Monday, January 29, 2018

Buckeyes beware of too much 'Blue Wave Kool-Aid' this midterm election cycle

In just 281 days, the 2018 midterm elections will be over. Will President Trump's low ratings bleed into Republican turnout? Will Democrats, as so many are speculating now, take back the U.S. House or Senate and deliver a mortal blow to Trump World in the nation's capital and in many state capitals across the nation?

Ohio Statehouse in Columbus
Blue Wave Kool-Aid, the tasty, powerful election energy drink Democrats and pundits are ladling out in vast quantities, can make anyone who drinks too much of it too fast drunk with the idea that Republicans are on the ropes this election cycle, due in large part to Trump's unstable, erratic performance one year into his first term that's been captured best so far in Michael Wolff's world best seller, "Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House."

When historical facts are broken down and applied to this year's midterm elections, as Bloomberg has done in "All Signs Point to Big Democratic Wins in 2018," Republicans, even those who have tried to distance themselves from the rhetoric and actions of this White House, should be quaking in their boots after presented with a set of tea leafs that predict their demise or destruction in November.

The Blue Wave Kool-Aid might not be the universal elixir it's being cracked up to be, especially in ruby red Ohio, where Trump decimated Hillary Clinton by almost one-half-million votes, and where Republicans at the state level have ruled the roost for decades, with the exception of the short span of 2006-2010 when all but one statewide seat was won by Democrats and the Ohio House for a short two-year stint (2008-2010) was controlled by Democrats. Aside from this anomaly, Republicans have controlled all gears of Ohio government, including the legislature, where laws are made and executive wishes are dashed even for long-time establishment Republicans like John Kasich, who as governor saw many of his cherished policies and goals summarily ditched when even more conservative legislators showed the prickly, lame-duck governor who was boss.

Bloomberg predicts, based on historical averages and the popularity of the president at the time (above or below 50%), that as many as 33 GOP House seats could be lost. With Dems needing a net gain of 24 seats, Blue Wave Kool-Aid drinkers can already see bright light shinning down on them this year.

In the Senate in Washington, Democrats have to defend 26 seats versus just eight for Republicans. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is among the 26 defenders this year, so as the last Democrat to be elected statewide, Brown's fate could be dicey if Trump voters turnout in numbers not expected while Democrats slack off at the polls, as history shows happens in midterm elections when overall voting dips.

At the state level, Democrats have racked up wins for city mayor in many of its largest municipalities, but Republicans enjoy veto-proof majorities in the state Senate and House. The gift that keeps on giving stems from the Tea Party wave of 2010, when Ohio rebounded from four years of Democratic control of the governor's office and other statewide offices. Every election cycle after 2010, Democrats have been washed away by Republicans, whose control of the legislature guaranteed that redistricting would favor their party of Democrats.

“If a Democratic wave is big enough, I could actually imagine several Ohio seats being potentially vulnerable,” Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics said, the Dayton Daily News reported. “But at the moment, the Ohio seats are sort of on the periphery of the national conversation.”

Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of Inside Elections, has a message that seems to be on point: “If Democrats are winning congressional races in Ohio, then they’ve already won the majority,” he said, adding the big news that Ohio Democrats don't want to hear because it rings so true: “I don’t think any of the Ohio races are in the first or second tier.” Republicans control 12 of 16 House seats, and districts are so gerrymandered that any one of them losing to a Democrats is only seen by Blue Wave Kool-Aid drinkers who have imbibed too much of the fantasy drink.

And keep in mind the prediction that Ohio will lose another house seat following the 2020 national census. Republican map makers will force another two Democratic congressman to fight it out in a new district not of their making. When that happens, GOP candidates will still control a dozen seats compared to just three for Democrats.

If Sen. Brown can win his third term in the upper chamber in the era of Trump, that will be because his populist economic agenda hits home with average Ohio workers, many of whom voted for Trump two years ago. If Brown should lose, the Ohio Democratic Party just might drift into irrelevance after losing big time in 2010, 2014 and 2016. President Barack Obama won Ohio in 2008 and again in 2012, but even in those years, Republicans kept control by expanding their seats in Washington and Columbus.

Marc Dann served as Ohio's 47th Attorney General for a short time before being run out of office over scandals in his office that brought the wrath of Democrats and Republicans down on him. The leader of the Dann Law Firm, which specializes in protecting consumers from various forms of predatory financing, Dann offers up a glimmer of hope for Democrats searching for a new agenda to attract Trump voters back into the fold this year.

At Working Class Studies, Dann says Democrats may already have their opening, and it "doesn’t involve porn stars, Russians, racism, or tax cuts for the rich, none of which seem to matter much to the president’s supporters." What could work, he says, is recognition of the fact that Trump has abandoned them when "they finally realize that he’s betrayed them by gutting the regulatory framework that really made America great for the working class"

Dann lists his suggestions for where Democrats can make their mark when it comes to the new message many Democrats say they need to beckon back wayward workers.

