Dogpile on Jean

This is not a good time to be Jean Schmidt. There she was trying to be all swift-boaty on behalf of her party and it blows up in her face. Well, I won't pile on more grief.

Like Hell I won't.

For anyone who missed Al Franken today, one of his researchers (oh, the shame of not being Michelle Malkin) found Jean's first speech -- on the occaision of her swearing in. Here's another remark she might want stricken from the record:

Honorable people can certainly agree to disagree. However, here today I accept a
second oath. I pledge to walk in the shoes of my colleagues and refrain from
name-calling or the questioning of character. It is easy to quickly sink to the
lowest form of political debate. Harsh words often lead to headlines, but
walking this path is not a victimless crime. This great House pays the price.

Honestly, you just couldn't make something like that up.

Meanwhile, at the Huffinton Post (via PeopleHavethePower), Max Blumenthal has the dirt on Jean's wingnut Marine surrogate, State Rep. Danny Bubp.

End of the Affair

The short-lived strange bedfellowship between Ohio liberals and Scott Pullins and the Ohio Taxpayer's Association is officially over. Today OTA announced that it is making 500,000 robo-calls to Republican households to gin up support for the drive-the-state-off-a-cliff TABOR amendment.

It's no secret that OTA loves TABOR, and would continue to do so long after it reduced all of Colorado to a smoking crater. They were, after all, the group that wouldn't play nice when Blackwell postponed the vote by a year -- they blasted him.

On the other hand, one doesn't need to be a professional political operative to know that campaigning almost a year from the election is a dubious expenditure of resources. So why the calls? No clue on Pullins' blog. And he is a professional political operative.

My speculation is to push Blackwell into putting his energy back behind the effort. His support for the amendment since the pullback has been tepid at best. His blog hasn't featured a TABOR story since the election (though to be fair, a Blackwell flak did make with the brave face after the Colorado debacle). Meanwhile he has made noises about getting behind a ballot issue to impose First Class Education's 65% solution, on top of that gubernatorial campaign thingy he has planned.

TABOR supporters have every right to be nervous. First, Coloradans gave the concept a heavy no-confidence vote. Then the RON results suggested that sweeping reforms like TABOR don't go down that well in the voting booth. If the RON implosion is indeed due to the twin factors of people seeing complicated ballot language and not wanting to do that to the state Constitution, TABOR could suffer a similar blow next election.

As I said before, the netroots did a good job with Hackett and could do similar work getting the word our about the TABOR menace. Check out the Coalition for Ohio's Future website for updates, info and links.

Arshinkoff Says: Judge? Not!

The controversy over adding to Summit County's commom pleas court drags on. The BJ editorialized about Alex's latest moves yesterday. An editorial from October provides an earlier snapshot. To briefly summarize: the Ohio Supreme Court has recommended at least one more seat to ease case loads. (As of a few of years ago, criminal loads ran as high as the 80s or 90s. I've not heard that they have eased.) Our local Senators, Zurz and Coughlin, have introduced a bill bumping our quota up one to nine. Similar bills have stalled in the house where Speaker Husted, at Alex's apparent behest, refuses to give them an up or down vote. This meets your Recommended Daily Allowance of irony.

Why? It's all about maintaining control over the court. Summit County leans Democratic as a whole, but also tends to reelect appointed judges. When a Republican judge is ready to retire, Alex can usually orchestrate that judge leaving the bench early so that the Governor can appoint someone to run as a quasi-incumbent. A new seat, on the other hand, is filled in the next General Election.

Right now the court comprises five Republicans (Cosgrove, Hunter, Murphy, Spicer and Unruh) to three Democrats (Bond, Shapiro and Stormer). Of the Republicans, only Judy Hunter could reasonably be called vulnerable, and she's up again for a full term in '08. Meanwhile, Murphy and Spicer are sufficiently fed up with Alex's high-handedness as to generate speculation that they might not leave early when their time is done. And finally, as the BJ notes, a Democratic Governor would render the last consideration moot.

In all, Alex's hold on the Common Pleas general division has never been more tenuous. This after once again losing an absolute majority in Akron Muni. If he loses the Republican majority in the division, he loses a number of patronage job slots, a fair amount of political juice county-wide, and needed muscle in his ongoing fight against Oriana House.

