Ohio 2nd Blog

I’m wondering if since Pat DeWine’s only strong suit is his daddy’s name that all of the problem’s coming out of his daddy’s office are significant to the story of his bid for Ohio’s 2nd? First the Senator made the foolish mistake of showing some independence in a Party that tolerates nothing less than 100% goose stepping loyalty, and now it’s the resurgence of The Washingtonienne.

For those of you not in the loop of the current beltway scandal front runner, The Washingtonienne is a young staff Assistant for Senator DeWine who not only was being paid for sex with Senate and White House employees but was also writing about it in great detail on her blog under the handle Washingtonienne. All was going well until Beltway Gossip Monger Wonkette linked to her blog and her true identity of Jessica Cutler was revealed.

Soon she was kicked out into the cold and forced to fall back on a career doing faux lesbian photo shoots for Playboy and writing a steamy sex novel based on the blog.

I do note that The Hill reports that Mike DeWine’s seat is now being listed by Chuck Schumer as one of the ones vulnerable in 2006:

Schumer ticked off a half-dozen GOP incumbents who he said are vulnerable, including Rick Santorum (Pa.), Lincoln Chafee (R.I.), Conrad Burns (Mont.), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Jim Talent (Mo.) and Jon Kyl (Ariz.). And, noting that Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) planned to announce his Senate candidacy yesterday, Schumer predicted he will run a strong race against Majority Leader Bill Frist.

It used to be that you would never see an Ohio seat listed as vulnerable on one of these lists. Now I know you can’t give the Ohio Democrats any credit for this sudden change of fortune. This is pure Republican hubris. (Whoops… 25 cents in the hubris jar)

All this makes me wonder if I should cover such stories on the blog. As much as I hate posting pictures of women kissing and linking to Playboy it seems to almost be my duty given how things are playing out in this race. Let me just say… you, dear reader, are the boss of this blog. If all this offends please let us know and we’ll go back to talking about Pat DeWine’s lack of record, his trying to pass himself off as a Conservative, and his inability to keep a job.

UPDATE: Lesbian kiss pics removed on command from Mrs. Editor. Yes dear…

This is the first of what I’m calling our difficult questions series. Have any difficult questions that you’d like to ask the candidates? Drop us a line.

Last night 60 minutes ran a story about the publicly available Barrett 82A1 Semi Automatic .50 Caliber Rifle.

“Do I believe I could shoot an aircraft at altitude? Of course not, but on takeoff and landing, I could take you to places in Washington, D.C., where I’m absolutely certain you could shoot an aircraft with one of these guns,” says Diaz.

“Clearly, with the range that it has, and the impact capability that it has, it would put an airliner or an airplane at risk if it hit that plane,” adds Kelly.

Could the gun be used by a terrorist to shoot down a commercial airliner?

“It’d be very difficult. It would if it were a tactic that were even remotely possible,” says Barrett. “Then our military, who happens to use the rifle, would be training their troops to do such.”

But in his sales brochures, Barrett advertises the .50-caliber as a weapon that can take planes down.

“There’s some military brochures that we had early on that showed that you could damage aircraft on a runway or Scud missiles and things like that,” says Barrett. “Yes, you could if you have a parked target.”

But not in the air? “That’s correct,” says Barrett.

Just this past year, the Rand Corporation released a report identifying 11 potential terrorist scenarios involving Los Angeles International Airport.

In one scenario, “a sniper using a .50-caliber rifle fires at parked and taxiing aircraft.” The report concludes: “We were unable to identify any truly satisfactory solutions” for such an attack.

So here’s some questions for Tom Brinkman:

• Does Tom Brinkman support the right for people, including potential terrorists, to purchase .50 caliber rifles?
• Does he think that it’s a good idea that because of the actions of the Bush Administration we have NO RECORDS for purchases of dangerous weapons like this?

Based on what I read on Mr. Brinkman’s website the answer would have to be yes. But maybe I’m assuming too much. Maybe he draws the line somewhere else. I wonder where it is? Maybe it’s OK if drug dealers have assault rifles so that it’s easier for them to take out police officers. Maybe that’s Tom Brinkman’s line.

We’ll just have to wait and see if anyone asks Mr. Brinkman this difficult question.

What about the rest of them? What’s their position? After all… if you’re running for Congress you should be able to answer those difficult questions.

It’s been 10 days since our beloved Ohio 2nd Blog launched with a report from your humble editor on the first Democratic primary debate. In all that time Mr. Sanders, noble tilter of Republican windmills still hasn’t updated his web site from the previous run he made for the 2nd. Note the date he’s asking for people to vote:

Add on to that the response that I received from the Sanders campaign when I asked him for comment on an unrelated matter:

From: Chas and Carolyn Sanders <mayor@charleswsanders.org>
Date: 29 May 2005 04:30:55 -0000

We are temporarily unavailable to respond. The courtesy you demonstrated by writing is appreciated and will be rewarded by our sincerest review. Please feel free to post follow ups as needed. Charles and Carolyn Sanders

The content of the email combined with the fact that the e-mail reply came moments after I posted to them indicates an automated response that has nothing to do with someone running for Congress.