  • Net neutrality may seem like an arcane issue, but FCC Chair Ajit Pai ‘s decision to roll back Obama-era internet rules will inevitably lead to increased costs for internet access.
  • Betsy Devos, the clueless Secretary of Education, is repealing rules that made it difficult for private universities to rip-off students and making it more expensive for kids and parents to repay student loans.
  • Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who was installed as director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), has submitted a “zero budget” for the agency he absolutely loathes, and instituted a hiring freeze and a prohibition on new regulations.  Just for good measure, he’s also decided to make it easier for the vultures in the payday lending industry to prey on the poor and the working class.
  • The Labor Department’s decision to allow pool-tipping and to ditch rules that would have made hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers eligible for overtime pay will cost working families millions of dollars each year.
  • The unrelenting attack on the Affordable Care Act, which survived repeal but has taken a number of other hits, will lead to premium increases and the loss of coverage in the years ahead.
The unrelenting attack on the Affordable Care Act, which survived repeal but has taken a number of other hits, will lead to premium increases and the loss of coverage in the years ahead.
"Every one of these actions will impact working-class Americans disproportionately, especially those who live on the edge of bankruptcy and lack the financial resources to fend off unscrupulous lenders and other scam artists. According to a 2016 Federal Reserve Report 46% of American households could not handle a $400 emergency expense. That makes them prime targets for payday, car title, and predatory mortgage lenders that generate huge profits by exploiting people who barely live paycheck-to-paycheck," said Dann, who served in the Ohio Senate prior to being elected Ohio attorney general in 2006.
In Ohio, where the results of this fall's election may already be baked in, based on some of the most gerrymandered districts in the nation, and where Ohio media cannot be trusted to speak the truth if it means investigating a Republican ticket they think will ultimately be successful so they can guarantee continued access, Dann believes that "when combined with Trump’s unrelenting attack on the very things that make America a land of opportunity, these bold, state-based initiatives may provide Democrats with the weapon they need to send Trump back to his tower – and actually make America better for the working class."

Another reason Ohio Democrats should beware of drinking the national Blue Wave Kool-Aid that may not have the salubrious effects in Ohio that many think it will have in other states, is the promise by Koch Brothers to spend $400 million in 2018 to tilt the election cycle to Republicans.

Kool-Aid drinkers, drink at your own risk.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Taylor receives 'kiss of death' as outbound Kasich confirms his endorsement

Lonely are the petulant who bristle when asked the wrong questions. When Ohio Republicans shun one of their own, like GOP governor candidates are doing when it comes to seeking an endorsement from their term-limited governor John Kasich, is it a kiss of death when he confirms who he has endorsed?

Gov. John Kasich at the Ohio Statehouse.
That seems to be the case with Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who has been Kasich's number two partner for going on eight years. Recent reports quoted Taylor saying she hadn't spoken with Kasich in about a year. Taylor told a county Republican party recently that she hasn't spoken with the lame-duck governor, but subsequent reports shows she's been in his presence on numerous occasions, mostly at cabinet meetings in Columbus chaired by Kasich.

As big supporter of President Donald Trump, Taylor, who some Republicans have tagged as lazy and who won't be able to defeat her primary challenger, Attorney General Mike DeWine and his running mate Secretary of State Jon Husted, appears to be distancing herself from Kasich, whose become a reliable Trump critic, to show conservative Buckeye voters she's not as liberal as Kasich has been, especially on accepting expanded Medicaid, a feature of former President Obama's Affordable Care Act.

At a Statehouse event Thursday, reports are that Kasich said he could not recall the last time he talked to Taylor following her recent statement, which some might see as confirmation of Taylor's comment of not really engaging Kasich, who spent most of 2016 out of state campaigning for president. Kasich lost 49 states, winning just one, Ohio, by less than 50 percent of the vote.

"She's been a great teammate ... a great, loyal partner," Kasich said, The Toledo Blade reported.
Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in the ceremonial
cabinet room in the Ohio Statehouse
Kasich, who returns to New Hampshire, the cite of his biggest victory two years ago, where he came in a distant second to Trump, acknowledged that Taylor has periodically disagreed with his policy positions. Ohio's glib governor on issues he likes to talk about, referred to a the dust up as "a lot of loud voices out there that are on the far right. They don't all like me. That's OK. They didn't want me to expand Medicaid. That's fine."

The author of a book about his second loss at running for president, which he's used to stay in the media's eye even though Trump and Trumpworld has ridiculed him from time to time, said Taylor has a right to be independent. Kasich, who continues to fuel speculation about him running for a third run at the Oval Office in 2020, said he has provided Taylor with advice on running for governor and would be willing to campaign on her behalf of the woman who he says would make a "great governor."

Headlines about no other Republicans rushing to get his endorsement or have him campaign on their behalf, prompted Kasich to say things haven't changed much since he won 86 of 88 counties in his 2014 reelection campaign. "I know that decisions have been made that she wasn't always comfortable with," he said, adding that "She'd (Taylor) express herself and then she'd go out and support the team."

Kasich did win that many counties, but the record from 2014 hows his Democratic rival had imploded and voter turnout at 36 percent was the lowest since World War II. Kasich refused to debate his major party challenger, and when a video of him at a Cleveland Plain dealer acting like a spoiled child, the paper bent to pressure and took down the video shortly after it was posted.

When looked at further, voting data shows Kasich received fewer than one in four registered voters.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Siri, which GOP candidate for governor is lying about John Kasich's endorsement?

It wasn't that long ago when Ohio Gov. John Kasich had the entire Republican establishment, with the exception of state treasurer Josh Mandel who lined up behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, cheering him on as he mounted his second run for the presidency since his first one in 2000.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the Ohio
Statehouse at a bill signing ceremony
Those were the days. Now, after his humiliating loss in 2016 to be the leader of the free world, Ohio's term-limited lame-duck CEO isn't high on any statewide Republicans' list.

To show just how confused about which, if any party candidate the outbound governor is endorsing, Kasich's two-term Lt. Gov, Mary Taylor told Republicans in Clermont County in southwest Ohio, two starling facts.

One, she's not spoken with her boss, who lost 49 GOP state contests and won exactly one Electoral College vote, in a year. Second, she thought her boss for the last eight years had endorsed her rival team of Attorney General Mike Dewine and Secretary of State Jon Husted. Taylor, a CPA, has been misinformed of the facts, even though CPA's can't be as forgetful or ignorant when it comes to federal or state tax law.

