GOP: Phoenix from Ohio?

In a proud tradition of the state, could it be Josh Mandel?

Or will he be a quitter.. like John Kasich {and 'Morning Joe'}. Or turn into an incompetent, cynical beltway hack, like Mike Dewine and George Voinovich.

Whatta you think, Mo?

 

Well here is a bit of local perspective. They make a big deal about him winning as a Republican in a district that is 2 - 1 democrat. While that is true keep in mind his district is mostly Jewish. Josh is Jewish and Jewish voters were not hating Bush and republicans for the war in Iraq like 99% of the non-jewish democrats. I remember several of my jewish friends refering to "holding their nose while they voted for Bush". It was all because of their stance on the war. He seems like a fine candidate, but you cant be sure his success at garnering democrat votes will translate beyond the eastern suburbs of Cleveland.

However, now that you have pointed out his successes to me, I will pay attention to his career.

Also, I quite liked Dewine. Certainly better the Sherrod Brown

 

That's because you live clear across the state.

While I, in fact, canvassed for his first state senatorial campaign, while ignoring the way he performed in his role as county prosecutor, winning cases was everything, justice came second.. notches on belt, so to speak; and his home place is six miles from me. the county's old Republican sheriff hated him and called him a little backbiting son'a'bitchin twerp.

After that I sorta held my nose every time I voted for him, until the election he lost. I was like a lot of conservatives in that last election, I didnt vote for Brown but I didnt vote for Dewine, either. the rest is history.
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I just read Mowbray's update: and realized I was pretty hard on Kasich as well, I met the man and had a very short conversation with him. He seems a decent sort and I always thought he couldnt stand the stench of DC politics. The problem is that someone has to shovel the crap out if it's ever going to be cleaned up.

Dewine on the other hand decided to try to elevate his image and become a power broker. When he joined the gang of 14, that was the last straw for a lot of us. He was short circuiting the process.. which is to hold out as long as you can for as much as you can. THEN, if you must, settle for compromise.
I considered him nearly as tainted as Taft. Another guy I wasnt sorry to see go.

 

Agree with you on DeWine -- I closed my eyes and pressed the lever for him in the booth twice. What a profoundly unimpressive little man. I chose to look at Brown winning the election in a positive light -- at least DeWine is unemployed now.

 

and Mo, that isnt a criticism of you, either. You have to know the background.

Greene county, where Dewine and I are from, is a remarkable place. It was ostensibly a rural county but you cannot easily find one with a bigger divergence of background and viewpoints among its long term population.

Yellow Springs, where Dewine grew up contains Antioch University thus in that town, everything from outright Marxists to potential KKK recruits yet they seem to revel in easy disagreement. Another landmark, Wilberforce, home of two black universities, one state, one private and settled by freed slaves, many brought here by their owners.. including an ancestor of mine. Jamestown, an outright farming community. Fairborn, an AF base bedroom town with a large Appalachian community.
We expected Dewine to be one of those 'Compassionate Conservatives' but we didnt expect him to turn into a machine Republican. Instead of representing us all, he took up cudgels of environmental restrictive land use, ProLife causes, and backroom dealmaking which may or may not have benefited his campaign contributors. Point is we didnt know what all he was doing, if anything, or what he stood for other than the above.

Sheriff Bradley, mentioned above, was the old timey protect and serve type. He considered himself the protector of everyone in the county, black, white, marxist, racist, republican or democrat.. he knew who was who and counseled his deputies into the same views he had. During the troubles of the nation in 67, he kept a lid on things so that tempers didnt cause more problems. No white yahoos riding through Wilberforce. No large demonstrations in the county seat. He knew the difference between a bigot and a racist.

If a kid did something stupid and ended up arrested for vandalism, for example, he would counsel them, their family, and the victim of the vandalism with the result there was often no court appearance. Lots of elections no one even ran against him. Come to think of it, a lot like 'Sheriff Andy' but with a steely gaze, less jawing and certainly no Barney Fifes, no 'good ol' boys' in his dept.

When Dewine got into the prosecutor chair, he decided that wasnt good enough, and would insist on taking anyone to court who 'violated the law'. Of course he had that right, but Bradley saw no need for many of those cases, thus from that point on, arrests and warning citations actually DECREASED. Nothing on paper meant no lawbreaking.
You can imagine the problems when that got out.

So there was the nut of it. Unlike what some think, the ONLY judicial level where 'empathy' should be a factor is at the local level, because it's there that the court officers can consider all aspects of the crime committed and the likelihood of a repeat. Dewine didnt think that way.
On the face of it, Dewine in congress SEEMED to follow the compassionate conservative meme, but we didnt get that feeling. And we didnt feel he went about it the right way.

Really someone should write a book about Greene County Ohio. Or they probably have and it's laying around Antioch somewhere gathering dust.

 

Well first of all, I have only known Dewine as a senator for Ohio. As one of two senators, I believe he needs to work for all of Ohio and not just your little neck of the woods 'fog. Concentrate on your representative when it comes to that. Dewine was the first senator from Ohio in half a century to get on the senate appropriations committe and in that role he managed to save and secure a lot funding for worthy Ohio endeavors - NASA, the National guard, alternative energy research, etc.

He is also in favor of gun control which shows me he is sane and logical

Brown is a partisan blow hard who exaggerates and whips of fear amoung Ohio workers.