On Akron U. name change, Strickland and Ben Carson

We've been told that the name change idea at the University of Akron is "still under discussion."  Not that it is at the same priority level as seeking more ways to cut the budget, staff and departments.  (Um..."disinvestment" they disguise it in the polite upper reaches of the administration).

May I come in?  Since Rubber Ducks has already been claimed by the Akron Aeros, I would suggest THE Harvard West U. as the Zippies new name.  With the added prestige, the school could immediately double its tuition instead of the annual incremental  increases to pay the many bills.  And it could convert its new football stadium into a giant receptacle  for a lake for a serious Harvard-style inquiry to convert Lake Anna into a bottomless source of fresh water for  California.

Even better, the scholarly research  might develop a way to ship freshwater icebergs to California - a concept  that has been on people's minds for a long, long time.  In the 1970s, for example, Mohammad al-Faisal, nephew of the king and a promoter of towed icebergs,  went so far as to have a two-ton berg shipped from the Arctic to Iowa for a conference on how to do it. But the cost made it prohibitive for Amazon to make it available to collectors.

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For all of the naysayers among some Democratic gurus, Republican oracles  and the ever vigilant Cleveland media who are dissing Ted Strickland's age in his  bid for the U.S.Senate, here's a tidbit you might want to consider:  At 73, Strickland is of  the same age as Iconic Ronald Reagan when the latter was sworn in for a second term.  Haven't read anything since then  that Dutch was too old when he sought to return to the Oval Office.  Almost forgot:  Jim Rhodes, another Republican icon and media star, celebrated his 72nd birthday during his fourth term.

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In my tireless  quest to recognize the many rising Republican stars, I discovered one in the report of Dr. Ben Carson's featured talk to the Cuyahoga County Lincoln Day (!) Dinner Saturday night.  The Plain Dealer reported that  top tier Republicans, normally white guys before they head south for winter vacations in the sun, are  "happy to have a black rising star on their side," as the PD described him. That's one.

Kasich's state of the state: Full of sound and fury, but....

GOV. KASICH'S State of the State boilerplate address was familiar to all of us who have witnessed the battle cries of chest-pounding politicians who are obligated to speak to a friendly audience. To his delight, he promptly gained traction with the top-heavy Republican legislature by defiantly promising that he would not raise taxes, an always-productive applause line. I had to go back to Calvin Coolidge to track the genetic origin of such sweet-sounding thoughts. (Silent Cal allowed that taxes were "legalized larceny".)

Having successfully established that story line, Kasich, in his usual pugnacious mode, then went on for more than an hour to tell us a lot of things that, unfortunately, we already know: the state is broken; the best and brightest are packing up their brainpower and leaving Planet

Buckeye; we're being screwed big-time by China; your grandmother is better off at home than in a nursing home.

He also slipped into his extemporaneous comments some gratuitous references to John Kennedy and endurable Democrats, so long as the other side went along with his ideas. Oh, the ideas. The few examples that he offered in leading the state in a new direction would hardly dent the huge deficit.

But for all of his avowed tolerance of new ideas, we heard none. You'd think he would have projected one smashing game changer in his long Rhodes-like narrative besides promising us that he would rise above politics in reforming the way we deal with our problems. You remember Jim Rhodes. A half-century ago he rode into power by promising jobs and no new taxes. Since then, the definition of taxes has changed and are now called "fees". But that's another story .

Well, now we must await the Kasich budget that arrives on March 15. He says it will be a

blockbuster to turn the state around. It might even prod pigs to fly. We'll see. Keep your binoculars handy.

Rhodes vs. Kasich: A case of Identity theft

THE HEADLINE above a column on the Beacon Journal's op-ed page Tuesday asserted:

John Kasich is no Jim Rhodes.

I should say not! The column was by Joe Hallett, the perceptive senior editor of the Columbus Dispatch, and it spoke of the many ways that these two politicians differed in approaching Ohio's problems, in their views of the Feds, how they were to pay for the fixes, and the wide gap in temperament. Why the comparison at this time? Well, as Hallett notes, Kasich is now reporting that the voters see him as the reincarnation of Rhodes. "We welcome that," Kasich boasts.

