Justin Huggins Displays His Posse Comitatus Membership Card

Meet Justin Higgins, a 19 year-old Ohio State University college Republican who’s got things all figured out.  I mean if it weren’t for Constitutional provisions against one so young holding the nation’s highest office, we could put young Justin there in the White House, hold him in high esteem like a young Dalai Llama and he could point us all along the path to political and economic enlightenment.

For now, though, we’ll have to settle for Saturday, March 14 at the Statehouse in Columbus where Higgins will be the master of ceremonies for The Columbus Tea Party.  The party begins at 11 a.m. and is sponsored by College Republicans and Americans for Prosperity.  (Do you know any Americans who are not for prosperity?)

Higgins and others are wigging out over the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aka the Stimulus Bill.  The notion that the need for this bill rests in part on the unregulated economic behavior of most of the world’s major banks, investment houses and insurers is completely lost on them.  While Justin no doubt luxuriates in his college boy lifestyle subsidized by Mom and Dad, he’s got the time for contemplation to say stupid things like this on 610-WTVN radio today:

We’re going to protest and basically tell Governor Strickland that we don’t want him taking this stimulus money because the last thing we need is more unfunded mandates and more ridiculous spending on the state level.

When these funds run out, we have to pay for it.

Allow me to get right to the point with young master Higgins:  What the hell are you talking about?

Governor Strickland?  Direct aid to for state budgets was partially his idea – borne from the extraordinary circumstances within which the U.S. economy is mired.  How many prisons can we close?  Are we going to offer no mental health services?  Do we close state parks?  This is a national problem and the federal government is helping the states get through the next couple of years.  Oh, and Justin – should Gov. Strickland not take the money to shore up the state’s unemployment compensation fund, or the money that will keep small rural or urban hospitals from closing their doors or the funding to fix or improve highways or bridges?

Unfunded mandates?  Who are you Higgins – a Newt Gingrich staffer circa 1994?  An unfunded mandate is when the federal or other government imposes a rule or law on a subservient political entity that will cost said entity resources to implement – which are not provided.  Whatever you think of the stimulus bill, you can hardly call it a vehicle for unfunded mandates.  The majority of the money within the legislation moves through already existing federal funding streams.  Medicaid is a good example.  There are not new Medicaid programs in the bill, but there are large increases in funding to states to keep services going while the economy is in the tank.  The federal government is not saying, “build more highways.”  The federal government is increasing the dollars available to states for transportation projects.  Bringing up “unfunded mandates” is inane in this situation and either shows the party organizer’s stupidity or that he got his sets of talking points mixed up.

Finally, “When these funds run out, we have to pay for it.”  Huh?  Dude, the state of Ohio is not on the hook for paying this back.  I don’t believe Higgins and the other Tea Partiers understand what they’re talking about.  Their own Republican Party failed them and the rest of the country for eight years, six of which they controlled Congress as well as the White House.  We’re suffering for their mistakes.  This economic stimulus is known as priming the pump and it’s what responsible governments do when the private sector economy is coming down around them.

What’s really going on is that the 2010 governor’s race is beginning to get on Ohio Republican Party leaders’ minds.  Ted Strickland has been nothing but a responsible steward of the executive branch of state government.  He has the support of Ohio’s business community because of common sense regulatory reform and electrical generation legislation which he wrote.  He’s not raising taxes to pay for the recession or fixing education.  Bringing him into the whole Tea Party thing is just thoughtless politics.

Interestingly enough, there are philosophical points which the Tea Partiers could argue regarding the economy and the Obama Administration’s policies.  The problem is, those philosophical underpinnings have either been tested or failed or conservative leaders failed their movement.  The only thing this country has going for it politically right now is Barack Obama and governors like Ted Strickland.  These times call for action and they call for government investment.

One thing you probably won’t hear at the Tea Party on Capitol Square next Saturday is an alternative.  You’ll hear more about conspiracy theories regarding the president’s place of birth than you’ll hear about alternatives.

Click Here for Tea Party Drone

Go Here for More on the Columbus Tea Party

“Yeah, he’s still in office, but I don’t know how — the guy doesn’t even show any water usage wherever the hell it is he says he lives,” they answered.

“Huh?” I thought. “How’s that work?”

Roll Tape! Courtesy of Progress Ohio … at least someone in Columbus is watching.

Question: What distinguishes State Sen. Kevin Coughlin from any other Republican in Columbus?

Answer: Nothing.

