From the PD

Were it not for failures and scandals within his party, Re publican Sen. Mike DeWine likely would be coasting to the third-term victory his dil igent, bipartisan labors have earned him. Instead, the un prepossessing incumbent from Greene County finds himself the underdog in the political fight of his life.

That's unfortunate for both DeWine and Ohio because DeWine, by philosophy, temperament and experience, is the best candidate to fill the Senate seat he has held the last 12 years.

DeWine's opponent, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown of Avon, is bright, articulate, edgy and energetic. Brown chose a most propitious year to leave the minority party frustrations of the House to seek what might become a majority party seat in the more influential Senate. Should Brown win, we have every confidence that he would devote his considerable drive to the issues he has defined as critical to Ohio and the nation.

 

A RAB reader pointed this out.

Does he live in Pepper Pike like the PD says? (Which is out of the district)

Or does he live in Chesterland like Ohio2006 blog says? (Which is in the district)

What is it with these Democrats and carpetbagging?

 

cross-posted from Nixguy.com

 

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Wooo! There's been a lot of heat generated over the last week and a half. Unfortunately, as expected and as I talked about here, the media sensationalized the salacious aspects and never delved into the real issues.

 

This was expected and should not be suprising to anyone. In fact, I'm sure it was a key part of Strickland's strategy for dealing with it, as it is oh-so-clintonesque. Make it "all about sex" and then demonize the attackers. Right out of the playbook.

Unfortunately for Strickland issues remain. We're going to deal with one in this post.

First let's take a look at this from the Blackwell campaign's angle, as they've taken a lot of heat since Blackwell brought it up in the 4th debate. See my buddy newshound for a good CW idea of the negative response to the Blackwell campaign.

The problem with this issue is that there is a lot of salacious stuff mixed in with the judgement issues. If the Blackwell campaign stayed out, there was a real possibility that the Ohio media would bury the whole thing. If the campaign jumps in they're negatively campaigning on "gutter politics". You get the idea, the headlines write themselves.

As a tactical matter, I would have preferred that the campaign stay out of it as much as possible. I would also prefer that they issue a Press release making clear what the interest, issues, and priorities are in this case. Oh wait. They did.

Well alright then. First let's deal with the gay angle. As some folks know, this first came up back in July and was something that Pullins put out there, leading to an email sent around by a campaign staffer who was subsequently fired. This also came up in an interview where Strickland completely blew the question. Strickland could have put it all to rest right there but he didn't.

So when this came up again, he had to answer the question, again. And this time he was angry that he had to answer the question. Note to Strickland, you can be annoyed, you might even be angry, but you should not be shocked considering your history in dealing with this. As I noted in an earlier post, this wasn't an issue, it wasn't something I'm interested in or was pushing, and I'm taking his word for it.

But that leaves us with one of the real issues, Stricklands hiring of a staffer who had had a real conviction for something that is really serious. Jerome Corsi lays it all out here. First, Strickland said he never knew about the man's record when he hired him. But that's a red herring. Jerome has shown that Strickland had the sheriff's records at the time. Strickland chose to believe the staffer's denial over the sheriff's records he had in his hand.

As a practical matter, Strickland is not a newbie in politics and he must know that these sort of charges among the campaign staff are just a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Did he not want to risk it getting out in the open by firing the guy right then? Did he really sit down and have a heart-to-heart with the guy and decide that it was all in the past? The latter would have been an easily acceptable answer to many, including myself.

Either way, it appears that Strickland has not come clean at all about what happened.

Which brings us to the Foley standard.

The Foley standard, as we now know, is that when someone brings you allegations of sexual impropriety, you must immediately launch an investigation, AND call for full public disclosure of everything that is known. This is true if you are merely an associate of the person in question, much less the guys employer. Anyone who fails to take these steps on the first hint of a sexual impropriety must resign their positions.

The Democrats have been very busy in the last few weeks newly defining this standard and applying it to Hastert, John Boehner, Deb Pryce, and anyone else they can.

