Several days ago he was kind enough to let me interview him on the positions. I found him to be very a personable and sincere person. Only by reminding myself of how carefully guarded some of his answers were did the 30 years of legal experience come through.
While he made a point of telling me that he wasn’t experienced at running for Congress, he came off to me as someone who could get up to speed quickly. While he’s not a barnstormer, his opinions are refreshingly unboilerplate. We talked openly about abortion, health care, defense spending, guns , Iraq, and global warming. The fact that he veered right into a passionate advocacy of nuclear power was interesting in light of the issues here in the district. This will probably be the last chance to hear unvarnished answers from the candidate before he gets put through the standard wash cycle of campaign staffers, so enjoy.
I listen back at the interview and kick myself over how unprepared and rambling my questions were. Hopefully you won’t find them too annoying. I do love to hear myself yammer on.
The thing that struck many people right off that fact is that Black’s campaign manager used to be Vic Wulsin’s. If there’s a story there and you know there’s a story there, Mary Huttlinger isn’t spilling the beans. I’m sorry but Steve’s the complete candidate package just isn’t going to cut it. I’m sure that the weeks ahead will bring out lots of juicy gossip to wile away the months as we suffer through this God forsakenly too long campaign season. (Personally, I’m not sure how many more action items, urgent appeals, and heartfelt yet empty orations I can stand. Doesn’t anyone have a job anymore? Surely being a Senator takes time, doesn’t it?)
Bottom line, at this point Black’s candidacy is more significant because of what he is than what he believes in. As a man highly connected to some of the richest political donors in the country, his entry radically shifts the Democratic primary landscape. The question is how much? Many underestimate Vic Wulsin’s substantial backing from the liberal base in the district. Vic’s core is very loyal. This is a primary. Money doesn’t have nearly the edge that it does in the general. Candidates are rallying the base. Right off the bat I’d give her a 35% to 40% head start. Anyone (except one person) who runs against her will have to shatter a significant portion of that margin in order to have a chance. However, when you talk to anyone thinking of heading her off, including Black, the last thing they want to say is that they are running “against” Vic Wulsin. I’m running FOR mom, apple pie, and the right to drive around in oversized SUVs, not against Vic. Get an internal poll 30 days before the primary that has you down 20 points and see what sort of sucker punches your war room will be coming up with. As Reese Bobby always says, if you’re not first, you’re last.
Right now this pundit would have to say that with the name recognition, strong core, momentum from 2006, and battle experience Vic Wulsin still has to be considered the odds on favorite in the 2nd.
Politics is a deceptively difficult craft. Much like poker and Jackass, it’s easy for someone to look at it and think that they can be good at it. Steve Black will have to prove to people quickly that he’s got the right stuff to play this ugliest of blood sports. He says he does… right before he tells you that he’s never really done this before.
Well… welcome to the game, Mr. Black. The Ohio 2nd is the most talked about, action packed Congressional District in the country. Thus it is the nastiest. I do hope you’ve brought a helmet.
Activists were disappointed that Vic Wulsin didn’t attend as scheduled.
The blog Idaho Samizdat Nuke Notes has some interesting coverage on the complex story. Interestingly enough politicians from all over the spectrum are doing about faces when it comes to bringing nuclear waste to the 2nd district.
This year your humble editor has been slacking pretty bad when it comes to updating everyone with the latest news about the district. While much of it can be chalked up to I’ve got my own damned problems, part of it comes from the fact that the district is so hot as a target, and Schmidt so wonderful as a nemesis that it blogs itself. I’ve reached a sort of zen nirvana where by doing nothing everything happens. It is a thing of beauty.
You can tell that we are witnessing the blessed final collapse of the Reagan revolution by how voraciously Republicans are eating themselves alive. What in the 80s was cynical, masterful hypocrisy has two decades later become the moronic rantings of a horribly inbred lineage. Bereft of ideas, goals, or moral compass, those of us who have suffered through decades of being right now get to enjoy as the devil collects his interest on their collective Faustian bargain.
Case in point the perverse orgy of self cannibalism currently going on in Southern Ohio.
Lets start with The Banks project. Congresswoman Schmidt, desperate to be able to take credit for anything besides turning Jack Murtha into a household word, does what any good Representative does by trying to bring some much needed public works projects to her district. But instead of having the measly few billions rubber stamped like everyone else’s, she gets hit by a massive smack down by neighboring Congressman Steve Chabot, Minority Leader Leader John Boehner, and the White House itself in the form of the locally beatified Budget Director Rob Portman.
When an entity stands for nothing but power, it’s easy to interpret its actions. In the case of a loyal right wing trooper like Congresswoman Schmidt becoming the cheese that stands alone, it’s obvious that the action tells us that she is completely on the outs from her own Party. Believe what you will from the mouthpieces, but in 08 Jean Schmidt will be fighting this one without the help from the beltway black hats.
In terms of tactics, it’s pretty understandable. Ask yourself, would you rather dump another million dollars on the political sinkhole that Jean Schmidt has turned the 2nd district into, or instead invest it in knocking out a lightweight like Zack Space and gaining some much needed momentum?
There has been every indication that Brinkman will take on Schmidt again since he’s being term limited from his gig as State Rep. A bloody, I’m more right wing than you, three way slugfest will be the perfect prelude for liberals looking forward to the general: Jean Schmidt once again the Republican standard bearer holding a cool quarter of a million dollars of additional debt.
Brinkman is one of the tragic figures of the 2nd district. There’s a fine line between being an idealistic maverick and an opportunistic gray hat. Time and time again Brinkman has overplayed his hand placing him squarely in with the gray hats. And any follower of westerns knows what happens to gray hats.
