Paul Tipps, a Democratic power in in his time

The passing of Paul Tipps closes the book on a generation of Ohio Democratic leaders  who unapologetically took their messages to the streets, the board rooms and assembly lines as he managed  a party in nearly  full control of the state's highest offices. And that included all but one of the Supreme Court justices!

As the Democratic chairman from 1975 to 1983, Tipps wore a teasing smile and pleasant  demeanor  to disguise the gritty  side of surviving the disarray  so common to Democrats who were otherwise alive and well.

The party's first-team roster included Atty Gen. Billy Joe Brown, who would have preferred being governor, but was barred from fund-raising  by the Mahoning County
Democratic chairman; House Speaker Vernal Riffe, a powerful political and legislative operative who also wanted to be governor;  Richard Celeste, who eventually became  governor and hoped to be president;  often feuding Democratic  lode stars  Sens. Howard Metzenbaum and John Glenn,  who later patched up their rivalries;  and a bed sheet list of fussing union  leaders and some distrustful Cleveland egos. You needed no reminder that hyperkinetic political activists were on the scene every hour.

Even before he became chairman, Tipps  encountered opposition from Glenn's point man, Steve Kovacik,  who,  with the former astronaut's blessing,  sought to elect state Sen.  Nelson Lancione to the job. At the time, I wrote a column critical of Glenn for spending his political capital as a freshman  on such a losing course.  While I was frying eggs in my kitchen, Glenn called to scold me for being "premature" in assessing the fallout.   Tipps won handily - evidence of his solid political skills in the party's field commanding county chairmen on the executive committee. (On the night of the lopsided vote, Lancione was nowhere to be seen.  It was rumored that he was enjoying the better climate of Florida )

For a political reporter, it was a lively time. With a half-dozen or so Democrats running for president,  the chairman tried - and lost - to discourage the candidates from carving up the Ohio delegation to the 1976 convention.  Even the favorite son ticket he had set up for himself and party VIPs failed to go anywhere.  Lacking his own official voice, he sat aside of the Ohio delegation as a mere spectator.   It was one of the few times that I saw him on the outside of internal party business.

 Remember, too,  that it was not the heyday of cable TV, digital shoptalk or the pressure of conservative preachers and their moral agendas.  In that respect, the work was less complicated .  Politics was simply politics  as usual  as handed down over the centuries.    Tipps had an innate sense of the workings from his "undergraduate" work as Montgomery County Democratic chairman.  C.J. McLin, an African American state rep from Dayton, was his  perfect guide through urban racial unrest.

 Tipps was ready to move on.  To the despair of his critics, he was a tireless lobbyist,  no small benefit for a state  chairman.  He was a  tough survivor , and not easily discouraged , a genuine success story with all of those Democrats sitting in high office in Columbus. (Despite  their early differences, Tipps and Glenn became friends. Glenn remarked  this week that Ohio had "no better friend than Tipps.")

Even his lobbyist  work was shared with Republican Neil Clark.  That was  a non-starter  for politics at Tipps' level.  But that merger blew up in a nasty feud. On the other hand, he was never apart from Riffe in their joint assembly of can-do power and influence.

For every feud, one could point to Tipps' genuine successes.   Upon hearing of his death, it quickly occurred to me that the Democrats  once had more than one  prospect for every job.

 Did I say Democrats?




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Glenn Beck et al: The GOP landfill will soon overflow

WEEK-END HAUL FROM THE GOP LANDFILL:


When too many Americans  are fighting fires or watching their homes flooded  away, Glenn  Beck, a tee-shirt capitalist,  is busy trying to make one more buck.  He has eagerly  jumped into the onslaught against Chief Justice John Roberts with this tee-shirt that he is offering for a cool $30! You have to feel sorry for Beck.  When people don't know that they are a bizarre blip on the radar screen, how can you accuse them of being crazy?   Oh, hell.   I'll still call him crazy.  I haven't  been near one of those shirts, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were all made in China. What about it, Glenn?

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Have you seen the campaign commercial that Republican Josh Mandel is running on the Internet?  It's titled "Boots"  and is carefully  on message that begins with an unidentifed soldier  lacing up combat boots and is followed by battleground footage of Marines in the midst of combat.  Don't know whether Josh is in any of the films but the message is clear since he paid for it to convince voters that he is rough, tough and ready to take on all challenges if his senate campaign against Sen. Sherrod Brown succeeds.  I always  thought that George Bush's carefully staged  landing on an aircraft carrier to declare "mission accomplished" would stand  forever as overarching political stagecraft.  However,  Mandel, the 34-yuear-old whiz kid, obviously is never going to let anybody forget that he was a Marine. Somebody should tell him that politicizing military service  solely for personal gain (campaign fund-raising)  only cheapens the true image of  Marine Corps valor.    As I once mentioned , John Glenn was a marine, and I would remind you again that Josh is no John Glenn.

