Kasich nose-diving in public approval

FOR ALL OF THE noise that has slammed across Ohio since Gov. Kasich unveiled his budget, has it escaped you that his poll numbers are dissipating as quickly as educational funds? A survey of Ohioans by Public Policy Polling, a reputable national pollster, has revealed Kasich's public approval rating at 35 pct. vs. disapproval of 54 pct! One reason is that voters are now seeing him as a brutish, rough-hewn politician who would have trouble courteously asking a restaurant server for a coffee refill. He has ignored the numbers of his close election that even with a terrible economy failed to give him a clear majority (49-47). Worse yet, of those who voted for him, he's down to 71 pct. approval. That doesn't translate easily into political capital, no matter how boastfully he plays his cards these days. (As Gauguin once asserted: "I am a great artist, and I know it!")

Another reason his fright mask supporting collective bargaining by public unions. The PPP should give him pause:. he's trying to climb a big mountain against unions, as 63 pct. of Ohioans say they support collective bargaining for public employe unions. Up and down the scale, the figures are against him.

You can find a consensus today that our governor is only in the mix for a couple of years because his first priority is to seek the presidency in 2012. Ex-out of touch Wall Streeters tend to regard themselves as larger than life in arranging their days. Problem is that Gov. Scott Walker is said to be aiming for a presidential candidacy, too. Kasich and Walker are political soul brothers, and I would have to wonder whether there wouldn't be a strange conflict of interest if they found themselves on the same stage in the primaries.

But I wonder about a lot strange things in today's weird political climate.

A letter to update Abe Lincoln

Open Letter to Abraham Lincoln:

Dear Mr. President:

It's been quite awhile since we've heard from you and I thought it might be a good time to bring you up to date on your party (Now old, but hardly grand these days.). Sadly, you would not recognize it, even though local pretenders still hold Lincoln Day dinners in a blatant annual exercise of identity theft. Whatever works for a night out, I guess.

Would it be too much to ask the Lincoln Day hosts what attributes are shared with you today? Yes, I guess it would.

You have been remembered throughout the years - even in a few textbooks in South Carolina and Georgia - as a great leader who kept the Union from dividing. How times have changed! A new generation of Republican governors is now plotting at several levels with plans that not only divide their constituents but divide us as a means of conquering the unions themselves. Rapacious members of your party, from Washington to state capitals, have created such havoc that the deep political wounds to the national interest will linger for many years to come.

I'm sure that you recognize the ninjas among us today with their talk of states rights, nullification and secession that is making the rounds. John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis would have felt quite at home with this gang, right?

But there's more to illustrate that despite your heroic efforts at governance in troubled times, the GOP is giving up its soul daily with scandalous theatrics that have nothing to do with how we live together as the Republic that you saved at your own peril. Yesterday, Rep. Peter King of New York staged a reprehensible McCarthy-like hearing in congress that singled out one group of Americans as the enemies of the people. Peter King, for God's sake, the devout supporter of the IRA across the ocean. The show trial against Muslims was such a pathetic political farce that it should have embarrassed every American while serving to dishonor all of the Tea Party- inspired robots on Capitol Hill.

There was nothing to be gained from it in meeting the challenges of modern terrorism. It was strictly for show, and nothing at all was learned from it. How shameful, don't you think, Mr. President?

You have also missed the clinical madness of several Republican presidential pretenders. Let me update you.

Mike Huckabee, a former preacher mining his audiences along the yellow brick road, has tried to associate President Obama with a Mau Mau childhood. And Crazy Guggenheim (aka Newt Gingrich) ludicrously explained his adulterous married life (on the Christian Broadcasting Network, no less) on forces that were well beyond his control. He said his powerful libido was partly driven by his deep passion for his country. He was standing in front of big American flag when he said it.

And up in Wisconsin, the billionaire-owned governor, Scott Walker, is proudly proclaiming a victory on the backs of public worker unions, fibbing that it was all about budget deficits. From all that I have read about you, Mr. President, I'm convinced you were a sensitive man, quite conscious of the welfare of other human beings. If you were here to see this fellow Walker, you might agree with me that he is a deadpan with motionless eyes who never makes eye contact with anybody else. It's creepy, don't you think?