It will be interesting to see what sort of career opportunities an unemployed, ineffective professional homophobe like Tom Brinkman might have in Southern Ohio. I hear they might be hiring in Piketon.
My favorite con that a member of Congress has is that of “introducing legislation.” They can introduce a bill that advocates anything. They can take credit for fighting to cure cancer, saving cute little puppies, or providing us with shelter from global warming on the moon. The cool thing is that they can take credit for all this knowing full well that their bills don’t have to actually accomplish anything or even a snowballs chance in hell of actually passing. (I’m a big fan of creating performance metrics for politicians and government agencies.)
The key tell of the con is the fact that the Representative is bragging about it in the press before the legislation has ever passed. Case in point:
If anyone has any doubts about Rep. Jean Schmidt’s plans for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, a bill she and two colleagues introduced on Friday should clear that up.
That bill - the Nuclear Waste Storage Prohibition Act - would ensure that no funds from the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) may be used for the creation of a permanent storage facility for spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste.
The complaint by Piketon community members has never been that they are planning to create a “permanent” nuclear storage facility in Piketon, but to instead to turn it into a “temporary” waste recycling and storage facility.
One does have to say that your humble editor is impressed that the Congresswoman has learned to use the power of any Representative to introduce any legislation even though they know that it will have no effect on anything and is just for show. Even better, she’s gotten Democratic Congressman Zack Space to join her in the con:
With such economic potential, it just makes sense to assure our Ohioans from the outset that this project will be a safe, secure facility - never anything like a Yucca Mountain-type nuclear-waste dump.
Well played, Congresswoman Schmidt.
The talk has never been about turning Piketon into a replacement for Yucca Mountain. The complaint has always been that they want to use Piketon as a “temporary” storage facility because they can’t find a permanent home for the junk. Since no one knows when a permanent home will be found the waste would be in Piketon for an unspecified amount of time… rusting away… just like it has been for decades on the existing cleanup site. Before they should ever consider bringing more nuclear waste to Piketon they should clean up the site that’s already contaminated.
The Enquirer is reporting that former Hamilton County commissioner Phil Heimlich is officially taking Jean Schmidt on in the 2nd district Republican primary. Heimlich lost his bid for reelection to David Pepper in 06. He’s claiming that he’s already raised $120,000 for the bid, compared to Schmidt’s $17,000 in the bank.
VikingSpirit thinks that he can take Schmidt if they go head to head. I’m not so sure. While I agree that the only way that he has a chance is if Schmidt’s opponents don’t split their votes, I still think she’s a tough nut to crack.
What issue is he going to run on? These days the only things Republican candidates seem to be able to talk about is how much they love Ronald Reagan. There’s no way he can outflank her on the right, and restoring dignity to the office hasn’t exactly been a winner over the last two races she’s won.
ADDED: My bet is Heimlich will be the only major primary challenger to the Congresswoman. He’s got enough clout to lock up the anybody but Schmidt monied supporters.
It’s not often that a cynical old coot such as your humble editor is impressed with anything. These days life seems to consist of long streams of boredom punctuated by weekly fits of anger directed at the writers of The Sopranos. (Please, guys… is anything EVER going to happen??? Could you let me in on the secret now… we’re on a budget and I could use the time for more constructive purposes.)
However my friend Jerid, the new zoo keeper over at the mighty Buckeye State Blog, has managed to come up with a real winner. He calls it The New Hampshire Project. The idea is that since the early primary states like New Hampshire have so much control over states like Ohio when it comes to who gets to be President, that he’d spend the summer blogging about the race from an Ohio perspective.
Ohio First Lady Frances Strickland and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will be the special guests for the 2007 ODP Mother’s Day Tribute Lunch at the Columbus Renaissance Hotel on May 12 at 12:30 pm.
Here’s a message from the regional Southwest Regional Co-Directors Michele Young and Elizabeth Motter: (more…)
Every year, the Pentagon zeros out funding for the costly earmark, and each year lawmakers representing districts that have a vested interest re-insert the cash. It would be one thing if the pork could swim around the bloated defense bill as an eight-figure vote-getter, losing itself in a myriad of such programs inserted into the bill without a Pentagon request. But the alternate engine program is on a nearly half-billion dollar life support system that sucks a chunk of funds away from needs the Air Force claims are more urgent.
How many more MRAP vehicles could the Pentagon buy to protect forces in Iraq with the $480 million Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) says will result in “lower acquisition costs; reduced development and operational risk; and long term savings in life cycle costs?”
That’s right - at about $1 million a pop, the Army and Marine Corps could use that money to buy nearly 500 of the IED-resistant vehicles. Not to mention how that money could be put to use in the Air Force’s $17 billion unfunded priorities list – like A-10 upgrades ($37 million) and force protection equipment for Airmen ($250 million).
According to the Congressional Research Service report advocating the end of the project by National Defense Specialist Christopher Bolkcom, the idea of creating multiple engines from competing contractors stems from what he calls “The Great Engine War” that ran from 1984 to 1994. (The name cracks me up.) The idea was that forcing contracts to compete would create better engines and save money in the long run. There has been no evidence to back up this billion dollar experiment.
The idea that Congress has to force the military to duplicate the manufacture of items from multiple contractors is one of the most insane things I have ever heard of. There’s got to be better ways of putting 2nd district people to work then assembling British made parts for an engine that the Air Force doesn’t want.
Now advocates of the program are forced to fall back on the argument that because we’ve already wasted so much money on the program it would be a waste to not waste more by finishing it… creating a sort of logic death spiral.
Between The Banks and this so much for her claims of being a “fiscal conservative”.
