Blue Buckeye Blog

14 white men with vacuum cleaners...

I caught this bizarre video at the UAPA website - it shows a staged press event (oops, no press showed up) held by the Pryce campaign at the Franklin County Courthouse.  For reasons unknown to us, the Pryce campaign walked around with vacuum cleaners - for a couple of minutes.  Then they ran out of chants and disbanded. 

But what struck me about the event was the stunning lack of diversity - at one point it shows 14 white men walking around with vacuum cleaners - no women, no minorities.  Watch the video yourself:

The political version of Ari Gold?

Newsweek profiles Rahm Emanuel, Chair of the DCCC and keynote speaker at yesterday's Ohio Democratic Party State Convention.

The magazine finds that he shares a lot of traits with his Hollywood agent brother, Ari Emanuel, believed to be the inspiration for the Ari Gold character on the HBO show "Entourage".

Emanuel's own Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is now roughly even with its GOP counterpart—a position it hasn't enjoyed for a decade. And there is evidence that the Red to Blue Program is working: Democratic candidates are even or ahead in fund-raising in most of the races that neutral observers regard as competitive.

Read the entire article here:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14871152/site/newsweek/from/RS.3/

Cordray announces Republican support

Via a press release sure to give the desperate folks over at the ORP heartburn, Richard Cordray, Franklin County Treasurer and candidate for State Treasurer, announced he has received strong Republican support in his bid for higher office.

A steering committee of Andy Douglas, Dana "Buck" Reinhart, and Joan W. Lawrence have agreed to lend their backing to Cordray as he works to add a growing list of Republican supporters throughout the state.

Douglas is a former State Supreme Court Justice, Reinhart served two terms as Mayor of Columbus, and Lawrence served eight years as a State Representative until leaving to direct the Ohio Department of Aging from 1999-2005.

PD reports Ney will plead guilty

Here we go again - another post using the Rich Mr. Pennybags image, our unofficial mascot of Republican corruption.

The Plain Dealer is reporting that the King of Republican corruption, Bob Ney, will plead guilty to at least one criminal charge in a deal with the Justice Department.  Ney's plea is expected to be in relation to his involvement with dirty GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.  Three other lobbyists, including Ney's former chief of staff, have plead guilty to criminal charges in the case.  Ney is accused of favoring legislation in exchange for political contributions - and a swanky trip to Scotland to play golf.

It has been a stellar year for Republican corruption, with the conviction of Republican Gov. Bob Taft on corruption charges.  But Taft isn't the only Republican who has appeared before a judge this year - we've seen a whole host of Republican elected officials end up on the wrong side of the law. 

Ouch! Tiberi slammed in Delaware paper over '11th hour conversion'

Pat Tiberi gets slammed in the Delaware Gazette, a reliably conservative newspaper, over his decision to distance himself from President Bush's failed policies.

Among the gems -

"Tiberi is, and has been, a presidential lapdog - supporting every piece of legislation demanded of him by his party leadership - regardless of the damaging impact to his Central Ohio constituents."

"Tiberi's 11th-hour conversion on these issues is a sham.  His comments are meant to make us think he has come to his senses on these issues.  He has not."

Read the article here:  http://www.delgazette.com/inside.asp

Blackwell campaign imploding

Wow.

Via plunderbund:

COLUMBUS – Volunteers preparing for today’s “Republicans for Strickland” press conference at the statehouse were confronted by Matt Naugle, Blackwell’s official campaign blogger, and another young Blackwell staffer.

They had a message for one of the Republicans scheduled to appear at the event:: “Tell Rocky that his father would be rolling over in his grave if he knew he was supporting Strickland”.

The message was passed along to Charles “Rocky” Saxbe, the son of William Saxbe, Richard Nixon’s Attorney General.

When the press conference started, Rocky shared the story with the media, adding: “When I spoke to my father this morning, he didn’t seem to be too upset about it.”

Naugle was later kicked out of the press area

Naugle’s response?

“Go Fuck Yourself”

To be fair, the stress of working on a campaign that is down in the polls by as much as 25 points would probably even get under the skin of better men.  I'm still not sure what was worse - Naugle's filthy mouth or his errant belief that William Saxbe had passed away.

The Plain Dealer also covered the press conference in their Openers section.

Noe gets 2 year prison term for GOP corruption

Like Rich Uncle Pennybags here, Tom Noe is headed to the slammer.  Noe, a GOP-fundraiser and former Lucas County Republican Party Chair, was sentenced today to 27 months in federal prison for illegally funneling money into President Bush's re-election efforts.

Noe used two-dozen friends and associates - including several current and former Republican elected officials - to bypass federal contribution limits in donating to Bush's campaign.

Noe's scheme wasn't grand - he simply transferred money from his $50 million dollar coin-fund "investments" (which Betty Montgomery failed to audit) into his personal checking account.  He then wrote his Republican friends checks from his account, and they in turn wrote checks - bearing the same amount - to Bush's re-election campaign.

Noe still will face trial beginning on October 10th for 48 felony counts relating to the millions of dollars he allegedly stole from the $50 million dollars from the BWC he "invested" in rare coins and Beanie Babies (which Betty Motgomery failed to audit).

Congressman Sherrod Brown delivered the Democratic Party's radio response yesterday, the fifth anniversary of 9/11.  You can listen to the address here:  http://sherrodbrown.com/pages/democratic_radio_response.  A copy of Sherrod's remarks are in the extended.

Kenny can't raise the campaign cash...

...quite like Ted Strickland can.

The Strickland for Governor campaign announced it raised $2.3 million dollars in the month of August - 40% more than Ken Blackwell raised.  Blackwell's campaign would have performed even more poorly, if it wasn't for an infusion of cash from the Ohio Republican Party.

The Blackwell campaign, not only trailing badly in the polls is also trailing Strickland in the race for campaign cash.  In fact, Strickland now holds a $2.5 million dollar cash on hand advantage.

Blackwell campaign: may we suggest a money tree?

From from WOSU call-in show

Caller on WOSU"s Open Line:

"I've been a registered Republican for twenty years, firm believer in my right to keep and bear arms, fiscally conservative, supported the War in Iraq, don't support its mismanagement, but I can't take it anymore...and I know a lot of people who are like minded.  ...I've supported the Republicans through the last twelve years or so thinking, hoping that there was a plan...I hate to say it, but I think I'm going to switch and I'm not voting for Blackwell or any of the other Republican candidates."

Welcome aboard Nick.