Is John Kasich just a fool or is he stupid, too?

Ohio Gov. Kasich should thank the Lord he uses like a political prop when it suits him, but with whom he has so often differed when it comes to fundamentals of human decency, mercy and care for the least among us, that he's even still governor.

Gov. John Kasich at the Ohio
Statehouse in Columbus

For those unschooled in Ohio government, there is little doubt that the Catholic boy who once wanted to devote his life to his Master, but who found politics more to his liking since it would bring him fame and fortune, would have been recalled early-on had the state constitution contained a provision for recall.

If Ohio's constitution allowed voters to recall statewide leaders, there is little doubt that Kasich, elected in 2010 by just two percent (77,127 votes statewide), would have been subject to recall in 2011 when he threw himself and all his resources into backing Senate Bill 5, the wildly unpopular gutting of public sector unions orchestrated by Republicans.

The bill that riled up so many Ohioans, which got shellacked at the ballot box by a 2-1 margin, sent Kasich a warning to not try such a brazen move again. At the same time, Kasich looked likely in thankfulness that he wasn't his like-minded classmate, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose state does have a recall provision and who because of it was hauled before the public for essentially doing the same thing Kasich did. Walker won, but it's hard to think Kasich, who barely squeaked by in 2010, would have been lucky enough to withstand a voter base who saw to what lengths he was willing to go to cement his reputation as a Republican who had it out for the Democratic agenda, in that case, collective bargaining rights.

Ohio's 69 chief executive has brazenly used the high office over the last nearly eight years for his own personal self promotion. Even today when he's still cashing taxpayer checks, he has the unmitigated gall to continue to tap the pocketbooks.

"We’re nearing our February fundraising deadline and could use your help. Our message is making a difference but we need to raise the funds to continue paying for the services that allow us to support Gov. Kasich's mission," a flash solicitation for more dough reads, reciting his stacked-deck performances on various TV shows

Using his office to further his personal ambitions has been a Kasich trademark from his first days in the Ohio Senate to two years ago, when he took a second bite of the presidential apple. His drubbing on the primary trail showed everyone, especially big ticket donors, how unpopular he is with his own Republican Party. The GOP instead nominated an inveterate liar and documented misogynist billion from New York, who pounded Kasich so badly that the boy from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, where his own hometown voted 5-1 against him, finds himself a governor who's on the outs with Republicans trying to succeed him and wolf in sheep's clothing in Democratic circles.

The best he could do two years ago was win one Electoral College vote. Pathetic and humiliating are apt words for his second White House loss. Because the multi-millionaire was too stupid to quit when losing was a foregone conclusion to all the other 15 GOP candidates when the Trump juggernaut rolled over them, media confuses his stamina of ego with voter support.

Like a pull-toy doll with prerecorded catch phrases, Kasich is adept at lying on a par with Donald Trump. Tripping on ant hills on the way to the pyramids, the Republican Party is my vehicle not my master or I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow are some of his favorite go-to gibberish comments.

Another more recent but equally false and vacuous statement he uses is that he doesn't know what the Democratic agenda is. Basic Kasich say repeat his blather often, because hosts and journalists don't know enough to challenge him on any one of them. Yet another national Sunday TV show, where he's become the reliable anti-Trump dancing bear, the career politician and moving target did it again as if no one was paying attention. Wrong.

How stupid is that for anyone so dependent on the public eye to claim that Democrats don't have an agenda? Is it also stupid that, of all people, he doesn't know what it is? Being a fool is par for Kasich, but showing his stupidity for all the world to see is a double whammy.

Very, actually, since he's fought tooth and nail against that agenda—union workers' rights, support for public schools and public school teachers, women's rights and their access to abortion, raising the minimum wage, allowing Medicare to bargain for prescription drugs, expanding Medicaid, protecting and boosting Social Security, wealthy individuals and corporations should pay higher taxes, tax cuts don't create jobs, gay rights o name but a few—his entire political life.

Nonetheless, even though it was an old notion from an old but fabulously wealthy hack whose parents were Democrats and government workers refuses to acknowledge how un-liked he is among both members of his own party and others, be they Democrats or independents, who have observed him for decades and concluded he's on the wrong side of most important issues, he trotted it out again. And loyal scribblers from his favorite Ohio newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, reported on it as if he was breaking new ground.

The Dispatch's Washington-based reporter Jack Torry wrote that the National Chaplain launched "a spirited attack against the Democratic Party ... Ohio Gov. John Kasich charged he has 'no clue' what Democrats stand for and complained they have 'no agenda.'" Speaking on “This Week,” "Kasich offered the strongest signal yet that he may want to run for president in 2020 as an independent, even though throughout the interview he kept insisting he was a Republican."

Nine months away from wandering off the political radar screen, the term-limited, lame-duck governor continues to raise money as if he were still on the campaign trail. His last book that recounts his failed run in 2016, that consists nearly entirely of regurgitating his quixotic life story of abandoning his family Democrats roots in favor of self-fish conservative causes that have endeared him to Republican donors who have funded he and his cadre of political operatives, has enabled him seem relevant even though Republican candidates back in Ohio running to success him, have done their best to not seek his endorsement, or for those who have it, like Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, are trying to put her boss in the rear view mirror.

As one Buckeye involved in political circles told me recently, Kasich is playing both sides of the field. "He is taking the hot topic of the moment, getting booked on national news programs to stay relevant and spouting his latest transformation," my source told me, comparing the great reformer to Buckeye weather. "Kasich is like Ohio weather: Wait 5 minutes and his positions change...Ok ... I'll give Ohio weather maybe 10 minutes."

This point is borne out by sources, including CNN, that report that a portion of Ohio Gov. John Kasich's campaign website dedicated to the Second Amendment was altered this weekend. In the wake of the Florida high school shooting that killed 17 students, "Caches of the former GOP presidential candidate's page show that the page was altered sometime between Saturday, February 17 and Sunday, February 18, the day the Republican governor criticized President Donald Trump and Congress on CNN over their inaction on gun violence."

It takes a lot of brass, and Kasich has plenty of it, to shift with the prevailing winds to say he has no clue what the Democrats' agenda is. The easily angered, petulant leader who has Ohio in his hindsight and talks on foreign policy like he was some roving ambassador, gets to claim the spotlight and headlines from loyal reporters who fawn over his ever word, even though those words are as old, tired and obsolete as he is.

He told ABC's national audience, yet again like a broken record, that "at the end of the day it's in the hands of the Lord as to what to my future is ... I don't know what he wants me to do." Clearly, what the Lord doesn't want John Kasich to do is become President of the United States, that's a message he's sent the grumpy governor twice.