Talk about mixed messages, which candidate(s) Kasich likes this year, and which of those candidates wants his endorsement, reflects why so many Republicans in no rush to court him this year even though they backed his run for president two years ago. The sanctimonious supply-sider, who can't talk about anyone but himself for more than ten seconds, spent most of 2016 campaigning out of state for a job voters didn't elect him governor to pursue.

"She said it’s widely known that Jon Husted and Mike DeWine have been endorsed by Gov. Kasich," Greg Simpson, a township executive for the Clermont County Republican Party, told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "I about fell off my chair, because it’s widely known that John Kasich had endorsed Mary Taylor."

To clear things up for Taylor, Husted, who was awaiting to address the same audience, engaged the services of Apple's famous information concierge.
"Siri, who did John Kasich endorse in the governor's race?" Husted asked his iPhone, already knowing the answer, the Enquirer noted. "An article from The Enquirer popped up, titled 'John Kasich backs Mary Taylor for Ohio governor. Will it help?'"
Spokesmen for Taylor and Kasich added even more confusion, saying the other candidate's statements were wrong. Kasich's PR guy said Taylor and Kasich have spoken by phone, while Taylor's PR guy said she hasn't seen him, ostensibly in person, for a year.

Despite media portrayal of Kasich as both popular and a moderate, history, based on the policies he's endorsed and the bill's he's signed into law, show he's not popular and not moderate. Spending more time on DC-beltway Sunday talking-head political TV shows than he does back home in Ohio, Gov. Kasich is the perfect anti-Trump dancing bear who will reliably invoke God as his heavenly wing-man about what his purpose in life is, and why he hasn't found it yet, including whether he'll mount a third run at the Oval Office.

What Kasich has found to his liking over the decades, is that dedicating himself to the Lord, as he once wanted to do as a young Catholic boy in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, wouldn't have brought him the fame—18 years in Congress and years on Fox News—and fortune—somewhere between $9-22 million—he enjoys now.

On the outs with Trumpworld, and with his well-known abrasive relationship with just about everybody else, including members of his own political party, John Richard Kasich will soon be put out to pasture. He'll have to graze, maybe in the media again, for another three years until the presidential merry-go-round gets cranked up again in 2020.

Until then, his role, or lack thereof in the Republican race to succeed him, will be a carnival ride to watch. Candidates like Taylor, whose claim to fame is not being a third term for Kasich because she'll be even more conservative than he's been, should cause average, hard-working Ohioans to pull out their political worry beads should she win the office and dispense with Medicaid or rally the Right-to-Work crowd. For DeWine and Husted, not having Kasich endorse them might be the daylight they've been looking for to distance themselves from his poor record on jobs, poverty, opioids and for-profit charter schools, at least in words if not deeds.

For Democrats who think the much talked about blue wave will cascade into the Buckeye State this fall, don't fill up too much or too fast on Blue Wave Kool-Aid. It might be a real factor in other states but maybe not in ruby-red, gerrymandered Ohio, where Republicans control the legislature by veto-proof margins and Republicans rule the Ohio Supreme Court.

Gulp up the good times, but don't chug too much too soon.

Monday, January 22, 2018

Kasich evades truth telling on future plans again in front-page report

To criticize Ohio media, especially the very GOP-centered Columbus Dispatch, for fawning coverage of Ohio Gov. John Kasich is too easy, like shooting fish in a barrel.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich at a media event 
in 2013 for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
The Buckeye State's term-limited, lame-duck governor gets yet another front page report Monday on his many PR appearances on national TV.

When his Sunday show segments are compared to his many fewer appearances as state CEO last year, after losing his second run for the White House in 2016, it shows he values the national spotlight over lesser venues back home.

In a tally of where he spends his time these days, the Dispatch noted that Kasich took 62 times at bat on various national TV networks in 2017, compared to just 54 events back home in his adopted State of Ohio.

It came as no surprise to Kasich watchers that he "bristled" when asked what his appearances on Sunday shows like "Meet The Press" was designed to do. Students of the former 18-year congressman, Fox News TV talk show host and Lehman Brothers banker know him to have a hair trigger when it comes to media asking him questions he doesn't want to answer, because answering them would give away his game, honed and crafted over four decades in elected public office.

In 2014, when he was running for reelection against a Democratic challenger who imploded with media aiding by pumping up careless indiscretions to oversized proportions, Kasich knew all along that he would mount a second run at the White House, this time with state resources. When media failed to press him on it, after he told them to stop asking questions he wasn't going to answer, Kasich knew he had reporters and editorial writers right where he wanted them.

Where he wanted them was beholding to him for access on the campaign trail, where he spent the greater part of 2016 along with a crew of state highway patrolmen safeguarding the governor and members of his family and inner circle who traveled with him on occasion. Kasich and his administration has refused to reveal to Ohio taxpayers how much has been spent to protect him on a job voters didn't election him governor in 2014 to pursue in 2016. Had he come clean then and said he would run for president if elected, that would have been the kind of truth telling he's not known for. Meanwhile, those costs—which one reporter  calculates in the millions—remain a closely guarded secret. Ohio statehouse media know not to ask for the data, so they don't.

