I don't read Doonesbury much, but a series of strips a few weeks ago caught my eye:

"You thought he was gone. You thought he was history. Well, you were wrong, folks! From the courthouses of Alabama to the polls of Pennsylvania, this bad ol' boy is back!"

http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip/archive/2012/07/23

You can add the Ohio boards of election to that list of places where Mr. James Crow is making a comeback appearance. And this appalling statement from lobbyist, Kasich buddy, Franklin County Republican chair, and member of the Franklin county board of elections Doug Preisse makes it vividly clear what is going on.

Speaking about secretary of state Jon Husted's ongoing attempt to limit early voting, Preisse said:

I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine. Let’s be fair and reasonable.

Preisse's idea of "fair and reasonable" ranks right up there with Fox's idea of "fair and balanced." It means dismissing as too generous the ways in which African-Americans tend to like to vote and have gotten used to over the last four years. It means treating the subtraction of voting opportunities like it was no big deal because after all, you can always do something else instead if what you've come to expect. Never mind if the way wealthy white suburban Republicans like to vote is still intact.

Also, don't you like the contemptuous way he refers to the urban — read African-American — turnout "machine," as if getting people out to vote were something shady and illegal. The Republican Party also has a "Get Out the Vote" effort and a big, well-funded one. But apparently, it's only a "machine" when African-Americans do it. Maybe Doug Preisse is not a bigot, but his dismissive way of referring to African-American GOTV efforts sure makes him sound like one.

Yesterday afternoon, the Teamsters threw a family picnic at their headquarters in Cleveland. They invited candidates to come and mingle with the crowd. Numerous candidates for the state legislature and judicial seats were there, along with House minority leader Armond Budish and Cuyahoga Democratic Party chair Stuart Garson. Teamsters leaders, including Fred Crow, Bill Lichtenwald and Sonny Nardi, addressed the crowd.

Fred Crow & Bill Lichtenwald

Congresswomen Betty Sutton and Marcy Kaptur were the featured speakers, and they really fired the crowd up. Both women emphasized their unflagging support for regular working people and keeping in place programs and benefits that unions fought for. Both had choice words for Mitt Romney's newly minted running mate Paul Ryan. Sutton is what GOP loyalists dream Ryan is — attractive, energetic, articulate, and charismatic — AND she has the advantage of actually supporting ideas that are fair and compassionate.

Betty Sutton: THIS is how much Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan will do for America's working people!

We've got to keep the pressure on.

It's clear that Republicans suspect that, despite their deluge of secretive billionaire money, the only way they can win in November is to keep as many Democratic-leaning voters as possible away from the polls. I assume you read Ohio Daily Blog regularly, so you know what Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has been contributing to that effort.

Tomorrow morning at 9, he is supposed to meet with Dennis Lieberman and Tom Ritchie, the two Democrats on the Montgomery County (Dayton) board of elections. He suspended them on Friday after the board took a second, largely symbolic vote on whether to allow weekend in-person, early-voting hours, which black voters in particular used in 2008 to cast their ballots. Yes, we know that every voter is getting a mail-in ballot application. But Republicans tend to like those, while Democrats, especially African-Americans, tend to like in-person early voting. I can't say blame those African-American voters for being suspicious about their ballot being cast unless they see it.

Anyway, barring a lawsuit, Husted has shut down weekend voting, undoubtedly hoping to depress black turnout. I think he will fail, but still, it's offensive. On top of it to threaten to fire two BoE members who took a public stand against aggressive attempts to take away voting opportunities that were available in 2008 is just bullying.

If you're in the Columbus area, go join those who want to call attention to Husted's actions. They'll meet at 8 a.m. at 180 E. Broad Street in downtown Columbus. Leiberman and Ritchie will hold a press conference there at 8:15. Come show your support for them and for fair, expanded voting opportunities for ALL.

People are weird. As the Republicans try to sell Paul Ryan’s plan to “reform” Medicare they are desperately having to say those 55 and older, “you don’t have to worry, nothing changes for you.”

Based on this, aren’t they saying then that if you’re 55 and younger, you do have to worry?

Seriously, if the 55 and older crowd who are currently using Medicare, who are currently benefiting from the program don’t like the changes Ryan is proposing, why on earth should those 55 and younger?

Are people really that dumb? Wouldn’t voting for these guys into office be the epitome of voting against one’s best interest?

The truth is the reason why Paul Ryan and the Republicans are running around saying that Medicare is “broken” and we must “fix it” is, because the medical insurance lobby and private medical insurance companies stand to make billions by taking over and managing Medicare. It’s the ultimate sell out in the name of obscene profit. They don’t care if the program works or not it’s just an untapped market they can use to increase their bottom lines as long as people are dumb enough to let them do it.