Finally, since every Scatterbrained Republican on the TV news each night is considered to be presidential (dead) timber, there's a gal up in Minnesota, Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has lowered herself to be the queen of the congressional Tea Party Caucus. It is her right of passage to Fox News and other right-wing asylums(and you think you had it bad!) where she can pursue her certainty that President Obama is the capo di tutti capi of a gangster government.

I should leave you for now, Mr. President. It's too depressing to continue. I want to tell you however, that I will best serve your honorable leadership by staying away from those Lincoln Day Dinners. They have become nothing more than show trials, too. Meantime, you and I can both ask of these troubled troublemakers: Is that all you've got?

Respectfully,

Abe Zaidan , AKA Grumpy Abe

The underlying presidential campaign in Wisconsin

GOV. SCOTT WALKER'S muted motive in the ugly spectacle in Wisconsin was finally confirmed by one of his own people: Republican Scott FitzGerald, the state's senate majority leader. Here it is:

"If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you're going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin."

Oh? So its not really about the maligned budget deficit nor collective bargaining at all. but about Barack Obama's chances in 2012! If they could sell cynicism and subterfuge by the pound in that state (and later in Ohio), Walker could wipe out his deficit overnight.

Ironically, despite the polls that show his popularity and that of other GOP Wisconsin lawmakers taking a dive, Walker cannot compromise. His strength remains in the hands of the Koch brothers, multi-billionaires who are measuring his every move for their own interests in the state. And with Walker's missionary zeal as an evangelical Christian and son of a Baptist minister, he will hold his ground, come heaven or hell.

Zeal? Walker supports the pro-life cause to the extent that he would let a mother die rather than allow her an abortion. I mention that only because it's important to see the melding of social conservatism and unlimited cash in the new American political landscape, courtesy of the U.S.. Supreme Court. These are dangerous times for democracy as we've come to know it.

K-Sick, Walker-loo: Ohio, we have a problem

GOV. KASICH says he will sign a controversial new labor bill without fanfare. My guess is that it will be in his private home in Delaware County. About 2 a.m. With only his immediate political family and the usual sycophants in attendance. After the last newspaper deadline on Saturday night. The atmosphere will be that of a pro football team packing up and slinking out of town in the middle of the night. Kasich says he wants to be respectful of the feelings of the people who will be hurt by the bill. Problem solved.

It's a hit-skip thing. And he's getting good at it. And why not? Eliminating 350,000 public union workers from collective bargaining (really, that translates into about a million folks if you toss in their families) is nothing to crow about if you are planning a long political career for yourself on the public payroll. Up in Wisconsin, where Gov. Walker is trying to pull off the same stunt, the voters have now lowered his approval rating to 40 pct. He and Kasich, bloated with their own right-wing self-indulgence, are engaging in the same alchemy to reduce multi-billion dollar deficits. ( The Badger budget office now projects a surplus in Wisconsin even if nothing is done to the public union workers. )

Some people are even finding a little humor in these dark days, referring to the Wisconsin governor as "Walker-loo". In Ohio, maybe they will begin to refer to the condition in

Columbus as "K-sick".

The angry calls to radio talk shows and letters to newspapers are growing. A friend tells me he has already gotten a recorded phone call against the bill, which the Ohio House will take up soon. As for Kasich, his years as a Wall Streeter and Fox News commentator have obviously divorced him from the needs of ordinary people .

No problem. Just sign the damn bill at 2 a.m. when it comes your way, Guv, and move on to something else awful enough to make the national media evening news.

Ohio, we have a problem.

Kasich-Walker: Euphoric union busters

"This is the our moment to change the course of history!" - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

Those heady words were the governor's boast to a man on the phone that he had been duped into believing was his billionaire benefactor, David Koch. Such hubris has marked those Republican governors and lawmakers who have put on fright masks to alarm the voters that their states will perish unless budget deficits are erased by summarily ending collective bargaining by public unions.

