Ohio Republicans, Offers That Can’t Be Refused
by Mark Adams
This KOS diary by Farmbo reminded me of the story I saw in this morning’s Toledo Blade, way before coffee had reached my brain. It makes me want to remind every Ohio citizen voting for Democrats this fall to remember to bring your ID and proof of residency. And it wouldn’t hurt to “misplace” your Republican uncle’s driver’s license the day before the election, not that it would matter if he “looks” like a Republican.
BWC tried to keep $215M loss under wraps prior to ‘04 vote: “COLUMBUS – Less than a week before the 2004 presidential election, Jim Conrad, then head of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, took steps to ensure that a $215 million investment loss in an offshore hedge-fund would not become public, documents obtained by The Blade show.”
Between Governor Taft’s appointees covering up the scandal that led to the conviction of Bush fundraiser Tom Noe in “Coingate,” and the New York Times facilitating the Oval Office’s suppression of the NSA wiretapping scandal — both of which were known but not made public before the 2004 Presidential election — Ohio Democrats have a lot to be angry about.
Add to all this the very idea that instead of appealing to integrity and honor, House GOP Leader John Boehner implored his fellow Ohio Congressman, Bob Ney, (affectionately known as Representative #1) to step down, “for the children.” His own.
House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) met with Ney last week to urge him to step aside, reminding him that with a son in college and a daughter nearing college age, he will need money, according to several congressional Republican aides. If he lost his House seat for the party, Boehner is said to have cautioned, Ney could not expect a lucrative career on K Street to pay those tuition bills, along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees piling up. [my emphasis]
Delightful, no? Makes you wonder just what kind of offer Karl Rove made to Lieberman to stay in the race. Calling the modern GOP a crime syndicate is insulting to mobsters everywhere. Yet these are the folks who get to handpick Ney’s successor without even trying to follow the rules.
The Ohio Attorney General has ruled that state Senator Joy Padgett is not precluded by the “sore loser” statute from running for Rep. Bob Ney’s (R-OH) seat.
But that was no suprise to Ohio Democrats; Ohio’s Attorney General is Jim Petro, who was Padgett’s running mate in this year’s gubernatorial election.
“The fix is in,” Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Brian Rothenberg told me, who added that the party’s lawyers would “probably take action” to halt Padgett’s bid.
In France, you can’t even get away with taking a Viagra before a silly bike race. If they could prove that the Browns and the Cavaliers were “fixing” point spreads, or the Indians were throwing games, there’d be riots on Euclid Avenue. Push some inconvenient voters in the wrong direction, undermine our very democracy, and it’s just business as usual.
Of course, the last time we witnessed any serious Ohio activists challenging a Republican administration, both in Columbus and Washington DC, there were funerals at Kent State.
