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Ohio Senate delays vote on removing UA trustee
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GOP has issues of its own to defend
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Jul 20, 2008
COLUMBUS: Scandal, thy name is incumbent.
For 16 years, Republicans ruled almost everything in Ohio, until their excesses created Tom Noe and the $55 million ''gold-coin'' investigation that allowed Democrats to win statewide elections in 2006.
In these lazy days of summer, with the Statehouse quieted by the biennial exodus of lawmakers anxious to make appearances at county fairs and local parades, Republicans are putting in overtime to reverse the tide on the Democrats.
Their job is to persuade voters to forget Noe and his relationship with a cast of former state officeholders — Gov. Bob Taft, Auditor Betty Montgomery, Attorney General Jim Petro — and focus on the fount of embarrassing stories about Democrats that are spurting to the surface.
At this point, Republicans have Marc Dann, the poster child for Democrats Gone Wild, and not much more to work with, but don't dismiss the GOP so easily.
They created the ''Sayonara Sherrod'' commercial in 1990 to help Taft defeat then-Secretary of State Sherrod Brown. The thin fabric of their attack was that Brown once pondered taking a hiatus from his job to study in Japan. The ad also tossed in charges, blown out of proportion, of rampant drug sales in his office.
Roger Ailes deserves much of the credit for the commercial that bequeathed Bob Taft upon the state as the gift that just kept taking.
Last week, the battle over affixing the scandal label to one party or the other surfaced anew when Republican presidential candidate John McCain named Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters as his campaign's Southwest Ohio chairman.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern launched an attack on McCain and Deters, noting that the prosecutor went back to Hamilton County after resigning as state treasurer in 2005 amidst investigations into his office.
Republicans responded by making it seem Deters was leading the parade rather than being chased out of Columbus — only the latter being true.
And so Republicans threw down their trump card, namely Dann.
By now, most Ohioans understand that for almost 18 months, the attorney general's office was being run by the Youngstown-Warren Rat Pack.
Dann had an extramarital affair with his scheduler, he placed unqualified friends in high places, and cursing, intimidation and sexual harassment were office de rigueur.
If you are a Republican, this is all swell, but the GOP unintentionally proved this week that it does not have much more than Dann to use against the Democrats.
In listing Democratic wrongdoing, Republicans pointed to Patrick Gannon's recent demotion as executive director at the Ohio Industrial Commission, where an investigation discovered mismanagement. The charges didn't even merit his firing.
Republicans noted the reassignment occurred just weeks after Herbert Braverman, Ohio Liquor Control executive director, was dismissed for poor job performance.
As hard as they try, Strickland's reputation and standing among voters will not take a statewide hit for minor shakeups in his administration. No one has absconded with millions of dollars.
Then there is former state Rep. Matthew Barrett, D-Amherst, who resigned after wrongly blaming his teenage son for pornographic pictures that the lawmaker accidentally shared with a high school class in Huron County. Seems Barrett not only owned the photos, he
also knew the women.
Republicans also pointed out that Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller, D-Columbus, continues to come under question for problems in tracking campaign contributions and expenditures.
And they also cited Patrick O'Malley, the Cuyahoga County recorder who left office after pleading guilty in federal court to one count of obscenity.
O'Malley also was the state party's executive committee secretary.
Barrett, O'Malley and Miller all provide Republicans with material for compiling lists, but these are local stories emanating from Democratic strongholds — Lorain, Cuyahoga and Franklin counties.
Compare those Democratic problems with the burdensome, universal issues that Republicans are bearing — the war in Iraq, the economy, soaring gas prices, and years of laissez-faire government that enabled the modern-day pirates of home mortgages and subprime lending — and it is easy to see why the GOP has to work so hard.
The party faithful should take some comfort in realizing one of their problems is that the Democrats have just not held office long enough.
Give them time.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Scandal, thy name is incumbent.
Get the full article here.
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