Gov. Kasich's shame on gun and abortion bills

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has signed 20 bills into law over his nearly eight years in office that make it harder and harder for law-abiding women to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion. That's a fact.

John Kasich, Ohio's imperious governor,

asks Congress to "wake up and do something" 

after he spent 18 years there doing  next to 

nothing on gun control.

Another fact is that Kasich has not signed one bill into law, or introduced one himself, that makes it harder in Ohio to buy a gun. But he has signed over a dozen bills sent to him by Ohio's uber-right legislature that expands access to guns, Cincinnati.com reports.

Yet access to guns and abortions are both protected by the U.S. Constitution. For guns, the path to Second Amendment rights is virtually without impediment.

For abortions, the path to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that offered constitutional protections to women, is littered with one hurdle after another.

Still the darling of east coast elite media that continues to delude itself that the National Chaplain who's still waiting for the Lord to tell him what to do in life will mount a third run for president in 2020, as either "Republican classic" or an independent, Kasich enjoyed yet another cameo appearance Sunday on "State of the Union" on CNN.

In the avalanche of news surrounding the 17 students in Florida who were murdered by a student who bought an AR-15 assault rifle easier than he could a beer, Kasich, who says not a word more than he's "pro-life" when the issue of abortion comes up, said he would support background checks on people trying to buy guns. That's good, since 90 percent of Americans already agree on the need for background checks.

Not having expressed any previous support to ban so-called "bump stocks," a device that converts a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon, as a shooter in Las Vegas did to mow down 58 people at an outdoor concert, Kasich, who loves to talk about his religious values, apparently had a rare come-to-Jesus moment. He revealed he would support a ban on bump stocks. Does he also support bans on giant magazine clips that other shooters have used to cause deadly havoc? Don't know since reporters don't ask him these kind of pointed questions.

For reference on Kasich's close association with the National Rifle Association, whose solution is to give more people more guns, the NRA endorsed him in 2014, when he had to win reelection to make himself a viable GOP candidate for the white House in 2016. Kasich was so unviable that he got blown away by Donald Trump just like he got blown away by George W. Bush in 2000, when he first tried a run for the presidency.

Kasich aides went to great lengths to cover up his past tracks on guns that differed wildly with his new-found, media inspired evolution. One report by Kasich's adjunct PR department, The Columbus Dispatch said this:

"Kasich's aides removed from his campaign website a page that had boasted that as governor, Kasich had "signed every pro-Second Amendment bill that crossed his desk." The reported continued, "Those bills included measures that made it potentially legal to carry concealed weapons in day-care facilities and on college campuses."

A congressman for 18 years, Kasich's record on taking on the gun industry is as thin as water. His only noteworthy effort was his vote in 1994 to ban the production and sale of 19 models of semi-automatic assault weapons. After doing virtually nothing during his days in Washington, he's now calling on Congress to "wake up and do something," Fast talk from a fast talker.

Basic Kasich instruct, don't do anything important when doing nothing wins elections. Say something bombastic when you're out of harm's way, so you can point the finger of blame at someone else.

As a presidential candidate two years ago, and knowing the power the NRA holds for wayward candidates, he said the ban was "superfluous, and we don't need laws that are superfluous. It didn't have any impact," a reporter wrote. Congress failed to renew the ban in 2004.

The National Chaplain and soon to be former governor by the end of this year plays media, local and national, like chumps. He's allowed ten seconds to say his headline-grabbing banter without challenge that would make him look the fool he is. Diligent reporters who know his history and know his penchant for showmanship are few and far between. He riles easily, becoming testy and bristly when questions don't go his way.

Where was Kasich's new-found outrage in calling for background checks after any one of the 18 school shootings just this year? Where was his voice on the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Florida or the Las Vegas shooting? He says without naming any names, that he's formed another committee to propose recommendations on gun safety. Where will he be when those proposals come forward if they ever do? Where he'll be is churning the mill as a lucrative political talking-head on TV, something he did at Fox News before running for governor in 2010.

Ohio media has coddled Kasich his entire political career. As a bob-and-weave master, Mr. Reformer has been a flim-flam man who can be counted on to follow all the worst policy flaws that misguided and misled Republicans do as "fellow travelers" in GOP circles. Whether it's him being enamored of corporations and CEOs versus workers and workers unions, or being anti-women versus pro-life or being pro-NRA and weak on gun control regulations, Kasich has rarely been shamed as the rich fool he is.

He will continue to make headlines because media let him get a way with talking rubbish. Junk yard dog journalists, whose standard should be to hold two-faced politicians accountable for what they say and what they do is, are few in number.