Boehner's obtuse view of Ohio's stimulus

RIGHT OR WRONG, John Boehner, the House Republicans' darkly loquacious mouthpiece, should qualify for a citation for partisan crabbiness. Most recently, he unloaded on President Obama's stimulus plans in Ohio, complaining on Fox News that it has been essentially a bust. He said he saw no evidence of anything - anything - happening on the upside . But when he was taken to task by critics for being unaware of such projects already under way in the state, he retreated to Plan B: He said, well, the process has been "absurdly slow." Right. By now the five-month-old plan should have put a chicken in every pot and stocked Lake Erie with gourmet lobsters. And added a domed stadium for every town with more than 25,000 sports fans.

Boehner should have quit carping when he was behind. As Joan Mazzolini pointed out in the Plain Dealer, the Ohio Department of Transportation has approved about $84 million in road and bridge projects with stimulus money , which is also at the heart of new programs to rescue indigent mothers and children from Medicaid cuts. To reverse an old saying, what Boehner doesn't know about his home state is hurting his image. At least what's left of it.