Yeah right, Ted. That'll be the day.

Here's Ted Strickland on Hardball with Chris Matthews this past Thursday. He says, accurately I think, that Republicans "are afraid of the American voter." Yup. That's why their campaigns are based entirely on misrepresenting their positions and those of their opponents and keeping people unlikely to fall for it away from the polls.

Watch here:

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/hardball/48695322#48695322

Sorry I didn’t get around to posting this earlier. But for those of you who didn’t hear already, on Wednesday, Secretary of State Jon Husted caved under a barrage of national bad publicity and outrage, and set uniform voting hours for the entire state. This was just ahead of the Hamilton County Board of Elections vote on whether to allow extended in-person early voting hours scheduled for yesterday, which showed signs of stirring up still more blowback for Husted from angry citizens.

Naturally, Husted, who shows every sign of trying to top the infamous Ken Blackwell as Ohio’s most partisan SoS ever, calculated how he could do the most damage to Democratic voters and the least to Republicans. So he opted to extend hours slightly beyond the regular workday, convenient for that attorney who wants to drop by after work. But he allowed no weekend hours, which shuts down the big black churches that were filling buses and taking them down to the board of elections to vote.

Obviously, the more limited hours are less of a problem in Vinton County, with a population of 13,000, than Cuyahoga, with 1,300,000 people. But at least it doesn’t give Republican counties an extra-special gold-plated advantage in voting.

But wait — it gets worse.

Unlike Cuyahoga, Lucas, and Franklin counties, where Husted broke ties by siding with Republicans who wanted to limit voting hours, Montgomery County — Dayton — had already voted to extend in-person early voting, including some weekends.

Today, for some reason I’m having a hard time figuring out, the Montgomery County Board of Elections held a second vote today on weekend hours, with a tie this time: Republicans against, Democrats for:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/husted-susp...

Obviously, since Husted’s Wednesday directive, this vote was just symbolic, and it was clear that Husted would break the tie to override it.

Later this morning, at a press conference at Ohio Police and Fire Memorial Park in Columbus, Senator Sherrrod Brown will stand with Ohio Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Vice President Gary Wulske and Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters (OAPFF) President Mark Sanders to debut First Responders for Sherrod Brown. Both groups have endorsed Brown.

His press release says they will "discuss Brown’s lifelong support for workers, collective bargaining and job creation. Ohio FOP President Jay McDonald will serve as the second co-chair for “First Responders for Sherrod.”

There's a lot of this going on in the Brown campaign. While his opponent, the increasingly infamous Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel, boasts the unwavering support of Pat "He's Still Alive?" Boone, as seen in a series of TV attack ads, Brown has now introduced support from:

Educators for Sherrod Brown
Students for Sherrod Brown
African-Americans for Sherrod Brown
Veterans for Sherrod Brown
Women for Sherrod Brown
Hispanics for Sherrod Brown
Farmers for Sherrod Brown
LGBT Ohioans for Sherrod Brown
Seniors for Sherrod Brown

and probably somebody I forgot.

I am sure that Mandel's campaign and Republicans would say it's just a flock of "special interest " groups. But the GOP's "special interest" group is very special indeed. It seems to boil down pretty much to older straight white Christian males who are either rich or have a grudge against President Obama or watch too much Fox "News."

Among the people thinking that's an odd choice is Rage's guitarist Tom Morello. And in this piece he ponders what the radical right-wing, rich-favoring congressman/vice presidential candidate sees in the music of a radical left-wing, oppressed-favoring band?

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-paul-ryan-is-the-embo...

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

I'm sure Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel will be singing right along.

Morella goes on to say,

I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions.

Ouch. Will Paul Ryan be taking Rage off his playlist? I'm sure the band would be delighted if he did.

For Immediate Release

August 15, 2012

For the second time in two weeks, Judge William O'Neill has demanded that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Robert Cupp "stop taking campaign contributions from litigants who have cases before his Court". In a harshly worded letter, the retired Judge cautioned the Justice "once is a mistake, twice is a pattern" that violates the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct.

"This is not a matter to be debated between lawyers", Judge O'Neill said. "In accepting money from people who have pending cases before the Court, a Supreme Court Justice is disregarding a caution sign. It is simply wrong, and everyone knows it. I'm just the only one saying it publicly."

Judge O'Neill, who is retired from the 11th District Court of Appeals, referred to the case of State ex. rel Oakwood v. Industrial Commission (Slip Opinion No. 2012-Ohio-3209) in which Kokosing Construction is the real party in interest. The case was submitted to the Ohio Supreme Court on May 8, 2012. Three weeks later, on May 31, Daniel Walker, Senior Vice President of Kokosing Construction made a $1,000 contribution to the re-election committee of Justice Robert Cupp. On July 18 Justice Cupp cast his vote rendering judgment on behalf of his contributor.