National TV pundits like him because he's their anti-Trump dancing bear, ready to sound off with the same phony, baloney gibberish about his concern for so-called "Dreamers" or dysfunction in Washington or one of his favorites, "people living in the shadows." He took credit, as Chairman of the House Budget Committee following Republicans' rise to power after the "Contract For America" in 1994 elevated him and then Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich to leadership positions. A favorite Kasich talking point on the campaign trail and in Republican debates was him taking credit for balancing the federal budget for the last time since men walked on the moon.
"I'm going to continue wherever I can to raise a voice as long as my friends and as long as the Lord gives me a voice to talk about things that I think are not just or fair. We're all screwballs, including me. I'm going to make mistakes. But when I see this, I've got to say something about it," he said, according to the Dispatch, a life-long Republican legacy newspaper that endorsed him every year he ran for congress and in each of his two elections for governor.
Curiously, while Kasich likes to raise his voice on Trump, foreign and domestic policy, that voice is silent when it comes to the many scandals on his watch that have largely gone uninvestigated. Wasting billions every two years on for-profit charter schools, Ohio pension retirement funds spending exorbitant fees on Wall Street hedge fund managers who deliver little in returns, signing 20 bills into law that make women's health rights harder to achieve, raising sales taxes and other fees to pay for billions in income tax cuts that favor the state's wealthiest, suppressing voters or falling behind the national average in job creation for 61 months are stories Kasich has nothing to say about.

Gov. Kasich's wing man and presidential campaign strategist, John Weaver, told the Dispatch the governor is not out to promote "Kasich for 2020."
"It's about keeping that voice, which is sadly underrepresented, in the marketplace," Weaver said, the Dispatch reported. "You don't see him on TV talking about running for president. You see him passionately talking about issues and common-sense solutions."
And that's the simple but fake news ruse. Kasich doesn't have to overtly talk about running for president, because everyone today knows he's dying to run for president again in 2020, just like everyone knew as back in 2010, that if he got elected twice, he would pull out all the stops to run for president as the "popular ... moderate" governor of a battleground state candidates had to win if they wanted to move into the White House.

The Quixotic, petulant leader whose time on the political stage will end when 2019 starts, is using the same tired but predictable excuses to deflect attention from his plan to be in the presidential hunt again in 2020 if at all possible.

While media continues to buy his lines that he doesn't know what he's going to do tomorrow, they have taken little notice of him turning down a golden chance to remain relevant by taking on and defeating two-term U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, following the vacuum created when lead GOP war horse, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, bowed out.

The opportunity to defeat a popular populist like Sen. Brown would show Kasich is not only still popular but has the political chops to defeat the last Democrat elected statewide. Senator Kasich would have six years to impact public policy, which he says he knows so much about and is so good at. He could run from cover in 2020 as a governor-turned Senator from a Rust Belt state, and still have four years to capture daily headlines if he lost his third run for POTUS since first trying in 2000.

The National Chaplain who hates Obamacare but defends one of its best social safety net programs, Medicaid, evades questions by invoking his master, The Lord, someone he leans on for guidance when circumstances call for divine intervention, like when questions are hurdled at him he has poor answers for. The Lord, to whom he once wanted to go in service to until he found politics more to his liking, appears to have left him in the lurch following two massive defeats for president, and who has apparently convinced him he can't beat a rugged, career politician like Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Otherwise, the Wizard of Westerville would take on and beat Brown. By doing so, Kasich could prove he's the messiah the GOP has been waiting for to move Trump out of the Oval Office and back to Trump Tower in New York City.

Sunday, January 21, 2018

For the hard of remembering, a look back to a year ago today

For everyone old enough to have lived through the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his younger brother and likely next president of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, remembering where you were when the news broke that each of these political and civil rights giants had been felled by an assassin's bullet is a memory that will never be forgotten.

Had each of these true leaders not been sent to an early grave, the course of this country would have bent toward very different futures than happened.

For all of us who watched with amazement and awe that a self-absorbed, show- and conman like Donald Trump won the Electoral College by under 78,000 votes spread out over three states over a candidate many say was the smartest, most qualified and experienced among Democrats to run in 2016, we also remember where we were when the nuclear arsenal of this nation was put in the hands of a man who just might trigger a modern day war with the fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen.

A year ago today, I was in Washington D.C. with two tickets to attend Donald Trump's inaugural ceremonies. Instead of wasting my time with that, and it seems many, many others had the same idea, I chose to cover the Women's March on Washington.

A year later, those same women, and likely many more, were out in force in their hometown streets. The resistance, as their opposition to President Trump has been dubbed, is as energized as it was a year ago. Only this time, it can be fulfilled this November with voters turning out in record numbers to vote in the good and vote out the bad. The good to be voted in will be candidates who will change the course of history in Washington, from disassembling the federal government to reassembling it to help the public interest combat the worst traits of private interests.

Here's a fond look back at where I was a year ago today.










Friday, January 19, 2018

Gov. Kasich extends subpar job growth to 61 months

Being above average is better than being below average, most everyone would probably say. Going on eight years in office, Gov. John Kasich has spent over five of them—61 months to be precise—below average in job creation when compared to the national average.

While some media and reporters prefer to fixate on the unemployment rate, which dipped one-tenth of one percent (4.8 to 4.7) from the previous month, the larger story is the length of time, now 61 months, Ohio couldn't meet the national job creation average.

The Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released data Friday on employment and unemployment in Ohio during December 2017. Ohio gained 2,500 jobs seasonally adjusted in December 2017, according to analysis performed by George Zeller of Cleveland.

With a reputation for accuracy that's never been challenged, Zeller told this reporter today that the current Ohio job growth rate is now 0.98 percent while the current USA job growth rate is now 1.50 percent.
"December 2017 is the 61st consecutive month when Ohio's job growth rate has been below the USA national average," Zeller said, adding, "That lengthy streak of sub-par job growth in Ohio has now reached five full years and one additional month."
Zeller pointed out that during 2016, Ohio gained only 49,700 jobs seasonally adjusted, the slowest annual job increase since the end of the Great Recession. For 2017, Ohio gained only 38,500 jobs, "an even slower and highly alarming figure that replaces 2016 as the fewest number of jobs generated in Ohio during any year since the end of the Great Recession."

