Has anyone combined righteous indignation and humiliation -and a fat dollop of hypocrisy - quite like Ohio Governor Ted Strickland?  You be the judge:

(via Athens Runaway)

We have reached the moment I knew was coming.  I said it when Strickland pulled his flip-flop on slots:

I have a suspicion this is a setup.  There will be a battle over gambling and when it doesn’t work, the response will be we have to raise taxes.  This is a last ditch effort to avoid tax increases.  If Ted Strickland was a leader he would stick to his principles and both oppose increased gambling and hold the line against taxes.

And the Governor has just made his first move in this little game:

Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, has said he is OK with Strickland implementing slots on his own, but he has refused to support a legislative vote. A week’s worth of meetings have not brought the two sides closer together, so Strickland has tossed the ball into Harris’ court.

“I believe that he and the Senate Majority have an obligation to say what taxes they would increase or what services they would further reduce in order to balance the budget,” Strickland said in a statement.

“I look forward to hearing from the Senate what other source of revenue, or what additional cuts, they will suggest in the three remaining days of the legislative conference committee. I continue to be available around the clock and will remain accessible to the legislative leadership.”

See how that works?  Propose something that you know full well is opposed by the legislature and the public (and yourself it until just a minute ago) and then act disappointed when they don’t go along.

Next step is blaming the GOP.  If they do the stupid thing and raise taxes you know the base will be angry and the message of the party will be blurred. If they propose the cuts then you can blame them for the angry constituents of whatever programs get cut.

Strickland filled the budget with gambling money because he didn’t want to be on the hook for those cuts and he is trying to maneuver some of the blame on to the plate of Bill Harris and Republicans.

And you know what they should do?  They should suck it up and cut. The immediate backlash may seem harsh but in the long run a GOP who raises taxes is not going to be in the majority.  2010 is a ways off.  Do what you know is right and keep your foundational prerogatives straight.

Ohio got in this very position by refusing to make the hard choices; by being risk averse and satisfied with the status quo of high taxes and bloated government (and when they did cut taxes they story line of Taft incompetence and “corruption” was already in place and the base was turned off).  You have a chance to change that by sticking to your guns and then running on making the tough choices and moving the state forward on your basic principles: low taxes, effective government, and economic growth based on free market ideas not government programs.

This may seem like a giant game of chicken over the future of the state.  So be it. Embrace it.  Make Strickland blink  It is not only the right thing to do for Ohio, and for the future of your party, but it is the best gift you can give GOP candidates for office in 2010.

Because they are really ratcheting up the lame attacks on John Kasich.  First, they offered this lame website making the accusation that Kasich’s job at Lehman Brothers somehow makes him responsible for the firms collapse, the housing bubble, and the general economic crisis.

I thought Kasich handled that one best:

“Blaming me for Lehman Brothers is like blaming a car dealer in Zanesville for the collapse of General Motors,” Kasich said. “It’s patently absurd.”

Do the Democrats really want to get into an argument about what caused the housing boom and bust?  Do they want to talk about all the connected Democrats who worked for Fannie May and Freddie Mac, got huge bonuses and then paid no price when the whole thing crashed (even as they insisted that nothing was wrong)?  Not too mention the Democrats who insisted on the policy of getting anyone into home ownership no matter the qualifications or credit record.  This is to say nothing of the millions of dollars Democrats have taken from Wall Street firms and individuals. This kind of guilt by association is weak tea.

Not content with a fake web page, however, they have now begun to demand that Kasich release not only his tax returns, but complete details on his work at Lehman and, get this, his entire economic platform:

So, we thought we’d ask John Kasich once again: What did you do at Lehman Brothers? And which taxes would you raise - or which services would you cut - to pay for your proposal to eliminate the state income tax? Ohioans deserve to know.

How bold of Democrats to demand Kasich explain his entire economic platform for years in the future a year and a half before the election.  Gotcha!

Um, no.

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Cross Posted to Ohio Politics Online

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland must have had an odd tingly sensation run up his spine on Monday. Why the sudden sense of fear?  Chuck Norris endorsed John Kasich’s bid for governor of Ohio:

John Kasich is running for governor of Ohio. As his website conveys, Kasich is the son of a mailman, who grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood in Pennsylvania. His values are rooted in faith, family, community and common sense. John was elected to the Ohio State Senate at the age of 26 and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 at the age of 30. As a nine-term congressman, John led the way in a variety of groundbreaking achievements, including constructing and implementing plans to balance the federal budget, create new jobs, reduce taxes, minimize the roles of government and other critical issues important to America’s founders. John is also well known as the host of a national weekly news show called “Heartland with John Kasich. Newsweek magazine named him one of its “100 people for the 21st century.”

As Ohio Capital Blog noted on Twitter: “Chuck Norris doesn’t endorse candidates. He wills them into office.”

Feel free to offer your Chuck Norris aphorisms in the comments.

Yesterday I was able to attend John Kasich’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign announcement and rally. And I have to say that, while everyone knows it is a tough road ahead, he started things off very well last night.

Ohio seems poised to shake off the ugliness of the past few years with a number of candidates who can excite the grassroots and bring the GOP coalition back together again. Kasich’s rally last night gave a glimpse of the excitement that is building.

For more, see below.

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When President Barack Obama wants to prove he is a centrist, and not afraid to tell his own supporters they are wrong, the one thin reed he has is some nice words on education policy.  True, he doesn’t have much of an actual record of bucking the education lobby on policy (see Freddoso for example) but he does have a history of rhetorically supporting charter schools and merit pay; two things that most unions oppose vehemently.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland is also a down the line liberal who pretends to be centrist, but he has failed to emulate the leader of his party on the issue of charter schools.  Instead of embracing charter schools - called community schools in Ohio - he has launched an all out attack on them via the state budget.

What is remarkable is that the state’s editorial boards - who have criticized charters in the past and are no bastions of conservatism - have responded by calling on Strickland to listen to Obama and stop his partisan attack on the schools.

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