"There is no way to avoid the appearance of impropriety here", the Judge explained, "and that makes it prohibited conduct by a sitting Judge or Justice".

Canon 1 of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct mandates that "A judge shall uphold and promote the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary and shall avoid impropriety, and the appearance of impropriety."

In an unprecedented letter to a sitting Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court, Judge O'Neill cautioned the Justice that the only acceptable alternative at this point was to "refuse or recuse" on cases where contributors are also litigants who have active cases on his docket.

As the harsh glare of daylight has begun to shine at last on the atrocious Paul Ryan budget which turns Medicare into an unreliable, costly "voucher" program, Ohio congressional challengers have stepped up to weld their ultra-conservative incumbent opponents to Ryan's plan. Luckily they all voted for it!

And no one is more eager to strip seniors and future seniors of their security than teabagger Bob Gibbs, who is being challenged by Canton's Joyce Healy Abrams in Ohio's new 7th district, which I won't even try to describe because it's ridiculous. It's kind of in northeast Ohio but also a bit in central Ohio. It does include part of Canton obviously.

I was a little dubious at first about novice candidate Joyce when she came to a forum on the war on women I hosted in Cleveland Heights in April. Oh, I was impressed that her campaign contacted me to ask if she could stop by to voice her support for women's reproductive choice. But she didn't seem to have her campaign infrastructure together.

I should never have doubted her. She has taken to campaigning like a duck to water and is making all the right moves. Within hours of Mitt Romney's announcement that he picked Ryan as his running mate, there was an email from her, tying Gibbs to Ryan's cruel, destructive policies.

But Joyce isn't just attacking. She's also promoting her determination to protect Medicare and to have honest conversation about how to do that, not just scare tactics about going bankrupt.

Next Monday she'll host two forums on the future of Medicare in disparate parts of the sprawling, disjointed district. Her guest at both will be Phil Rotondi o f the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

The first event is at the Mayfield Senior Center, 3824 13th St. SW in Canton at 11 a.m. Dan Fonte of the Alliance of Retired Americans will also be part of the event.

At 4 p.m., she and Fotondi will be at the North Ridgeville Senior Center, 7327 Avon Belden Rd. in North Ridgeville.

You can get more information on these public events at 330-866-0649 or Grant@HealyAbramsforCongress.com.

Unlike the Republicans, who are trying to conceal their true intentions behind a smokescreen of lies (like the one about calling President Obama's $700 billion in Medicare efficiencies that don't impact benefits a "cut" when Ryan's budget proposes the same thing) I'm betting Joyce will take all questions and respond to them honestly and without insults.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2012/08/15/Joe-the-Plumber-calls-for...

That would be Not Joe the Not Plumber Who is not ever going to be in Congress. So I guess he has nothing to lose. A sane, trustworthy Republican (are there any left?) couldn't win this district so Not Joe certainly can't. Because among the other things he's not is a serous candidate. (Also, as his Democratic opponent, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, likes to point out, he is not a resident of the district).

At a fundraiser in Arizona (?), he decided to get all medieval on "Illegal immigrants," not exactly the biggest issue in northern Ohio where he was not campaigning.

"For years I've said, 'Put a damn fence on that border going to Mexico and start shooting … ' That's how I feel. I'm not going to hide it just because I'm running for office. I want the borders protected, and I'm very adamant about that," Mr. Wurzelbacher said.

Yeah, it must be so totally scary to be looking over your shoulder at the border of Michigan and always be wondering if you're safe .. from ... I dunno, Ted Nugent?

Kaptur issues a statement saying,

"Joe the Plumber's comments have no place in a civil society. A member of Congress is sworn to uphold the Constitution, not to take the law into his own hands. He should take back his words and apologize to everyone who respects life, the Constitution, and the rule of law.

Yup. Pretty much. This kind of talk has nothing to do with sane and vicil governing, just dick swinging from a guy who knows he is not going to win an election against a sweet-looking older woman in real pretty suits who, last Saturday when Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan as his running mate, just moved a big step closer to becoming chair of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most powerful members of Congress.

And Joe? He's not going anywhere and he does not have the balls to shoot anyone. Just look at what a big, brave man Joe is not:

He did not return a phone call from The Blade seeking comment.

Yesterday we saw the spectacle of Mitt Romney making reckless, baseless attacks on both President Obama and the presidency itself, the sort of thing that would have been met with wall-to-wall coverage and indignation if a Democrat had said them and likely entailed groveling apologies today.