What a wretched stretch. So let me add something about their political credentials as one who went at Rhodes chin-to-chin in all four of his terms. Unlike Kasich, Rhodes was no ideologue. On more than one occasion he declared that he would gladly become a Democrat if it meant that he could pass some of his pet projects. At other times during Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, Rhodes said he didn't want to criticize the peanut farmer about anything because "Carter might become president and I might need him to help me on some of my programs."

As Hallett points out, Rhodes was a cheerleader for federal programs that would send money to Ohio. Kasich is quite the opposite in his rants to dismantle government, including the Ohio Department of Development that Rhodes created.

And how can Kasich possibly match Rhodes' "Ohio-ness."? He is fresh from Wall Street and was not a household name among most Ohioans before his announced candidacy. He began his political career as an aide of some sort to the late hard-right Ohio congressman, Donald ("Buz") Lukens, one of Rhodes' arch-enemies. After leaving Congress, he spent all of those years apparently closeted (by his description) in a satellite office in Colmubus for the bankrupt Lehman Brothers.

But Rhodes' historic success - I say as one of his detractors at the time - is that he was a dues paying Ohioan who intuitively related to his constituents with down-home humor and self-deprecating comments. Slyly, he never seemed that interested in the political class and pooh-poohed national conventions as a waste of money. To him, the delegates simply could mail in their votes. It was always a disarming style for a man in the governor's office and if pressed by a reporter on a particular issue, he would beg off, saying: " I never yes or no", for whatever the hell that meant. He lived by the credo that "Profit is not a dirty word in Ohio" which always sounded as sincere as the Boy Scout oath.

But he did pay his dues on the political ladder, always conscious about how to reach the next rung. It might have been done in an unorthodox style, but he cleverly got away with it.

Whatever else you might have thought of Jim Rhodes, he was the real thing, often a spectacle but a memorable presence wherever he went, good humored and endearing to his business apostles (and in certain cases, labor union crowd , some of whom wore his pins.) I see none of that in Kasich. If only half of his reckless plans to rip apart state government come to pass, it will take years for the state to recover.

Kasich-Taylor prepare to turn out Ohio's lights

THERE WAS A LOT of recycled ear candy passed out at yesterday's announcement by Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich that State Auditor Mary Taylor would join him on the ticket. Such events for both parties are always euphoric moments before the candidates take to the stump and are forced to explain exactly what they meant. Among Kasich's promises were his commitment to eliminate the state income tax, repeal the estate tax, deregulate industry and commerce and shrink government. So who could argue?

Trouble is, the system doesn't work that way, never has and never will. As we have so often learned the hard way, when the state shrinks its share, local governments must pick up the pieces; that is, if you want to keep the schools and a lot of other public services and projects moving along. When it comes to cash flow, Kasich, a former managing director of Lehman Brothers before it crashed into bankruptcy, knows that as well as anybody. He just won't say so in the delirium of sweet talk to the voters, not the least of whom are his Tea Party friends. Several news reports that I read noted that he was much less specific about how he would pay the bills if revenue vanished under his proposals. Fact is, he couldn't.

Maybe a report by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission will be of help to the voters: the first year of a phased-out income tax would cost the state treasury $768 million. The commission said that would translate into $79 million in cuts to local governments and libraries in fiscal year 2011. Over 10 years, it would drain $12 billion from the state revenue. In terms that might be easier to understand , the Plain Dealer pointed out that 40 pct. of the state's general revenue comes from the income tax.

I'm surprised Kasich didn't blame former Democratic governor, Jack Gilligan, of saddling Ohio with the income tax in the first place. When Gilligan ran for governor in 1970 he frequently called for the new tax to, among other things, rescue cash-starved school districts. With uncommon, if risky, honesty about the state of the universe, Gilligan told the voters that if they didn't want an income tax, they should vote for the other guy. He won anyway. And when the tax was tested with a referendum two years later to repeal it, the voters again sustained the tax. (When Rhodes later entered the job, the joke around Columbus was that although the new governor was monstrously opposed to taxes, he never lifted a finger to rid the state of the "Gilligan tax." And we knew why.

So for the next 10 or 11 months, I suspect there will be marathon of headachy harangues against Gov. Strickland, taxes and state budgets, with nothing new added to the inertial Republican agenda.

Ear candy.