Mandel backers make pathetic stab at smearing Sherrod Brown

Nobody's home inside John Mandel's suit

Apparently to distract from Josh “The Empty Suit” Mandel’s endless list of irresponsible actions — missed deadlines, failure to comply with FEC regulations, abdicating his job in favor of high-dollar fundraisers out of state, refusing to share his stances on issues with voters etc. etc. — Republicans have inserted a dinky little story about Sherrod Brown into the state media, and of course, as usual, Ohio’s woeful newspapers bit.

Yesterday, most of them laughably reported that — get ready to be shocked! — Sherrod was late in paying his property taxes on his D.C. apartment.

I’ll give you a minute to pick yourself up off the floor.

I’m not going to link to any of these asinine and irrelevant stories. I’ve been told the National Republican Senatorial Committee — the group tasked with electing Republicans to the U.S. Senate — was behind it. Obviously, they have to use even the most unpromising materials in their attacks because they have been saddled with such an unpromising candidate in Ohio, one that has little to offer voters in the way of accomplishments or a record of policies and ideas he’s advocated. (That’s why we call him The Empty Suit.)

Now I’d be willing to guess that 50% of you reading this (at least) have been late paying bills. I know I have. I’ll bet Josh Mandel has too. Ohio media, this is NOT a story. And no, don’t come back with “Elected officials have to show more responsibility than average citizens.” If so, Mandel is infinitely more tainted, since his failures to comply with rules involved his public campaign. What Sherrod Brown does in his personal life — he did pay up with penalties, some story, eh? — is far less relevant.

Why am I even writing about this? Because if Democrats had fed the media a story about Mandel (or any Republican) being late paying a personal bill — and assuming the media even printed such a slight story about a Republican — they would be screaming and yelling about how the Democrats are so horrible and invasive for making an issue of their private business and how this proved they didn’t have any ammo to use against their candidate and were grasping at straws.

So I am going to say that about Mandel and his supporters. They are clearly grasping at straws when they spread stories about trivial missteps in Sherrod Brown’s personal life. They have a candidate who won’t stand for anything and who won’t even do the job he was elected to do and for which the taxpayers are paying him. Those are huge liabilities and they need distractions. This is a meaningless distraction. I am ashamed of any media outlet that fell for it.