Pigs In Mud

The phrase "play hardball" isn't just about America's unique game; it denotes the winner-take-all mentality and whatever it takes to win mindset we voters love in our sports teams but say we don't want from our elected leaders -- but the results speak differently.

Supporters of Presidential candidates employ a constant mantra of apologies and resignation for ill-tempered, foolish outbursts designed to grab 20 seconds of air time; the candidates themselves play political pinball evading denunciation of the nonsense that erupts from the lips of friends and family, trying not to give aid to their enemies while spanking the exuberance of their allies.

A powerful state's Governor fades into exile after investigators of money-laundering hit the mother lode of sex, money and power -- even to the point of wiretapping the bedroom and phone calls of lovers. We've learned nothing from the kill 'em all impeachment pain of ten years ago. Everyone loses, but the powers-that-be continue to think as long as they lose less they win.

The latest chapter in the Summit County "Elephant Wars" battle between Alex Arshinkoff and Kevin Coughlin has now officially turned into a three-ring circus; a menage a trois of local political heavyweights that now includes Democrat Party boss Wayne Jones, thanks to his behind-the-scenes no-longer "anonymous" sniping at Arshinkoff. Both AkronNewsNow.com and the Akron Beacon Journal have provided quite a chronicle of the spectacle, a not normally seen view of what happens behind closed doors on an unfortunately fairly routine basis.

I was reminded of all this when going over some of our recent coverage, of all things, from Winter Haven and the Indians getting ready for the 2008 campaign. Manager Eric Wedge -- now with two children, a Manager of the Year award tucked in his belt and that oh-so-close season last year says he tells his players the game "Isn't your life; it's not your wife."

This is not to say Wedge doesn't want to win; it's pretty apparent he wants to bring that World Series gold to fans and a community spending far too much time as the butt of jokes from outsiders. It is a reflection of a man who's come to terms with the things that really matter in life and the journey it takes to get there. Former Indians third baseman and now Mahoning Valley Scrappers Manager Travis Fryman tells a similar tale of how the game almost destroyed his marriage, his family, and the life he worked so hard to build. Only when he realized the destructive power of such single-minded pursuit was he able to turn things around and save the people closest to him.

I admire Wedge, Fryman, and the entire Indians organization for their pursuit of a championship while keeping an eye on the core values they believe will get them to the promised land. The mindset clearly filters from the top office to the players, even down to the folks who keep the machinery of baseball's business rolling in the background, away from our view.

What does it say about Summit County's level of discourse when the whispering campaigns of political abuse, campaign shenanigans and even sexual preference (and that brush doesn't just paint one side, I must add) leak out as "evidence" placed in "anonymous" Manila folders hand-delivered by a state employee from a party boss's law office to the state official? When Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, ultimately charged with determining what "competent" means, can hold such "evidence" in higher regard without the due process of holding hearings in the open before tossing aside the wishes of the citizens who elected their duly-appointed representatives?

This entire case speaks of Gulag-type kangaroo courts employed by Soviet-style tyrants; should Ohio's business of managing elections and political parties really come down to which side does a better job of Khmer Rouge-style slash and burn attacks or is our expectation that, once elected, our public officials do the people's business with dignity and responsibility without the stench of the partisanship that got them to the dance? At what point do the bricks really start flying toward the glass houses these holders of our public trust live behind, and do we as an electorate really want to see that kind of game? When it's our game being played don't we hold the way it is conducted as high as the results?

"It's not your life; it's not your wife," says a leader of men we cheer for to bring honor and a championship back to Northeast Ohio in a game designed for boys. There have been enough attempts, especially in the past nine months, to use sleazy, shadowy attacks behind the curtain of "anonymous" as if that somehow make the attackers clean in Summit County's game designed by old men.

It doesn't.