The most positive development in today's new figures, Zeller notes, is the 5,000 jobs gained in durable manufacturing. That was the positive news. Negative news showed that Ohio lost 1,400 jobs in Health Care and Social Assistance during December.
"This disappointing figure in Ohio's normally fastest growing industry contributed heavily to Ohio's slow growth in December," he said.
Gov. Kasich brags about reducing government jobs, but the addition of more government jobs would do him a world of good. A gain of 1,900 jobs in state government covered losses of 1,100 in local government and a loss of 100 federal government jobs. "But, a loss of 4,700 Government jobs between December 2016 and December 2017 continued to be a leading cause of the slow sub-par employment growth in Ohio," Zeller points out.

And for reporters who fixate only on the unemployment rate, they fail to mention that Ohio's rate of 4.7 percent is higher than the USA unemployment rate of 4.1 percent in December, for the 16th consecutive month.

Zeller schools media and reporters who fail to see the significant of the numbers delivered to them.
"Ohio's improved unemployment rate came from an increase of 12,000 employed workers and a decline of 9,000 unemployed workers, for a net improvement of 21,000 workers. That is not possible during a month when Ohio gained only 2,500 jobs, showing that the accuracy of the Ohio unemployment rate is poor once again this month. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics does not sample any of the 50 states in its model-based unemployment estimates for states. Thus, the accuracy of the employment estimates consistently is far better than the accuracy of state level unemployment statistics."

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Dennis Kucinich livens up Ohio race for governor, slamming Gov. John Kasich for years of corruption

Ohio media has been reluctant, maybe even afraid, to investigate all the corruption marinating in Gov. John Kasich's two terms. Reporters worth their salt would have a field day diving into them, maybe winning an award or two for uncovering what lies below.

Citizen John Kasich in 2010 with running
mate Mary Taylor 
The crowded field of candidates seeking to follow Kasich, as he leaves office at the end of this year, have held their criticism of the governor and his administration in abeyance.

Republicans, including Kasich's "wicked smart" lieutenant governor, Mary Taylor, as he once called her, will have to figure out how they criticize the sanctimonious but petulant one without actually naming him, for fear of appearing too partisan.

The same reluctance to name names seems to apply to Democrats, who have mountains of reasons to impale the former congressman, Fox News TV pundit and Lehman Brothers banker, yet who have yet to name him as the governor responsible for so much bad government.

But one candidate just might find the gumption to take Kasich on by name. That candidate, Dennis Kucinich, is now an official candidate.

"The same person, battle scars and all, is before you today, with a wealth of experience, no less ready to stand up, to speak out, to take on corrupt interests on behalf of the people of Ohio, ready to be the voice that bridges left and right, a clear voice unafraid to call things like I see them," Kucinich said in published reports.

The political war horse he is, Kucinich has an agenda that isn't unfamiliar to his other primary challengers: infrastructure spending, broadband internet expansion, increasing the minimum wage to $12.50, broadening access to health care and expanding public transportation are part of what he'll campaign on.

What Kucinich can do that Ohio media has failed to do, is to prosecute Gov. Kasich and his like-minded right-wing legislature for the state of corruption in state government. When corruption in state government was all the rage, back in 2006, Democrats won four of Ohio's five statewide seats, including governor. That level of corruption is here now, but Ohio media has little in the way of headlines or investigative reporting to show for it.

"The state has given away billions in tax breaks while destroying programs essential for health and education," the battle-scared politico whose so-called "quirkiness" could be the breath of fresh air this years race for state CEO needs. "You cannot have communities where some people are living in third-world conditions unless the politics of the state itself reflects or tolerates deep corruption."

Kasich has been essentially free of any real attempt to delve into his corrupt practices, from his cabal of inner-circle confidants waging a campaign to derail a potential challenger in 2014 to the obscene fees Wall Street hedge fund managers have raked in from state pension funds whose returns are dismal by comparison, to the billions of dollar in tax breaks and wasted spending on for-profit charter schools.

The barrel of corrupt fish is there for the shooting, but media who endorsed Kasich in 2010 and then again in 2014, and who followed his every move as he mounted a second losing campaign for president, have show their watchdog credentials have expired.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Shitheads probably don't want to recall Trump saying 'shithole countries'

Say something outrageous, vulgar or crude, then deny saying it. That's the now established pattern of President Donald John Trump on what he says from day to day and what he says he didn't say.

Trump T-Shirts at Columbus rally in 2016
Photo credit: John Michael Spinelli
Last week Trump called African nations and others, including El Salvador and Haiti, "shithole countries" and asked why America needs more of them? Maybe it was because the day before he had meet with Norway's prime minister that he wondered why more Norwegians aren't coming to make America great?

After the meeting at which one Democrat and six Republican senators were in attendance in the White House to discuss DACA, Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, the lone Democrat and one of the Republicans confessed the president had indeed used the word shithole in his conversation with them. South Carolina Sen. Lyndsey Graham said he said his piece with Trump at the meeting, while Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin told media Trump used the word not once but several times.

The other Republicans in the room said either nothing or that they didn't recall the use of the word. A spokesman for Durbin is questioning a Republican senator who says President Donald Trump did not refer to African countries using a word the world press was challenged to translate into various languages.

According to the AP, a tweet by Ben Marter Sunday, shortly after Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue went on ABC’s “This Week” to call reports that Trump used vile language in the meeting a “gross misrepresentation,” questioned Perdue's credibility. Perdue said Durbin and Graham were mistaken in indicating Trump had used that word.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week" show on Sunday, Perdue said, “I am telling you that he did not use that word. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation.” GOP Sen. Tom Cotton had weighed in, saying he didn't "recall the President saying those comments specifically” then modified that on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” where he said he “didn’t hear” the word shithole used.