The BJ may publicly hope that Husted will stand up to Alex's pressure, but given the stakes, I think we can count on Alex leaving it all on the floor in this fight.

Regionalism Without Foundation Grants

I'm not against regionalism per se. I'm certainly not against getting people together to talk about how we can work together. My biggest concern about the Voices and Choices effort is the fear that its regionalism will turn into a thick suffocating blanket thrown onto us from above.

From yesterday's BJ, here's an example of good regionalism at work:

A blueprint for growth
Wolf Ledges trade association focuses on leadership structure, regional relationships, training

When the Builders Exchange of Akron lost its longtime executive director, it also lost a critical building block.

James A. Dougherty had led the trade group for 35 years before his death in 2001.

Three years later, membership had dwindled from 220 to 100. Directors who succeeded Dougherty didn't work out.

At the same time, technology was making obsolete the organization's fundamental draw -- a plan room where contractors can copy blueprints.

``We could have survived a few more years,'' President Don Taylor said.

But he wanted to head off desperation, so he and the board went looking for a salvage plan. They found it in Canton.

After extensive interviewing and searching, they decided to merge with the Builders Exchange located there. On Feb. 1, the Akron group became the third leg of the Builders Exchange of East Central Ohio, which also has a Youngstown office.

The organization now is refocused on regional relationships, education programs to help members work on common issues, and a strong leadership structure, said Taylor, who remains a board member.

Voices and Choices: One Thing Leads to Another.

Apparently e-zine Cool Cleveland (which isn't the DIY 'zine it's trying to sound like) is selecting its coverage of the blogosphere discussion of Voices and Choices. As you know, a number of bloggers picked up on my original post and added their own thoughts, which tended to be less charitable than mine. BFD noted that Cool Cleveland dropped links to two of those posts -- from Callahan and Democracy Guy.

Cool Cleveland kept its link to my original post, but also added a specific link to David Abbott's response. Meanwhile, Cool Cleveland and V&C may be learning why not to draw the undivided attention of the blogosphere.

Callahan drops a lengthy rant about the CC's self-censorship. He also -- and please read to the bottom of his post to get this -- notes that one of the most jarring and incendiary factoids in V&C's Townhall Participant's Guide (.pdf) appears to have no actual source. It was just lifted from a website without attribution and the owner of the original is still trying to track down where he got it. Callahan promises more digging, more posting.

Meanwhile Democracy Guy Tim Russo, at his new home at Buckeye Politics, smells payola in the water and starts circling.

A Sprinkling of Parsley

GrOhio has link to a BJ story on Rod Parsley. The story itself is the usual stuff, although it does at least touch on his radical and intolerant view of Islam, unlike past stories.

It's an AP story that I cannot find on the BJ's website without the GrOhio link. I'm not so sure it actually saw print.

Highland Square Follow-up

[Edited to correct significant error]

I had heard that Mayor [Ken] Don Plusquellec made a surprise appearence at the Highland Square Neighborhood Association meeting last week, and stomped out in a huff. The ABJ didn't have a reporter there (probably too many people writing Cynthia George preview stories), but the West Side Leader did:

After being called out onto the floor by attendees, Plusquellic spent about 30 minutes handling comments and answering questions before abruptly leaving when a man in the audience accused him of “trying to ruin” Highland Square.

In a mostly gracious and civil discourse with residents, Plusquellic countered Hudson’s assertion that Highland Square needs less, not more, parking by saying there is some level of need for parking in Akron’s urban environment because public transportation is not utilized in this part of the country as it is in other cities.

A friend of mine who was the impertinent questioner says the actual quote was "Why are you trying to ruin our neighborhood?" He also says the tension in the room was considerably higher than the WL Leader describes.

The main issue is parking -- how much and where. The New Urbanist acolyte who was speaking made his point by contrasting Wrigley Field (no parking lot, integrated into the neighborhood) with Comiskey U.S. Cellular Field (an island in a sea of concrete.)

You can actually find an example closer to home. On a summer night, compare Mary Coyle's and Angel Falls in the Square with Zach's and Coco's Coffee up the street. Zach's and Coco's have business, but they have little walk-up traffic and the cafe seating at Coco's is almost always empty. They are in no way a part of the surrounding neighborhood. The difference? The expanse of asphalt in front of the Zach's/Coco's strip mall.

People just don't want to hang in a parking lot.