly" campaign.  It twitted him for arguing that his attacks on Plusquellic were not "personal"  (one of Mendenhall's more bizarre "defenses" of his actions, I'd say)  and concluded:

"Mendenhall, a lawyer who has filed many lawsuits against Akron, swears it has nothing to do with  any desires of own to be the mayor. (And the revelation of $169,000 in IRS tax liens probably has slammed the door on the notion, anyway.) 

"He cannot credibly deny, though, that this battle has become personal - or that it is a huge distraction to a city caught, like many, in the throes of a worldwide recession."

I doubt that the PD's  editorial reprimand will lodge in Mendenhall's obsessed idea of democracy in action, but at this point he is no more than a willful hell-raiser riding a limping horse to the finish line.  More importantly now to the health of the city's future is how many of his  opponents' words will find their way into the voters' collective conscience. 

Plusquellic's forces girding for battle

THE 15 SUBURBAN mayors who joined  to oppose the recall of Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic  were another indication of the riptide that's emerging against Walter Mendenhall's ill-conceived notion of democracy in action. Letters supporting Plusquellic by prominent Akron area achievers are appearing regularly in the Beacon Journal and it's looking more like a non-partisan effort to wave off the recall crowd.  I have a hunch this is only the beginning of the counter-attack that will grow in visibility as the recall election day approaches on June 23. (The glaring exception to the mayoral group was Republican Don Robart of Cuyahoga Falls who said he didn't see any "upside" in the united action.  No surprise there.  Unlike some other Republican mayors, Robart has created his own universe in the Falls, thanks to the ineptitude of Falls Democrats to defeat him at the polls.) 

Plusquellic's  forces have already shown that they  will be a lot more aggressive than the lackadaisical 2007 Democratic primary  campaign against former city councilman Joe Finley that produced a low turnout.  It  gave his opponent an opportunity to show up better than anticipated and an opportunity for City Hall to reflect on the  political adage that nothing should ever be taken for granted. 

As for those 15 mayors,  I'm sure it occurred to some of them that this nonsensical recall effort could encourage similar costly and disruptive initiatives against any of them down the road for the dumbest reasons. As for Mendenhall. I was amused by his comment to the BJ that he was pleased a date had been set for the election.   To quote him as he envisioned the 6-term mayor being led to the gallows:  "After 22 years the city has  a chance of getting a new mayor." 

Wrong!   The voters have that chance every four years on election day.