What is this all about if it’s not about ego?  Coughlin is running for Governor?  Yep.

This quote from the Dispatch article takes the cake:

Promising to change “the smallness of our politics and our government,” Coughlin said, “We have to make sure we are focused on issues that are really important to Ohioans and there is nothing more important than reviving our economy and bringing jobs to this state and retaining jobs.”

The only “smallness” in Ohio politics and government has come from two places over the past six or seven years:

1. Ohio Republicans
2. Marc Dann

The only adults in the room at any given time on Capital Square are Ted Strickland and sometimes Sen. Harris.  It appears that Strickland has put forth something the Republicans couldn’t do in sixteen years of being in charge – a plan for reforming Ohio’s education system.  I also seem to remember that last year the Governor dragged the Republican House and Senate through the Energy bill.  Without Ted Strickland’s leadership, Ohioans would be paying more to heat and light their homes and Ohio businesses wouldn’t be able to count on stable energy costs.  Republicans came along, but only at the Governor’s urging.

Republicans have done a lot of small talk over the years when it comes to state regulatory reform – Strickland has done something about it.  An Associated Press article that got more treatment around the country than it did in Ohio reported a couple of weeks ago about the weeks of time businesses are being saved in their dealings with Bureau of Workers Compensation.  Not too long ago Strickland had ODNR, Ohio EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers all in one room for a week to fix the problems with some coal mining permit processes.

The “biggest” thing that’s happened to Ohio politics and its positive impact on people since the bygone era of Vernal G. Riffe and Jimmy Rhodes is Ted Strickland.

When Coughlin talks of  “smallness” in state leadership he need only look at his own Ohio Republican Party for the best contemporary example.

At any rate, the Ohio Republican Party is going to be fun to watch.  What does Mr. Recharge Ohio, John Kasich do now?  Sure, there a couple of things here or there to quibble with Gov. Ted Strickland over in a gubernatorial campaign, but state government under this Democratic governor – with a focus on efficiency, transparency and accountability – will measure well against the fast times and loose ethics of what Republicans brought Ohioans for 16 years.  Kasich might want to recharge his plans and run for Senate.  Rob Portman — Rob who?  Portman may want to work a deal with Kasich.  It goes like this: Portman runs the sacrificial lamb race against Strickland and gets his name out there statewide, to run for an open Governor’s office in 2014, Kasich runs for Senate.  They don’t beat on eachother in a primary.  How about Slick Jon Husted?  U.S. Senator is an office for a person with a bit more gravitas.  It would be a true shame for America if Ohio sent another made-for-TV Republican empty suit to the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body, but it could happen.  Husted and Kasich could come down to money.  Mary Taylor, irrelevant.  Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery, too old guard.  Ken Blackwell will hopefully be unavailable as he will be occupied driving the Republican Party’s bus off a cliff as RNC Chairman.  Dark Horses: Mike Dewine, John Boehner, Bill Cunningham.

There’s only one person who stands out for various reasons among the Ohio Democratic Party set: Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.  Fisher is smart, experienced, plugged in to the Strickland 88 county operation, he’s been a trooper, and the Senate would be a great place for him to champion causes.  Rich Cordray may have to be medicated in order not to give in to the impulse to run, but he’s probably found himself a home he will be happy in as AG.  Some  have said Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner would be a great U.S. Senator and I agree.  I think the inside race to the primary  favors Fisher, and Brunner will run for a second term.  If Fisher decides he wants to be Governor someday, Brunner then looks like the best candidate.  At this point, I don’t think it matters who the dark horses could be.  The curent Democratic statewide office holders are such solid people and great pols that this won’t be the cycle to jump from obscurity.  All of you Democratic members of Congress out there should think about all of the tough votes you’re going to have over the next 12 to 18 months.  You need to be focused on one thing, protecting your homebase for now.  2010 is not going to be the year for launches from obscurity statewide.  Protect what you’ve (what we’ve) got.

“The number of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 who look at the Republican Party as a party of choice for them is gone. Those voters 18 to 29 simply don’t look at the Republican Party as a viable solution to the problems that they’re facing so we as a party have to figure out how do we connect with them and how do we connect with them with a message that resonates and shows to them that the party has something to offer them.”

Introducing the Team That Will Bring in the Voters of Tomorrow:

Uhh, I’m seeing like one dude here that is under sixty.  I mean come on, is that Bob Bennett or Boss Hogg?  This looks more like the Republican Party that brought us Jimmy Rhodes.

