Thoughts On An Icy Day

God love Matt Drudge for his wonderful use of the web to highlight political irony. Example: this afternoon's flashback to a piece in 2005 over the high cost of a Presidential Inauguration during a time of war and economic uncertainty. Back then the Bush Bashers were apoplectic over the thought of $50 million being spent on a party celebrating the first 50+ percentage point win by any presidential candidate in nearly a generation; after all, it was W. Now that it's O, what's the guessing on who contrasts live in Baghdad on January 20th with live in DC for the party?

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Outgoing U.S. Senator George Voinovich's office sends out word that Treasury Secretary-in-waiting Tim Geithner faces big problems with Ohio's senior senator thanks to his tax problems.

“It's a very bad thing for the guy that's running Treasury to be out there saying, 'I made a mistake. I forgot about it,'" Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, tells the Associated Press. "The American public thinks that there's some people ... especially a lot of these guys on Wall Street, that have had it made in the shade."

I'm sure Geithner is very scared.

What is amazing is that none of this came up when Geithner was selected to run the New York Federal Reserve, perhaps the second most powerful gig in the Fed beyond only chairman Ben Bernanke. He owed more than $42 grand for almost eight years and nobody picked up this might be a problem? This also from a guy getting grand marks from the goofs in Congress for his handling of the bailout -- the same bailout they voted for that they now rail over because they have absolutely no idea of how the money's been spent, shy of funding big banks buying other banks. More of a taxpayer-funded venture capital fund rather than for recovery, and now Frank and Dodd and Obama want banks to fork over more money for loans to people who can't prove they can pay it back. No wonder we live in an age of Pax Americana, where even the best and brightest can't seem to figure out how to pay their own bills much less manage other people's money responsibly. Where else does a guy who fesses up to missing tax payments big enough for entire families to live on for a year get a job overseeing the IRS?

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The GOP games are underway with former Congressman and Washington insider Rob Portman (OMB Director, Trade Ambassador) barely leaving a split-second undisturbed from the plaudits heading George Voinovich's way to say he's running for Senator; now State Senator Kevin Coughlin is tossing his hat into the 2010 Governor's race despite the bruising battle last year over control of the Summit County Republican Party. Coughlin may have his work cut out for him; John Kasich, former Columbus area Congressman and darling of the conservative Reagan wing, is also staking out similar territory and likely to have a much better chance of squeezing big dollars out of weary Republicans for a race against incumbent Ted Strickland. That said, it's a good political move for Coughlin to come out early for statewide office. The strategy is tried and true and right out of former GOP Chair Bob Bennett's playbook; remember when Blackwell, Montgomery and Petro were all running for the same office but then backed down over a period? With just one statewide executive office in GOP hands (Auditor Mary Taylor) there will be plenty of room to play musical political chairs and see if there's a seat for Coughlin when the music stops before filing time for the spring 2010 primary. In the meantime, he draws interest from around the state, uses the soapbox to raise money, and sees just how much political blood flows from the deep cut left over from his battle with Alex.

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Mayor Plusquellic's State of the City is set for next month and it will be interesting to see what's rolling around in the halls of South High as TNBT (the next big thing) to be proposed during this annual speech. One year it was Don Robart being a liar (that didn't play out very well) and last year it was selling (later leasing) the sewer system to fund a scholarship program. This may very well be a great platform for the Mayor to revisit 2008 and challenge his Save Our Sewer opponents, back home by now from the special place in hell Plusquellic sent them when Issue 8 lost. This would be a great time to task them and others to come up with other ways to fund what most thought was a flawed but worth-further-work idea; even the most critical 8 haters admitted they liked the idea of coming up with a way to provide scholarships. Does the UA, and KSU, and College of Wooster, and Malone, and Walsh, and Mount Union, and Case-CSU-Tri-C-YSU finally get a role in this as well as part of a regional solution? Maybe something for the well-meaning regionalists to get behind?