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Finally, I will again ask why the Summit County Republican Party continues to post on its home page  an attack on a Democrat for hiring a relative when the "outraged" GOP's  local party boss, Alex Arshinkoff,  has three members of his family working in politically-appointed jobs, as I noted in an earlier post.

Some would call it a "scandal of Biblical proportions".  But it ain't smart.  Or maybe the local GOP leader relies on an explanation that Malcolm Forbes Jr. atttributed to his daddy:  "There's nothing wrong with nepotism so long as you keep it in the family."

Marines Josh Mandel vs. John Glenn: No contest

Anyone who has been following the quasi-meteoric rise of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel couldn't escape the fact that  he is an ex-Marine.  And if you didn't know  by now that he is running somewhat as an ex-Marine for the U.S.Senate against Incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown, Josh will be more than happy to fill you in.   The 34-year-old Whiz Kid has cast a heroic glow on his political life.  As Summit County Republican chairman Alex Arshinkoff once admiringly declared of Mandel,  it took  "balls"' for a Jew to be off fighting in Iraq.

Right. Like Horatius at the bridge!


Mandel's sanctified message is simply that just as he answered his personal call  to duty in Iraq , he will likewise save America from the liberals, beginning with Sen. Brown  and Barack Obama. Casting himelf as a disciiplined soldier and first-tier friend of Israel,  he has succeeded in raising millions of dollars as well as kind words from the Republican Jewish Coalition of Cleveland, which obviously had something to do with his decision to enter the  Senate race.  He has also so pleased the Tea Party that it has solidly claimed him as one of its own with all that this portends regarding health care. The feeling is mutual.

One quickly senses with Mandel that every moment of his life is well planned, from his political birth as a Lyndhurst councilman, to state representative  to Ohio  treasurer in less time that it takes to steal second base.

I've met ambitious young politicians over the years, but none comes to mind with so much campaign cash to destroy his opponent. Or for that matter, enough lies to keep Politifact/Ohio  busy eight days a week.

Now, allow me to go back to another Ohio Marine, Col. John Glenn, a Democrat who landed in the Senate.

In the many years that I reported on his political career, I heard not a word from him about his military life, which included tours as a combat pilot shooting down MIGs. His record as a flying ace  and astronaut could speak for itself without his embellishment.   His advisors often were disappointed that he didn't play on that noteworthy aspect of his life when he ill-advisedly decided to run for  president, a short-lived  venture. Actually he was  too reticent  about his accomplishments to run a national campaign.   He turned down offers to make cameo appearances on sit-coms.  Never made a product endorsement.  Went shopping in Manhattan for shirts while Jimmy Carter was on the verge of naming a veep in 1976 as  Ohio Democrats futilely promoted him for the job. He even turned down a floor rally at the convention by the D's in his  behalf.

This Boy Scout from New Concord, Oh., had a reason: "I've already had more recognition  than I need," he told me.

Once, when I visited his home in Central Ohio, I was astonished to see a smaller version  of the iconic  sculpture of Marines  raising the flag on Iwo Jima.  It was sitting on a wide mantel  in the spacious living room.  It was the sculptor's  model in creating the monumental memorial that now sits just outside Arlington National Cemetery.

"They sent this piece  to me," he said casually, nodding to the model.  "I shouldn't have it, so I'll send it  to the Smithsonian."

Glenn, always the modest hero with a liberal voting record that showed his deep concern for average folks.     So I'll  tell you this much:  I knew John Glenn.   Josh Mandel is no John Glenn.






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The ex-astronaut vs. the ex-Wall Streeter

HAVE YOU SEEN the TV repeal-SB 5 (No, Issue 2) by John Glenn? Quite effective, for a former senator to appear in soft voice at the age of 90 to appeal to Ohioans for reason. So the only question left in this instance for Tuesday's election:

Are you going to believe a former astronaut war hero with a Boy Scout's honor, or are you going to believe our governor, Jøhn Kasich, who spent his recent years promoting Wall Street for a company that went bankrupt?