In a surprisingly frank, candid interview with Joe Hallett of the Columbus Dispatch, DeWine, soon to take the helm as Ohio Republican Party chairman, nailed the reasons for Republican decline right on the head. In fact, if you were to turn around the issues he blames on GOP demise, you might end up with the current-day Democratic Party.

DeWine’s comments are the first intellectual honesty I’ve heard from any prominent Republican, locally or nationally, for months. Here’s a list to sum up what he said are the reasons the Ohio and national GOP are ailing:

• The party has become distracted and fixated on social issues.
• The GOP has drifted away from its core conservative message of fiscal responsibility and limited government.
• Republicans aren’t talking about issues that matter in people’s everyday lives.
• A tired message has turned off younger voters, ages 18-29.
• The party is not leveraging new media and fundraising opportunities on the Internet.
• Then there’s Iraq, ethics concerns and an unpopular Republican president.

Then DeWine gets to the heart of the matter:

“We have to exchange a fiscal message and economic message in for a social message that has dominated the messaging of this party for the last decade. We have to re-engage the middle class, step up with an agenda that solves problems and puts people first.”

An “agenda that solves problems and puts people first” — Hmmm, sounds like Bill Clinton, Ted Strickland or Barack Obama.

I’d like to introduce Mr. DeWine to some friends of mine I’ll just call the Democratic Party. We’re not fixated on social issues; we prefer to stay out of folks’ bedrooms and uteri. Recent history shows that the last president in a generation to achieve a budget surplus was a Democrat. Here in Ohio, Governor Ted Strickland has brought accountability and efficiency to state government through regulatory reform, procurement reform and the strongest ethics policies of any governor. As for party organization and leveraging the World Wide Web for communication and fundraising, Barack Obama just finished what Howard Dean started – a new standard has been set.

If Kevin DeWine and the Ohio Republican Party are about good stewardship of public resources and putting people first in an agenda to solve problems, I’d suggest they just join the Democrats – we’re already there.

Marion County ballot handling raises concern – Columbus Dispatch

Ohio reports heavy turnout; some confusion over provisional ballots – Columbus Dispatch

Ohio Republican Party questions OSU students’ intentions
–Columbus Dispatch

Ready for prime time
– Columbus Dispatch

Calm before evening storm?
– Columbus Dispatch

Official thinks rush is over
– Dayton Daily News

Warren County elections website down, expects to be back up tonight
– Dayton Daily News

Ohio: big lines but no big problems
– Associated Press

Longest waits in Lucas County – Toledo Blade

Secy of State: Last voter rush expected – WHIO

Heavy early voting may lead to record turnout
– Cincinnati Enquirer

Ohio GOP presents more complaints about Brunner – Wall Street Journal

To hear the stories from Democrats in the field from the Obama campaign, the Ohio Democratic Party, labor activists, and individual campaigns, Ohio’s Democrats are more organized and active than in any cycle in recent memory. State political pros used to roll their eyes when asked about the usefulness of Democratic presidential nominees’ operations moving into the state. Every four years it was called the “coordinated campaign” but often devolved into two camps – the locals and the outsiders – with not much coordination.

According to a field operative familiar with both the ODP and Obama efforts, this year is different. Obama’s campaign apparatus set up from day one in the state party’s headquarters in Columbus. They immediately set to work building a field organization, all the while working with Democratic pros and activists in the state. They didn’t dictate and they didn’t ignore the existing apparatus.

So, what does a truly coordinated campaign mean for Ohio? For instance, if you’re out there trying to win a statehouse race, you’re likely to get a call from the local Obama office asking for your literature so that as they canvass for president, they’re canvassing all the way down the ticket. Because the Obama campaign hired primarily Ohioans to run their state effort, campaign managers and field directors know one another up and down the ticket and across district lines. It’s a natural instinct to help and look out for your friends, especially those who you’ve been in the trenches with in other campaigns.

Again, according to my source, this campaign has felt different to Ohio Dems for awhile, but it’s just in the last two to three weeks that things have really started to feel like they’re turning. They credit the economy’s domination of the headlines and report that the reception for Democrats is getting friendlier when re-contacting swing voters. And, there’s also the numbers game. The operative reports there’s never been more Democrats in the field and this year could be the biggest voter registration effort ever – and that’s statewide.

So, there’s the scent of change in the fall air. As Democrats what should our reaction be – even if it looks as if things are going our way one month out? Keep pouring it on. It doesn’t count until McCain delivers the concession speech.