Empty Suit, Empty Gestures

I guess you know who this post is going to be about — AGAIN.

Salon.com has a story up today detailing just how dedicated to his job as state treasurer Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel is — NOT.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/03/ohio_senate_race_gops_josh_mandel_serial...

We all know about the Board of Deposits meetings which Mandel missed for 14 straight months — including one where he was instead at a fundraiser for his Senate campaign. Now it's come out that Mandel has never attended a SINGLE meeting of a bunch of other state boards and commissions. While several barely exist, Mandel lists them all among his litany of alleged accomplishments as state treasurer. It's clear that office has been run by others since Day One — the day Mandel decided his only interest in it was using it as a springboard to the U.S. Senate. Mandel likes to boast and pad his resume; he just doesn't like to do any actual work.

The whole sad story is detailed in the Salon article which among other things mentions this self-inflated excuse Mandel used to explain why he never attended any Board of Deposit meetings until he got extensive negative publicity:

Mandel said at the time that he sent representatives instead of attending personally because he learned in the Marines the importance of empowering staff.

Yeah, riiiiiiight. Mandel's a one-trick pony whose only trick is to constantly exploit his military service as a campaign device. I've had many people who have served in the military tell me how unseemly that is and say that a true hero doesn't brag constantly about his service like Mandel does. If Mandel actually had an accomplishments, they would speak for themselves. But he has to beef up his bio by listing inactive boards and commissions whose meetings he never attends. How can anyone think he would be an asset to the Senate?

Normally, one should take statements from the opponent's campaign with a grain of salt, but this statement from Sherrod Brown's campaign communications direction Justin Barasky could not be more accurate:

“Josh Mandel’s wildly out-of-control political ambition has led him to completely ignore his job and turned the Treasurer’s office that he’s supposed to run into nothing more than a place to change clothes in between campaign stops.

Precisely.