Such fairy tales, however, disguise the real reason that public unions have been targeted with unsupportable math. It's naked union-busting and I would give the GOP gang at the statehouse more credit for authenticity if they came flat out and said so. But that would blow their cover for the longer-range scenario in play. President Obama will be running for reelection in 2012 and his Republican rival will need all of the help he or she can get to fulfill his opponents' goal that has been on the clock since he was sworn in.

Now that we are past the Academy Awards rites, the attacks on mostly Democrat-friendly unions will be one of many top-billed theatrical narratives short of impeachment (but Newt Gingrich may try it anyway). Still worst-laid plans often go awry. Gov. Walker woke up this week to new polls that show him falling into minus-territory with the Badger voters for his Rambo role in this.

It's even worse in Ohio, whose wisdom-less governor and legislature will soon give us an even harsher restriction on public unions. Unlike Walker's gambit, John Kasich has no problems including police and firefighters in the repeal of collective bargaining. By all accounts, he is expected to win this one, if not with the public, at least with his Republican Sugar Daddies. (Walker says he talks to Kasich every day.) This is a high- stakes maneuver, folks. Next on the gallows: closed union shops. Talk of right-to-work is in the air.

Disclosure: Years ago I joined a newspaper staff that had the option of not joining the American Newspaper Guild. Several staffers decided to play nice to impress the boss and didn't join. However, whatever was earned in a new contract by dues-paying members also was awarded to the non-joiners. I didn't think that it was fair at the time, and nobody can tell me why it would be fair now.

I suspect the collective bargaining ploy will haunt Republicans who support it for some time. For younger Republicans with long-range political ambitions they may win the battle today but lose the war in the next chapter of their careers. That's something they might want to consider.

Wisconsin: Union invaders meet the Koch invasion

WATCHING WISCONSIN GOV. Scott Walker complain about out-of-state union officials who are invading Madison to foment the protests was a teachable moment for me. It was then that I learned the distance that this zealous crusader would travel to destroy the back-channel facts in the case. I mean, these unionists were not illegal aliens or anything like that. And if labor sent a thousand out-of-staters, they would still be no match for two out-of-state brothers who influence Walker's every movement: Charles and David Koch, the billionaires (35 times over!) who own Koch Industries.

The Kochs own a lot of stuff, in addition to the pols who are expected to protect it. A shopping list of their possessions are oil refineries, 4,000 miles of pipeline and countless other things from Dixie cups to paper towels. They have an anti-union gorilla-like presence in Wisconsin in the energy field. One study by a research institute at the University of Massachusetts listed Koch Industries as one of the nation's top 10 polluters. These fellows have supported Walker with campaign cash passed through a number of fund-raising channels, including an outfit patriotically called Americans for Prosperity. Among their goals is the elimination of environmental regulations and unions, and only concede no more than minimal services for the needy, reports the New Yorker Magazine.

Any wonder that with a pot-of-gold behind him, the governor is fully confident that he can stare down the protests? Whatever else they might be telling you about Wisconsin's budget deficit, nearly half of which arrived with the governor's pet tax cuts soon after he was seated in January, you can shove it. This is all about union-busting and that will make the brothers Koch quite happy.

Speaking of brothers, what's Sarah Palin talking about when she asks her "fellow union brothers and sisters" to oppose union bosses and fight instead for the "right causes in our great country." Somehow, I can't connect the dots between this multi-millionaire wannabe Big Sister and commoners like union brothers and sisters.

Scott Walker separates protesters from taxpayers

AND A THANK YOU from the heart to the Tea Party's latest shiny new floor sample, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. He enlightened me on who pays taxes and who doesn't. That revelation came from him in the the midst of the troubles in Madison, when he declared that he would not let the protesters "drown out" the taxpayers. Until he made that distinction between the good guys and bad guys, I had wrongly assumed that union members pay taxes, too.