Retirement, By George

No, not George W. -- although I think the President is exiting stage right with much more class than the pathological hatred that seems to follow him. Giving advance notice (two years worth) is longtime Ohio political fixture George Voinovich.

Let the games begin!

The positioning has already started with names ranging from Ryan and Strickland and Fisher, oh my! on the Democratic side to a host of Republicans led by former OMB Director and Congressman Rob Portman.

While I like Voinovich for being independent and admire him for being unafraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, some critics bring up an interesting point: shouldn't George V. and the rest of the political class of Ohio bear some responsibility for the horrible shape the once-mighty engine of the state finds itself?

Voinovich, perhaps unlike any other statewide political figure, spans two generations of true governing at every level of the public's business. He's been a state rep; a county commissioner; a county auditor; Mayor of Cleveland; Lieutenant Governor and Governor, and U.S. Senator. He's been one of the few public officials in the nation to serve not only as President of the National League of Cities (1985) but also to chair the National Governor's Association (1997-98) as well as head the GOP Governor's Association and the Midwest Governor's Association. Here's a guy who not only saw history made...he was the one making it.

So what are we left to ponder as this independent thinker from Cleveland who admits to eating freshwater drum out of Lake Erie (he soaks them in milk forever and claims they taste just like walleye) hangs up his right to prowl the halls of power? Cleveland today isn't the Cleveland he left for Mike White, Jane Campbell and Frank Jackson; it is one of America's poorest cities and by most accounts remains a poster child for major municipalities that just can't seem to make it work. Ohio isn't the Ohio he left for Bob Taft and Ted Strickland; gone is the billion-dollar rainy day fund and in place we find one of America's most vigorous economies sputtering to the status usually reserved for Mississippi and Alabama. Hell, Alabama even has a more vital auto industry. Alabama. Say it out loud for extra effort.

With all that seniority and experience is Ohio awash in a flood of federal dollars similar to what Hurricane Byrd dumped on West Virginia over the past twenty years? With a state ranked eighth in population (and falling) has every federal dollar been diverted the old-fashioned way to pave over enough of the state or fix dilapidated bridges? Those yahoos in Cleveland and ODOT can't even seem to get the Innerbelt, the most precious of northeast Ohio road arteries, worked out. Bob Byrd would've had the money allocated at this point, work underway, prevailing wages paid and the grateful populace begging to name something after him. Here in northeast Ohio, Senator Voinovich has a lakefront park nobody uses except for a couple weeks in the summer named after him.

We -- and he -- really missed the boat. What happened to the political brains that built the nation into a juggernaut after the Civil War, and helped steer American in the 1900's into the waters of world domination?

This isn't all V's fault; he did leave the state in better shape, and without the condition of Cleveland after his tenure at least posing the hope of getting better we never would have seen the development that has occurred in this city by the lake now seemingly bereft of hope.

George says he wants to spend all of his time and energy over the next two years doing the job as U.S. Senator; perhaps its time for the people of Ohio to look favorably over a replacement that will do the job as a collector for Ohio's interests. While decent men and women such as George V. can help make politics more decent maybe what we really need is a Ted Stevens, a Robert C. Byrd, a Lyndon Johnson/Sam Rayburn, a Robert Taft (the former Senator, not the one taken down for accepting a couple steaks and free golf) or a Trent Lott.

If landlocked states get Naval bases then Ohio needs Naval bases; Alabama, Florida and Texas stand as the home of NASA...and if the space agency survives the Obama vision then Ohio needs to be more than just a Glenn Lewis afterthought. West Virginia now has a huge chunk of the FBI and, if memory serves, stands as the major repository of IRS computing in the nation. Are we such chopped liver we can't get a piece of this?

Someone who doesn't just rail about the bacon but someone who brings it home -- in a dump truck. Time for a return to time-honored tradition and performance: Ohio needs Senator Pork.