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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Johnny can't get enough rubber chicken


After a Lincoln Day dinner speech in Clermont County where he laid broad hints that he wants to be Ohio's next governor, former congressman and GOP presidential contender John Kasich moves on to the Butler County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner on March 30, where he is scheduled to be the keynote speaker.

Kasich, from Columbus, found a home on Fox News after his failed bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000. Now, despite the fact that Gov. Ted Strickland has been in office less than two months, Kasich told Clermont County Republicans earlier this month that he might run in 2010, if he doesn't like what he sees happening in Columbus.

It is not particularly surprising - we recall Kasich raising that as a possibility in a discussion we had with him nearly seven years ago, at, of all places, the Hard Rock Cafe in Philadelphia, where Kasich was hosting a party for the Ohio delegation to the Republican National Convention.

The long campaign, apparently, continues next month, when the Butler County Republicans gather at the Oscar Event Center at Jungle Jim's Market in Fairfield.

(Footnote: The location of the Butler County GOP dinner is worth noting. Not because they can stock up on buffalo milk cheese while at Jungle Jim's. Because, for the first time in recent years, the Butler County Lincoln day dinner is actually in Butler County. They've been holding it in Hamilton County at the Sharonville Convention Center for years, mainly because they didn't have any place in Butler County big enough to hold it until Jungle Jim's Oscar Center came along.)


10 Comments:

at 7:46 PM, February 27, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking about wRong wingnut whackos, take a look at the "Rove" political glass ceiling and their "bushwhacking" methods of shooting the messenger when they don't like the message !

Published on Monday, February 26, 2007 by the New York Times

Why Have So Many U.S. Attorneys Been Fired? It Looks a Lot Like Politics
by Adam Cohen

Carol Lam, the former United States attorney for San Diego, is smart and tireless and was very good at her job. Her investigation of Representative Randy Cunningham resulted in a guilty plea for taking more than $2 million in bribes from defense contractors and a sentence of more than eight years. Two weeks ago, she indicted Kyle Dustin Foggo, the former No. 3 official in the C.I.A. The defense-contracting scandal she pursued so vigorously could yet drag in other politicians.
In many Justice Departments, her record would have won her awards, and perhaps a promotion to a top post in Washington. In the Bush Justice Department, it got her fired.

Ms. Lam is one of at least seven United States attorneys fired recently under questionable circumstances. The Justice Department is claiming that Ms. Lam and other well-regarded prosecutors like John McKay of Seattle, David Iglesias of New Mexico, Daniel Bogden of Nevada and Paul Charlton of Arizona — who all received strong job evaluations — performed inadequately.

It is hard to call what’s happening anything other than a political purge. And it’s another shameful example of how in the Bush administration, everything — from rebuilding a hurricane-ravaged city to allocating homeland security dollars to invading Iraq — is sacrificed to partisan politics and winning elections.

U.S. attorneys have enormous power. Their decision to investigate or indict can bankrupt a business or destroy a life. They must be, and long have been, insulated from political pressures. Although appointed by the president, once in office they are almost never asked to leave until a new president is elected. The Congressional Research Service has confirmed how unprecedented these firings are. It found that of 486 U.S. attorneys confirmed since 1981, perhaps no more than three were forced out in similar ways — three in 25 years, compared with seven in recent months.

It is not just the large numbers. The firing of H. E. Cummins III is raising as many questions as Ms. Lam’s. Mr. Cummins, one of the most distinguished lawyers in Arkansas, is respected by Republicans and Democrats alike. But he was forced out to make room for J. Timothy Griffin, a former Karl Rove deputy with thin legal experience who did opposition research for the Republican National Committee. (Mr. Griffin recently bowed to the inevitable and said he will not try for a permanent appointment. But he remains in office indefinitely.)

The Bush administration cleared the way for these personnel changes by slipping a little-noticed provision into the Patriot Act last year that allows the president to appoint interim U.S. attorneys for an indefinite period without Senate confirmation.

Three theories are emerging for why these well-qualified U.S. attorney were fired — all political, and all disturbing.

