From wcpo.com

Since the May primary, most of the charges between Ohio gubernatorial hopefuls, Republican Ken Blackwell and Democrat Ted Strickland, have been on issues.

But that changed earlier this week, when Blackwell himself leveled charges against Strickland that sound very similar to charges being made in Washington in the Mark Foley and congressional page scandal.

Ken Blackwell and Ted Strickland shook each others hands at the last gubernatorial debate in Columbus on Monday.

Though they may not have wanted to do that in light of the new allegations.

During that debate, Blackwell charged the Democratic congressman with ignoring the sex convictions of a staff member.

From the Enquirer

Poet Nikki Giovanni said Tuesday that she had made it clear to organizers of Saturday's Fountain Square reopening that the version of a controversial poem she wrote for the occasion was a work in progress.

Giovanni's profanity-laced poem, in which she called Republican Ken Blackwell "a son of a bitch" and "a political whore," has created a firestorm of criticism and controversy. She delivered the poem at Saturday's celebration.

She said in a Tuesday phone interview with The Enquirer that Bill Donabedian, managing director of Fountain Square, had asked her for a few stanzas to include in a printed program for the event.

Who pays her salary?

From the PD

Lundgren claims that after 16 years in prison he is hypertensive, diabetic and obese and that a lethal shot would be a cruel form of punishment.

U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette, the former county prosecutor who put Lundgren on death row and convicted most of his 10 followers in the cult, said Lundgren's efforts "to eat his way out of the death penalty were ludicrous."

"If Jeffrey Lundgren's excuse is that he is too fat to execute, perhaps we should consider executing him in the manner in which he executed his victims - with a bullet to the brain," LaTourette said.

in the PD

After the county elections board deadlocked, 2-2, along party lines on whether to throw out the complaint filed by Jacquelyn Long, Lobb ruled in favor of a hearing.

The ruling by Lobb, whose boss, Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, is running against Strickland for governor, brought howls of indignation from Team Strickland.

"Mr. Blackwell has once again shown his inability to keep from politicizing the Secretary of State's office," Keith Dailey, Strickland's campaign spokesman, said.

Lobb has been deputized by Blackwell to break tie votes and independently handle matters that could conflict with his gubernatorial aspirations, according to Blackwell campaign spokesman Carlo LoParo.

Under Ohio law, Blackwell's office would break tie votes at the county level on Strickland's eligibility to vote in Lisbon. So could it set up a bizarre scenario where Blackwell's office casts the deciding vote to knock his opponent off the ballot?

Long's attorney, Heather Heidelbaugh, said that if Strickland's voting residency was overturned, he would not be a "qualified elector." Only qualified electors can serve as elected officials in Ohio, although Heidelbaugh stopped short of saying that meant Strickland would be knocked off the ballot.

An Ohio State University professor who specializes in election law said it was "not likely" but "conceivable" that Strickland could be thrown out of his race against Blackwell if he is found ineligible to vote.

Why wouldn't this OSU professor go on record and use his name? My guess is that it would be Dan Tokaji, who has an entire blog about election law- But he is the only OSU election law expert I've read of. Dan is a big time liberal.

http://tollies.blogspot.com/

From AP:

Saudis signal support for OPEC cut

By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer

Saudi Arabia's oil minister said Thursday that his country supports OPEC's proposed 1 million barrels-a-day production cut.

"We will try to make the market balanced," Ali Naimi said, ending two weeks of silence from the world's largest oil producing nation and giving a quick jolt to oil prices.

Naimi's statement came as the cartel's oil ministers gathered in the capital of Qatar for emergency talks on cutting output after a price decline of more than 25 percent since mid-July.

Saudi backing is considered to be critical among analysts who have doubted two weeks of rumors that there was consensus for an output cut within the often fractious Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It was still unclear, however, whether the cut will be made to OPEC's official production quota of 28 million barrels a day, or to its actual output, which is believed to be slightly below that level due to slackening demand.

 

Read the rest here.

Well there you go, our chief Near East “friend” in the Global War on Islamism. We give with lives and they take our money. Wow that’s a great trade off.

In my humble opinion Saudi Arabia is a bigger enemy to Western Civilization than the Persian or Korean nutcases. Oh I ‘m sorry, I may have insulted CAIR. Well no need to worry about auto dealerships issuing Fatwa Fridays because OPEC is getting ready to issue their own "Fatwa Winter." Hit the
US during the winter with high energy prices!

I know I may be rambling like an emotional democrat blogger, but boy don’t you just get tired of getting screwed all the time by these knuckleheads? I know I sure do.

from Hotline

Perhaps the biggest danger to Republicans in the wake of all these bad polls is that their volunteer base, so critical to victory in 2004, won't put their heart in their work. If volunteers become convinced that Republicans will lose control of Congress, what incentive do they have to work hard?

If you're ever read a profile of Ken Mehlman, you know he is obsessed with metrics. For him, one of the most important sources of data is a weekly e-mail his political team prepares called the "Weekly Grassroots Report." It meticulously records the work of tens of thousands of volunteers in targeted states, counties and congressional districts across the country. The data summary allows the RNC to determine which states are meeting goals and which states are falling behind.