Denying what he said to reporters is now common practice for The Donald, who said he was quoted incorrectly in an interview with the Wall Street Journal about relations with North Korea’s leader. The WSJ, the AP reports, said Trump said he "probably has a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.” Trump quibbles over the quote, saying what he really said was that "‘I’d have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,’ a big difference. Fortunately we now record conversations with reporters and they knew exactly what I said and meant. They just wanted a story. FAKE NEWS!'”

Meanwhile, the White House and the WSJ have released separate audio clips and say they stand by their reporting.

In Ohio, Rep. Jim Renacci, who Trump convinced to jump from the race for governor to the race against U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democratic, said Trump was only saying what Americans are thinking.

Brown seized on the comment by a possible challenger this fall. "The President certainly isn't speaking for me and he isn't speaking for a great majority of people across Ohio," said Brown in a statement.

Then there was Ohio's term-limited Gov. John Kasich who as he so often does, had to drag God into it.
"It's a terrible comment," he said, according to reports. "The bottom line is, we're all made in the image of the Lord and we don't want to say disparaging things. We all make mistakes, but there's no excuse and when you do it you have to apologize."
Although he didn't use a swear word like Trump did, Kasich had no problem saying disparaging things about Hillary Clinton in 2016, when he lost all state GOP primary contests except one.

The question reporters should be asking is this: Why would Norwegians want to come to America when their country is so good when compared to the United States? And why aren't more Haitians wising up and asking to immigrant to Norway, where more Americans migrated to than the other way around?

As the AP reported, "Norwegians generally live longer than Americans. There's a generous safety net of health care and pensions. And although it's pricey, the country last year was named the happiest on Earth"

It seems absolutely impossible to conceive that if anybody, especially a politician who holds the grandest office in the land, used the word shithole several times in a short amount of time to refer to you, that anyone present at the meeting, especially you, could possible develop overnight amnesia and pretend that word wasn't used.

If someone called you a shithead more than once in the span of minutes, would you really walk away from that conversation thinking that you weren't referred to in such a vulgar way?

Does that make you a shithead for not remembering you were just called a shithead? Or does that make the shithead who called you a shithead, a shithead?

Maybe? Probably? Who knows? Really? I don't think so.

For a reminder, here's Emma Lazarus' poem at the Statue of Liberty:
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Ohio Media Challenged As Gov Race Gets Interesting

For a couple decades now, Ohio Democrats have been the loyal but usually losing party when it comes to statewide elections.

Ohio Statehouse in Columbus
Will that history play out again this year, when Gov. John Kasich wanders off the political radar screen after two terms to some unknown media gig, where his voice will be mostly muted as Republicans seeking to replace him are confronted with defending his terrible record while Democrats attack it as woefully poor?

In the crowded field among Democrats and the less crowded field among Republicans, Ohio media will have to figure out how they cover the candidates. Will media treat DeWine as the inevitable and entitled winner? Will it treat Cordray as "Obama's boy," thereby poking Trump voters who turned out to beat Hillary Clinton by almost five-hundred thousand votes in 2016? Will it treat Kucinich as a sideshow "menace," based on long-ago history as Mayor of Cleveland when he took on the powers that be and got sent packing?

Ohio Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine is seen by some as the likely nominee, made more likely by his union with Secretary of State Jon Husted. The new DeWine-Husted ticket faces a primary, and while Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who will bear all the burdens of her boss Kasich with little of her own accomplishments to crow about, the odds are very long she can beat DeWine-Husted. DeWine would cap his long history in Ohio by being crowned the Buckeye State's next governor.

For Democrats, their race is full of contenders, with the most recent addition of Dennis Kucinich spicing up an otherwise unspicy race. Former Attorney General Richard Cordray, former President Barack Obama's pick to lead the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, went to Washington because he lost a close race for Ohio AG to DeWine. His time in Washington will give him a leg-up on his little known Democratic challengers, and more money to wage his race.

Kucinich adds some charisma where none existed before, on either side. Like DeWine teaming up with Husted, Cordray has done the same with former Rep. Betty Sutton as his running mate. Kucinich is a two-time presidential candidate who until recently could be seen on Fox News as a commentator. With the exception of Sen. Sherrod Brown, Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill was the only other Democratic statewide officeholder. O’Neill likely can't raise any significant funds, as may be the case with the other Democrats in the race: Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni and former state Rep. Connie Pillich.

Political watchers are betting the race comes down to DeWine vs. Cordray. It would represent a rematch of their 2010 battle for attorney general, when DeWine, who lost to Brown in 2006, defeated then-incumbent Cordray by about one percentage point.

It will be interesting to watch how Ohio mainstream media treats DeWine, Cordray or Kucinich. It's now news that DeWine starts with good polling numbers given how long his name has been associated with Buckeye politics. Because of his long history, the University of Virginia's Center for Politics gives DeWine a small general election edge.

In a report on races for governor this year, Sabato's Crystal Ball says this about Democrats netting new seats:
"To really have a strong year, Democrats need to win some of the bigger states, and several major states with Republican governors should be very competitive: Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio all qualify. Democrats realistically have only one big-state governorship that might be tricky to defend, Pennsylvania."

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown calls White House infrastructure spending bill 'Trump Toll Bill'

On his first conference of the year with Ohio media, Ohio senior U.S  Sen. Sherrod Brown outlined his Bridge Investment Act, which calls for significant investment in bridge repair projects.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (right) speaks with Ohio's
leading independent reporter, John Michael Spinelli 
in Columbus in Oct, 2016
President Donald Trump has called for $1 trillion in infrastructure spending, but Trump and Republican spending may end up using tolls instead of traditional government-financing.