1. Helping friends. Ms. Lam had already put one powerful Republican congressman in jail and was investigating other powerful politicians. The Justice Department, unpersuasively, claims that it was unhappy about Ms. Lam’s failure to bring more immigration cases. Meanwhile, Ms. Lam has been replaced with an interim prosecutor whose résumé shows almost no criminal law experience, but includes her membership in the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.

2. Candidate recruitment. U.S. attorney is a position that can make headlines and launch political careers. Congressional Democrats suspect that the Bush administration has been pushing out long-serving U.S. attorneys to replace them with promising Republican lawyers who can then be run for Congress and top state offices.

3. Presidential politics. The Justice Department concedes that Mr. Cummins was doing a good job in Little Rock. An obvious question is whether the administration was more interested in his successor’s skills in opposition political research — let’s not forget that Arkansas has been lucrative fodder for Republicans in the past — in time for the 2008 elections.

The charge of politics certainly feels right. This administration has made partisanship its lodestar. The Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran revealed in his book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” that even applicants to help administer post-invasion Iraq were asked whom they voted for in 2000 and what they thought of Roe v. Wade.

Congress has been admirably aggressive about investigating. Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, held a tough hearing. And he is now talking about calling on the fired U.S. attorneys to testify and subpoenaing their performance evaluations — both good ideas.

The politicization of government over the last six years has had tragic consequences — in New Orleans, Iraq and elsewhere. But allowing politics to infect U.S. attorney offices takes it to a whole new level. Congress should continue to pursue the case of the fired U.S. attorneys vigorously, both to find out what really happened and to make sure that it does not happen again.

PATHETIC !

HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRAT 2007 !

 
at 8:06 PM, February 27, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

John Kasich would be an outstanding governor and in all likelihood would blow the doors off Ted Strickland in 2010. I would work for him with pleasure.

And Rob Portman needs to be courted to replace George Voinovich in the Senate, also in 2010. Portman and Kasich in leadership working for Ohio could bring the GOP back on the track it was knocked off of by the goofy, corrupt Taft gang.

We need to be looking for a solid Conservative to bump off Sherrod Brown in 2012....

 
at 8:45 PM, February 27, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kasich is a blowbag. Going Nowhere, fast.
Wait until people get to know him.

 
at 10:10 PM, February 27, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

cincy911truth--I checked out the video and have an explanation any Republican will believe--The report was being sent from New York to London, therefore, because of the time difference between the two cities, the collapse of Building 7 actually occurred several hours earlier. Make sense now?
PS--I'd love for Kasich to run-he could make any opponent look good.

 
at 7:07 AM, February 28, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Johnny can't get enough rubber chicken."

"Put another L in the Wulsin column."

Who thinks this stuff up?

I LOVE IT!

 
at 10:03 AM, February 28, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"....We need to be looking for a solid Conservative to bump off Sherrod Brown in 2012...."

Dreamer, your nothing but a Dreamer !

Hey make that solid conservative a fundamentalist zealot, as well !

"t" for totterer !

"t" must be one of those "young" wRong wingnut whackos spewing the party line elephant dung propaganda !

How naive !

PATHETIC !

HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRAT 2007 !

 
at 11:04 AM, February 28, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kasich and Portman can lead Ohio's GOP back on track in 2010. Now we must look hard for some additional Reagan Conservatives to reinforce the strong presence of these two leaders. Meanwhile, we have to ride roughshod on the Strickland gang to minimize the damage between now and 2010. Having GOP majorities in both Ohio houses helps.

 
at 11:23 AM, February 28, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Rubber Chicken" is also a term for an atheist who dismisses the very notion of gods.

 
at 1:53 PM, March 01, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now we know how the libs really thing...9/11 was all Bush's fauly.

 
at 5:55 PM, March 01, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous said...

"...Now we know how the libs really thing...9/11 was all Bush's fauly...."

Does thing = think ?

Does fauly = fault ?

Now, we understand why the wRong wingnut whackos continue to vote against their own economic interests !

They never made it past grade school grammar !

Just a little conservative with the spell check, bubba webster !

lol, lol, lol

PATHETIC !

HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRAT 2007 !

 
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