The RNC declined to share the most recent report, which was issued Monday. But two independent sources who saw last week's report professed to be surprised: not only was their no drop off last week, 12 states broke new voter contact records.

In a month, the party completed more than a million phone calls and door contacts conbined. Bigger states are putting up big numbers -- even Ohio, which lagged behind its targets all summer, has caught up. The RNC is particularly pleased with their progress in New Jersey, where they've rapidly set up a more aggressive version of their 72 Hour Program in light of the state's more competitive Senate race.

These are the numbers that motivate Karl Rove's optimism. The spreadsheets show that Republican volunteers are working hard. There are plenty of volunteers and they seem plenty willing to knock on doors and make telephone calls. That's why it makes sense for Rove, for White House pol. dir Sara Taylor, and for Mehlman to exude uncanny optimism even while their brains pore over pessimistic polls. Right now, a strong volunteer corps on election day working to turn out voters is the only hope they've got. If the volunteers detect a shred of defeatist cross-talk or come across a newspaper article suggesting that Rove is panicked, then they'll start to panic, too.

The point is that top-level Republican optimism is pragmatic, not ignorant. [MARC AMBINDER]

From the DeWine campaign email

Tonight, Mike DeWine will debate Sherrod Brown in Toledo. Please tune in!

DATE: Thurday, October 19, 2006
TIME: 7:00pm
STATIONS: The debate will be broadcast live on ABC's WTVG Channel 13 in Toledo and on cable Channel ONN. In addition, C-SPAN will rebroadcast the debate at 11:00pm ET.

And I believe it will be on the radio in the central Ohio area and streamed online at http://610wtvn.com.

Below is the transcript of WLW Cincinnati's Bill Cunningham on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhJfa1z5-K8

HANNITY: Meanwhile sexual scandal spreading out to the Ohio gubernatorial race where democrat Ted Strickland mishandling the case of a former employee exposing himself to children. Republican candidate Ken Blackwell went as far as suggesting that strike land actually supported pedophilia by declining to vote yes on house legislation concerning adult child sex back in 1999. Joining us from the big one WLW Bill Cunningham back to talk with us. How are you?

HANNITY: God bless America and God bless this country my friend. You don't understand what it means, Mr. Colmes, you are supporting Mr. Strickland.

From the mouth of John McCain; "I think I'd just commit suicide,"

McCain told reporters, to accompanying laughter from Republicans standing with him. "I don't want to face that eventuality because I don't think it's going to happen."

I am glad that McCain doesn’t think the Democrats will win, but if one was to group together the obstacles faced by Republicans in the last few years, John McCain would have to be at the top of the list.

Cross posted at the MVCA Commentary and Journal

From opinionjournal

Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist and longtime follower of state politics, said there's something cruelly ironic about Mr. Blackwell paying for the sins of an Ohio GOP that's lost its way. "Ken is the one good Republican in the state of Ohio," says Mr. Vedder. "He was the guy who maintained Republican principles, who wanted moderate spending growth, wanted to use budget surpluses--when we had budget surpluses--to lower taxes, wanted to move to a flat-rate income tax at a relatively low rate. This is the kind of thing Ken has been talking about for years."

Mr. Blackwell is still talking about it today, and for good reason: Ohio has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs--a fifth of its total--in the past five years. The state's 5.7% jobless rate is more than a full percentage point above the national mean. Household incomes lag behind the rest of the country, and mortgage foreclosures continue to rise.

"Capital seeks the path of least resistance and greatest opportunity," said Mr. Blackwell, addressing a small crowd in Meigs County. "We've put too many obstacles in the way of capital investment in Ohio. We have a confiscatory tax code that needs to be changed. We have one of the toughest regulatory roads to navigate in the country."

Later on in an interview, Mr. Blackwell elaborated. And but for the fact that he is 6-foot-4, deep-voiced, bespectacled and black, you might mistake him for another Ronald Reagan. "Ask Honda why they invested in Indiana instead of Ohio," he said. "The bottom line is that it would have cost them $30 million more a year. Why? Because of escalating workers comp costs, taxes, regulatory compliance costs . . . We've got to understand what we're up against. It's easier to do business in other places."

Mr. Blackwell's economic proposals call for a large tax cut and a more level rate structure to replace the steeply graduated system that the state currently employs. Noting that Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana all have more attractive single-rate systems, he wants to reduce Ohio's nine rates to five, and ultimately remove the lowest earners from the income tax code altogether. "This would unleash $1.2 billion back into the private sector and help jump start the economy," said Mr. Blackwell. "It would also cut taxes for 300,000 small businesses--manufacturing, retailing, farming. Most small businesses in Ohio today are limited liability or Subchapter S corporations, and they're just as impacted by cuts in the income tax system."

Meanwhile, Mr. Strickland has been as light on details as his opponent has been specific. The campaign's official slogan is "Turn Around Ohio," and the candidate has spoken in general terms about investing more in preschool programs and job training. But the congressman's real theme is the GOP's implosion, and rare is a Strickland stump speech that doesn't include mention that "we have had 16 years of this current administration that Mr. Blackwell has been part of. And what are the results? Incompetence, corruption, and in some cases, illegal behavior."