We need to make robust investments in infrastructure, so people can get to work, kids can get to school, and we can move goods and services that support Ohio jobs,” said Brown in prepared remarks.“That’s why I introduced the Bridge Investment Act, which will put Americans to work repairing and updating Ohio bridges with American iron and steel.”

Trump Toll Bill

Brown is the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee who co-sponsored the bill with Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The bill would help repair bridges of all sizes in urban and rural areas, and require all projects to use American-made steel and iron for bridge projects funded by the bill.

Sen. Brown, running for his third term this year, wondered where local governments might come up with local match funds. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has withheld billions in local government funds that once upon a time flowed back to local municipalities.

When asked his thoughts on how Washington Republicans will tackle financing infrastructure, now that the president has signed a massive tax cut bill last year that pumped up the nation's debt by estimates that range from $1-2 billion, Brown offered one label that takes into account the use public-private partnerships Republicans are fond of, "Trump Toll Bill." 

Brown’s bill, estimated to cost about $75 billion, of which Ohio might realize as much of a five -percent return on, would also do the following

  • Ensure that a bipartisan infrastructure package could eliminate the national bridge repair backlog, if the new bill is added to such a package.

  • Create an innovative evaluation process for proposed projects to ensure the fair and efficient allocation of federal funding. 

  • Bundle medium and small projects into a single application to cut down on red tape and accelerate repairs.

  • Allow entities of all sizes and scope to apply for funding, including: states, counties, cities, metropolitan planning organizations, special purpose districts, public authorities with transportation functions, federal land management agencies and Indian tribes.

Saturday, January 06, 2018

John Kasich 'not interested' in taking on Sherrod Brown speaks volumes

After term-limited Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel announced Friday that he wouldn't pursue a second chance to take on Ohio's last statewide elected Democrat, Sen. Sherrod Brown in Washington, all eyes turned to the Buckeye State's out-bound governor.

John Kasich ran and won for Ohio governor
in 2010
Gov. John Kasich, who served 18 years as a congressman and used that experience in 2016 to claim he was the most qualified of the 17 GOP candidates running for president, was quick to say through a spokesman that he wasn't interested.

Giving no reasons for his decision to stay sidelined, Kasich squanders a unique opportunity to show his leadership and political skills again in Ohio, where he won back-to-back races for governor. He also hurt Republicans' chances in Washington to keep control of the Senate by more than the current one vote majority.

Recall that in 2010, another midterm election year when voter turnout is historically lower, Kasich squeaked by Gov. Ted Strickland by just two percent with no state record to defend. This year is another midterm election. Kasich could pull off a similar victory if Republicans rally around him, as Democratic voters fail to show up in general or vote for Brown specifically.

Defeating Brown would rock his world, and possibly provide an alternative path to the White House. It would also give him six years, during which time he could run twice for POTUS, first in 2020 and then in his last year, 2024.

A regular on Sunday political talk shows these days, the former Fox News commentator and Lehman Brothers banker, may have angered Ohio and national Republicans more than he has already, now that he's parlayed his disastrous lost in 2016—winning one state (Ohio) and one Electoral College vote—into anti-Trump celebrity. 

While other Ohio Republicans of lesser stature will fill the avoid Mandel created with his sudden departure, Kasich running from the battle out without explanation sends another message that won't help him when 2020 rolls around and his ego drives him to make a third run for the White House. 

Knocking off Sen. Brown, the last Democrat in Ohio to hold a statewide seat, albeit in Washington, would turn Kasich into a political rock star. National media would swarm over him, and he'd be a formidable figure at the center of national public policy, something he's wanted and something he said he was good at, dating back to the late 1990s when then GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich promoted him to House Budget Committee chairman. Kasich took credit for balancing the national budget for the first time since men walked on the moon, and weigh-ed in on his contributions to reforming welfare during the Clinton presidential years. He knew Washington and how to get things done, and says he turned around Ohio, going from being broke to $2 billion in rainy day funds.

Sherrod Brown is likewise a formidable politician who has decades of responsible service in Ohio before voters sent him to Washington in 2006, when he beat Ohio's current attorney general and maybe next governor, Mike DeWine.

Kasich had a similar golden opportunity in 2016 to be a leader, when Republicans, Independents and others sought a messiah to step out of the rubble of that election year and undertake an independent or third-party try to defeat Donald Trump. Kasich, who wrote a book about a divided America following his terrible loss, repeats his honed narrative that he knows how to bring people together to solve big problems. 

Even though the proof of bring people together as he says he can is sorely missing in Ohio, national media has no interest of his record back home, which Brown and Democrats would shred with ease and glee. Kasich would be covered like Jesus returned if he could beat an energized and well-funded Brown back home this year.  

Kasich's silence about why he declined conveys another message state and national media would be uncomfortable writing about. The message Kasich just sent is that he doesn't have the courage or the political chops and popularity in Ohio to beat Brown, as he seeks a third term in the U.S. Senate to represent a red state that voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton by almost five-hundred thousand votes.

If that's the case, avoiding a confrontation with Brown is a smart decision for Kasich for now. Saying how great you are without having to prove it may still work for him as he hibernates over the next three years. 

Brown beat Mandel handily six years ago in 2012, and polling shows the Democratic populist and liberal lion, whose agenda is worker-centric compared to Kasich's and other Republicans' CEO-centric agenda, will be a tough race for any GOP candidate.

History shows that independent candidates and third-parties in presidential elections have a dismal record. It's augers poorly for 2020 to be the exception to the rule. If Kasich is banking on a White House win in three years, declining to jump into this race this year only to wait to run as an independent or Trump challenger in 2020 means he'll be a three-time loser on the national stage.



Friday, January 05, 2018

With Mandel Gone, Which Republican Dares Take On Sherrod Brown For Senate?