All this makes me wonder… Is Charles Sanders seriously running in the Ohio 2nd Special?

The Enquirer’s Peter Bronson has quoted Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Greg Hartmann today accusing Pat DeWine of knowingly lying in a May 18th press release by claiming that he endorses DeWine in the Ohio 2nd primary.

I was a little disappointed to see my name on the list. I had two explicit conversations with Pat. Pat was ticked off at me, but he knew I was not endorsing him and he did it anyway. I don’t think there was any misunderstanding. I haven’t endorsed him and he knew it.

While The Enquirer reports that DeWine communications director Tony Condia has taken responsibility for the “screw-up” it’s strange that at the time of this posting, even after talking to a reporter about it, the press release is still up on DeWine’s website.

(via The Political Influentials)

Personally, I think that the strangest thing about Peter Bronson’s story is that he can write a whole article about integrity in the GOP primary and not once mention Bouncing Bob’s problems with the ‘i’ word.

UPDATE: Ha!!! Caught ya lookin’! I knew that screen shot would come in handy. My foo is to strong for you, grasshopper.

NOTE TO SELF: Write perl script using w3mir to scrape candidate’s web sites at regular intervals so that they can’t just remove embarassing materials to try and cover up their tracks when they screw up. Thanks guys for the idea!

With all the extremists lining up behind Bouncing Bob The Griff is starting to think that anti-choice gun lover Tom Brinkman is starting to look downright reasonable.

I do respect a straight shooter, which everyone says Brinkman is. I just don’t get how you reconcile the NRA philosophy of cheap, easy to obtain, assault weapons for everyone with the whole “pro-life” thing. Me, I agree with G. Gordon Liddy… if you need more than six shots to kill someone, you shouldn’t own a gun.

ASIDE: As a pinko liberal there’s nothing funnier then watching a conservative’s reaction when you quote G. Gordon Liddy at them.

It looks like the Ohio GOP needs to hurry and get those ethics courses up and running.

While looking for signs of life at the various Republican candidate’s web sites I did find this tidbit from May 14 over at Tom Brinkman’s campaign site. Brinkman send an e-mail to the Blue Chip Review alleging that Pat DeWine was indulging in the highly questionable practice of push polling:

Pat DeWine is at it again.

This weekend he has paid phone solicitors to call thousands of Republicans throughout the district and asking them who they are going to vote for. If the person says, “I do not know,” they are told the virtues of Pat DeWine. It the person says another candidate, they are told all sorts of BAD things about that candidate.

All of these BAD things have already been developed through previously conducted push polls. Rather than promote himself and his ideas, Pat has already proven that he will engage in negative campaigning.

Pat is proving once again why he is not suited to be our Congressman. Please let your friends and neighbors know what Pat DeWine is doing. Ask them to spread the word that Pat DeWine is NOT suited to be our Congressman. This has nothing to do with how he has conducted himself in the past, this is about how he is conducting himself NOW.

Tom Brinkman, Jr.

Push polling is just about the scummiest technique that a political campaign can employ. A push poll is when a voter gets a call from someone saying they are doing a poll but in reality the questions are veiled highly negative attacks against an opponent.

The most famous example of push polling was the one reportedly employed successfully by supporters of President Bush during the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary against Senator John McCain. Voters reported being asked “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” There is no substance to that allegation. In fact Senator McCain had adopted an Asian child.

We’ve asked the DeWine campaign yesterday for comment. but as of now have not received a response. We’ll pass it along to you if and when we do.

AND, if you or anyone you know are the victim of a push poll, or any other campaign technique that you find questionable, please drop a line to your friends at the Ohio 2nd blog.

As things heat up the quality of the comments is dwindling fast. Time to tighten the noose. HA HA!!! What a beautiful tyrant I am astride my two bit utopia! Maybe Bush is onto something with this whole neo-facism thing

I’m going to also delete the comments that are anonymous and seem questionable to me. Cross over, children. All are welcome. All welcome, go into the light…

If you’re going to level the attack, at least do so publicly.

FYI, Democratic candidate Dr. Victoria Wulsin will also be appearing at the Blue Ash Memorial Day Parade.

Come join us at Blue Ash’s Memorial Day Parade beginning on Reed Hartman Highway just north of Malsbury Rd. and ending at the Blue Ash Veterans’ Memorial. Enjoy a pleasant walk while showing off your “Wulsin for Congress” t-shirt, and then stick around for the Memorial Day ceremonies that follow.

Is it just me or is it strange that Bouncing Bob’s blog hasn’t been updated in 10 days? God knows there’s a lot to talk about in this race. And the last big of Bouncing Bob News is from May 9th. For the candidate with by far the best web site in the race, things are surprisingly dead, despite the scrolling headlines and clock in the upper right hand corner. HA! Can’t fool me… I worked for XOOM.com. I know all the tricks

Interesting quote from today’s pro GOP BizzyBlog:

Don’t even try to tell me August 2 is a lock if Paul Hackett is the other candidate on the ballot.