Governor Ted Strickland has spent months trying to put together a budget that won’t require a tax increase for Ohioans. He’s cut millions and millions of dollars across the board including huge cuts from programs that Republicans hate: libraries, health care for the poor, etc.
I’m sitting here wondering why a “Christian owned and operated organization” that promises the “highest level of integrity” is selling crap like this:
According to their website, the Michigan Fund Raising company is supposed to be helping soccer teams sell candy bars to raise funds for new shin guards.
But instead they are pushing a political agenda that goes against everything local school districts and community sports teams stand for.
It takes a lot of work but Chris Mathews gets Ken Blackwell to admit that Republicans are not morally superior to Democrats.
No shit, Ken.
If anything, the opposite is true.
Republicans like to talk about defending marriage and being the party of “traditional values” but at the end of the day they cheat on their spouses almost three times as much as Democrats.
The world’s largest and most successfull corporations (Microsoft, Disney, IBM, Coke, United Airlines, Ford, etc.) have for years recognized same-sex couples and provided them health care and other benefits.
President Obama just signed a presidential memorandum extending some of these benefits to the same-sex partners of federal workers – and congress seems to be close to extending to them all of the same benefits currently enjoyed by heterosexual couples.
I’m to the point where it’s impossible not to comment on this. When you see a politician do the kabuki dance of triangulation with positions, it’s hard to ignore. Less Fisher is the latest and we’ve seen this dance before.
You’ll remember the ‘06 primary between our great buddy “Krazy” Ken Blackwell and Jim “I wanna be a decent guy but I’m a GOPer!” Petro. Their issue wasn’t the lightening rod of gay rights, but the one of abortion. Petro had a long history of support for abortion rights. Big problem. He was in a primary with the wingnuttiest of wingnuts. He was in a REPUBLICAN primary in OHIO running against the wingnuttiest of wingnuts.
Uh oh. Better get Maaco! Jim needed to do a little body work on his Republican bona fides and needed to do it quick! What does he do? He goes on a “listening tour” and does a complete 180 on his position by saying he watched Silent Scream, met with Jack Wilke, and suddenly realized he had it wrong for all these years!
Just screams political disingenuous, right? Of course it does.
Lee Fisher is in the same exact position in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio. The worst part is that we’ve seen this same exact behavior from Lee before. He’s made a career of it.
As a state legislator, Lee Fisher was a strong opponent of the death penalty. His deeply felt belief was that it was applied disproportionately to the poor and people of color. I don’t think most who read this site and hold similar beliefs as me and other bloggers here would find this objectionable at all. In fact, I think this is a very honorable position. It was also a very safe position to hold if you are from Shaker Heights like Lee.
Trouble was Lee then wanted to run for Attorney General. Ohio’s “top cop”. All of a sudden Lee needed some bodywork on that former safe position.
What does Lee do? He doesn’t just tweak his long held position. He abandons it all together. Completely. He embraced the death penalty and stuck it to long time friend Dick Celeste by challenging death sentences Celeste commuted as he was leaving the office of Governor. The NYT reported at the time:
“Mr. Celeste is a staunch opponent of the death penalty. Mr. Fisher has been close to him politically over the years and is regarded as a possible future candidate for Governor. He had opposed the death penalty before last year’s campaign for Attorney General, but reversed his position when the campaign started.”
Political calculation over conviction. The pattern repeats itself today.
As a state legislator, AG, candidate for Governor, and candidate for the Senate, Lee Fisher opposed gay marriage. It was a pretty safe position to have and it never got Lee in hot water. Less than two months ago Lee re-affirmed this position during an interview with the Gay People’s Chronicle:
“I am in favor of civil unions, but I have questions about marriage,” Fisher told the paper.
Being in favor of civil unions but having “questions about marriage” is the clearest kind of political triangulation in modern politics. President Obama is engaged in this particular type of language and I’ll go on record as opposing such weak kneed willy nilly positioning. Luckily, President Obama isn’t running for election. Lee Fisher is.
Now Lee wants to make us think he’s FOR gay marriage? Wonder why this is? Could it be that he’s now tangling with Jennifer Brunner, who has no such stomach for soft language:
“Brunner unequivocally believes that same-sex partners should have the right to marry. She does not put any qualifications on it, nor attempt any equivocation. It is a belief she has held publicly since 1989,”
The real question in all of this is whether or not Lee has a position on gay marriage and equality. Being for civil unions and having “questions about marriage” is NOT a position.
This time it’s a white supremacist named James Von Brunn who attacked the Holocaust Memorial Museum this morning – shooting a gaurd.
The AP reports that Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled “Kill the Best Gentile.” and in 1983, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board – when they arrested him he was carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun.
WASHINGTON — An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, gravely wounding a security guard before being shot. Authorities said they were investigating a white supremacist as the suspect. The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized, said Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, who added that the gunman was in critical condition.
Scott Roeder, now this, and news that Naugle is blogging again. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.