The nicest thing Ohio's two-term, senior senator in Washington, Senator Sherrod Brown, has to say about his one-time political rival is that he wishes "Josh, Ilana and their family the best of health. We hope for Ilana's full and speedy recovery."

Those few kind words came Friday from Brown's campaign in response to news that Ohio State Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel is bowing out of his second try to unseat Brown due to his wife's health. The former Marine, now term limited, lost handily to Brown in 2012, when the former congressman and two-term secretary of state won a second six-year term in the U.S. Senate. 

With the GOP candidate long thought to win the right to take on Brown again, Mandel's sudden exit opens up the seat to other Republicans, like Mike Gibbons, a little known acolyte of President Donald Trump who has already received the endorsement of the Franklin County Republican Party. Other possible candidates include Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, Congressman Jim Renacci, and even out-going Gov. John Kasich. The Kasich-Taylor ticket won back-to-back victories in 2010 and in 2014.

With Kasich headed off Ohio's political radar screen, and maybe into the political graveyard at the end of this year, the chance to run against Brown in Ohio is his for the asking. Instead of going into a three-year hibernation to wait for 2020 to roll around, when many think the 65-year old might try a third run at the White House, Kasich could dump his unfulfilled dreams since 2000 of being president.

Based on how Kasich's second try turned out in 2016, when he lost 49 states and won just one, Ohio, the establishment-lane leader might want to trade down to U.S Senator now that Mandel is out. Politico reports that Kasich isn't interested in the opportunity, even though it's ripe for him. Kasich, a former Fox News show host and Lehman Brothers banker, could show he still has political capital.

If he ran and beat Brown, he'd earn hero medals, national attention, and a following he could use to run for president again. If Kasich could pull off this election trick in his home state, Sen. Kasich could run for POTUS from cover, in two years in 2020, then again in his last year of 2024 if he fails in 2020. 

Kasich continually rubs people the wrong way, and Republicans in Ohio or Washington have cooled on him since he's become a Trump critic. But discounting his anti-Trump attitude, Kasich could muscle his way into the race if he wants to. Seen by some as yesterday's news, despite his many appearances on national political talk shows where he reliably thumps Trump, Kasich may foreclose on his political future if he passes on the opportunity to show what he's always talking about: bringing people together to solve common problems.

His favorite talking point, one he writes about in his latest book "Two Paths: America Divided or United, could lose its punch if Republicans' lose this seat and potential control of the Senate this year. 

Jim Renacci is independently wealthy and might find switching seats from a crowded GOP field for Ohio governor to the virtually open field Ohio senator. The lead team of Mike DeWine, Ohio's outgoing attorney general, and Jon Husted, Ohio's outgoing secretary of state, is likely too much for Renacci for many reasons. Republicans want to keep the governorship in against a field of Democrats that has yet to shake out.

Mary Taylor also might want to challenge Sen. Brown, since she hasn't buddied up with another viable candidate, and is likely to get routed in the GOP primary this spring.

Kasich, a former 18-year congressman, has already made it clear he wants another bite at the White House apple. He's all but confirmed that, saying he'll keep his voice in the mix even if he's not holding a public position. Kasich's problem comes in running on his record since 2010. That record is full of poor performance holes Brown would nail the former Catholic boy to a political cross of his own creation. 

For students who study Kasich, he's at his best when the deck is stacked in his favor. But his deck isn't as stacked as it once was. Poor job performance, billion-dollar budget shortfalls and signing 20 anti-women bills in to law is rich soil to plow for Brown, who will be forced to change his one-note tune on Kasich, who he's praised for accepting expanded Medicaid then defending it as his Republican brothers tried to blow it up. 

Brown was gearing up for another expensive and even nastier race against Mandel, who lost despite six years ago after $40 million was spent to take the gravely-voiced liberal lion. Many pundits saw the match-up this year as a race for Mandel to settle a score.

Now that Mandel has bailed out, Kasich could decided to not get beat up by passing on the chance to take on an energized, experienced, working-class populist Democrat like Brown, whose agenda favors Trump's forgotten man crowd.

Republicans could toss Taylor or Renacci or even recently retired Congressman Pat Tiberi into the shark tank with Brown. Gibbons, the only Republican in the race so far, could easily peters out as many expect he would, given his lack of name recognition and political inexperience. 

Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Ohio's Leading Independent Reporter Returns To Original Roots

It's been a wild and fun ride over the last 18 years covering people, politics, government and beyond.

Spinelli On Assignment: The Ohio Senate
From my small newspaper reporting days in Pickering, Ohio, to my credentialed service in the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association at the Statehouse, my roller coaster ride of reporting includes long stints at now-defunct Examiner.com—where I wrote 1,500 stories that included coverage of the 2012 presidential race in Ohio and up close and personal interviews with newsmakers at the Chicago, Denver and New York City meetings of the Clinton Global Foundation.

As the senior policial at Plunderbund in Ohio from 2014 to 2018, I authored more than 1,000 reports that included the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in 2016 and the White House. I exited being a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging a provision in an Ohio law related to online abuse and harassment.

The start of 2018 finds me returning to my original 2006 online reporting blog, Spinelli On Assignment.

At The White House Press Room
As Ohio's leading independent reporter, a label others have bestowed upon me that I don't quibble with given my documented portfolio, freedom and independence to take on all quarters, regardless of political persuasion, cannot be underestimated.

My reporting is designed to inform and educate like mainstream media often fails to do. Road Warning: You may encounter long sentences.

If your attention span is limited and you can't handle more than 280 characters, follow me on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau.

If you're able to handle more information, facts, explanations and insightful writing you won't find at other news outlets, Spinelli On Assignment should be your next stop.