How does Strickland measure up against this standard? The actual hiring of a guy with an actual conviction, notified of it, handed the police reports.

What does Strickland do? No public disclosure, no firing, keeps the guy after the election, and keeps him close enough for an after campaign reward trip to Italy. Yeah I'd say that doesn't exactly meet the Foley standard.

Now the Democrats have two choices here. They can take a step back, look at the Foley standard, look at Strickland, and honestly admit that maybe they were a little harsh on Pryce, Boehner and the rest. Or, they can throw Strickland under the bus. And this is exactly what PowersPoint takes:

But it does raise a different issue. If it is true that Strickland knew about these offenses -- and this needs to be confirmed -- and didn't a) fire him and b) disassociate himself from this person, then the Republicans have a legitimate issue, especially in light of the criticism Hastert has received for his lack of oversight on Foley (criticism I have made myself).

A lefty who gets it! Amazing. You can have Strickland, or you can have the Foley standard. You can't have both.

And this is going to be a front page issue for me until you get this resolved. Now for Strickland himself there are two ways out of this mess as far as this particular issue is concerned. He can repudiate the Foley standard and declare that Boehner, Pryce, Reynolds, and Hastert all acted reasonably and his fellow Democrats are way out of line. That's what a "man of integrity" would do.

Or he can resign and let Lee Fisher take over his campaign for governor. Your choice, Mr. Strickland.

LBGT – if Ted Strickland is elected governor, these are initials Ohioans are going to learn a lot more about.

LBGT stands for ''Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Gay, and Transgender.'' The initials are the code word for those who want to advance a frontal attack against conventional sexual morality and the idea that marriage is rightly constituted as a union between a man and a woman.

The underground current of Ted Strickland's Democratic gubernatorial campaign is to turn Ohio from a Red State bastion into a Blue State hot-bed of sexual freedom and experimentation.

Read the full column from Jerome Corsi at World Net Daily.com.

Jay Nordlinger

Every now and then, someone asks me — often a college student — how I came to be a conservative. I have spoken on this subject many times, but sometimes my memory grows misty. And then I’ll come across something that helps me remember: The Left repulsed me.

I thought of this over the weekend, when reading a story from Ohio. Cincinnati renovated its Fountain Square, and had a grand reopening. They asked a poet named Nikki Giovanni to write and read a dedicatory poem. She did.

It included the lines, “I am not a son of a bitch like Kenny Blackwell / I will not use the color of my skin to cover the hatred in my heart / I am not a political whore jumping from bed to bed to see who will stroke my need.”

Kenneth Blackwell, of course, is Ohio’s secretary of state, the former mayor of Cincinnati, and the current Republican nominee for governor.

Friends, this is the Left I grew up with. Women like Nikki Giovanni were a dime a dozen; men like Amiri Baraka were a dime a dozen. They were celebrated and honored and lauded constantly. They were at the center of everything. And I didn’t like it; I still don’t. The kind of performance that Giovanni put on was almost daily fare in my hometown. I never admired it; I never will.

And, yes, once in a while I’m reminded.

By the way, the Cincinnati Enquirer had a very cutesy lead: “If Ken Blackwell becomes Ohio’s governor, don’t look for Nikki Giovanni to be appointed the state’s poet laureate.”

I have to wonder: If Right had attacked Left on such an occasion — and in such a fashion — would the paper have been so cutesy?

Here is their endorsement.

Just imagine if our Social Security was in the market, we'd be doing much better off right now. BLAME BUSH AND REPUBLICANS. See it HERE.

It is being reported today that Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO, is going to jail for 24 years for his part in the largest corporate scandal of all time.

According to FEC reports, Ted Strickland recieved $500 from Enron.

If Republicans had to give away money from Tom Noe, shouldn't Ted Strickland give away his $500 from Enron?

Scott at the Pullins Report has a letter from someone who is researching into Ted Strickland's time at Shawnee State. The rumor has been floating around political circles for awhile.

Ted and his staff doesn't seem to be able to keep their pants on.