He accused him of running a campaign of "division and attack and hatred,' and said he would "do anything to get re-elected." Apparently, he confused his last meeting with Sheldon Adelson with a presidential speech. Given the voter suppression across the country, it's clear which party will "do anything" to win elections. And apparently Romney has forgotten he has never roundly condemned his many followers who constantly lob fabricated slurs at the President for being a Muslim operative who was born in a foreign country.

But it seems like the more Romney looks at potential defeat in a race he felt it was 'his turn" to win, he seems to be in panic mode. He's doing something now that is bound to turn some supporters against him: He's whining. He's whimpering. He's sulking that President Obama is being MEAN to him and negative and harsh.

He's apparently forgotten this:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/15/1120480/-Mitt-tells-himself-to-...

Yup. he spent the whole primary season telling the opponents who complained about the tens of millions in sleazy attack ads he was running again them to shut up and man up.

Look, this is a campaign. We've got to have broad shoulders. You can't spend your time whining about the fact that people are drawing attention to your record in the past. I’ve been attacked. It's fine. Get used to it. It is going to get a lot of worse.

Really. And now he's crying like he's skinned his knee on the playground. Waaaaaaaaa.

I got an email from the Hamilton County Democratic Party with info on the Rally Thursday morning:

Caleb Faux just shared this link with us:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/overt-discrimination-in-ohio.h...

In a piece titled "Overt Discrimination in Ohio," the New York Times editorializes about how Warren and Butler counties have made it super-convenient for voters to cast a ballot, while "if you live in Cincinnati, you’re out of luck. ... The convenience will not be extended to the city’s working people."

The sleazy politics behind the disparity is obvious. Hamilton County, which contains Cincinnati, is largely Democratic and voted solidly for Barack Obama in 2008. So did the other urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus and Akron, where Republicans, with the assistance of the Ohio secretary of state, Jon Husted, have already eliminated the extended hours for early voting.

The editorial goes on to point out the outsized impact this has "in counties more likely to vote for Barack Obama," and especially on black voters.

This is just the latest alarming example of how Republicans across the country are trying to manipulate the electoral system by blocking the voting rights of their opponents. These actions have a disproportionate effect on blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities who struggled for so long to participate in American democracy.

It concludes,

In Ohio, as in other states, the Republican Party is establishing a reputation for putting short-term political gain ahead of the most fundamental democratic rights.

That is exactly true. They can bluster all they want about Democrats playing politics. In fact, the Republicans seem to have become so unconfident of their policies' appeal to voters (Upend Medicare! Slash Pell grants! Encourage the relocation of jobs overseas! Lower taxes dramatically for the very rich and raise them on everyone else!) that they feel the only way they can win elections is to lie incessantly (see: Josh Mandel) and to prevent their opponents' supporters from voting.

And when they wrap this anti-democratic impulse in the American flag and professions of "freedom" and "protecting the Constitution," they've become a sad — and dangerous — spectacle.

Sunday I posted about how, as a result of legwork done by Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Democratic Party executive director Caleb Faux and some of his associates, attention was being drawn to the hypocrisy of Secretary of State Jon Husted on the issue of extended voting hours around the state.

http://www.ohiodailyblog.com/content/husted-pondering-idea-equal-voting-...

There was outrage in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) a month ago when Husted broke a tie between the two Democratic and two Republican board of elections members to limit early voting hours at the Board of Elections to regular business hours.

http://www.ohiodailyblog.com/content/congresswoman-marcia-fudge-rallies-...

Back then he said it wouldn’t be fair for voters in Cuyahoga to have extra voting opportunities that other counties might not have. He broke similar ties in Lucas (Toledo) and Franklin (Columbus) counties, limiting early voting in three of the four biggest metro areas and also shut down extended hours in Summit County (Akron).

Hamilton County had not yet voted, and Faux began to wonder what was going on in the non-urban, heavily Republican counties. So he had some people call around — and he discovered that many of these counties WERE extending voting hours. Heavily Republican Warren and Butler counties, which ring Cincinnati, were allowing more convenient hours. So were Medina and Portage counties in Northeast Ohio.

The catch is that Democrats almost always tend to be for expanded voting opportunities, while Republicans are amassing a sad record of trying to limit them in heavily Democratic areas and among heavily Democratic demographics. So boards in urban counties were splitting, allowing Husted to break the tie. Boards in heavily Republican counties were agreeing on more voting hours, so Husted didn’t need to intervene.

A great snippet from a speech Joe Biden gave in Youngstown a few months ago. He was responding to some of the riduclouse allegations the Republicans are lobbing at the Democrats.

So you thought Karl Rove was an invincible, all-powerful evil genius who never made a false move? OK, then someone tell me why he's continued for so long to dump money into the hapless Senate campaign of Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel.

PPP's latest polling just came out, showing him lagging behind Brown by 10 points and with unfavorability that overwhelms his favorable rating.

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/08/obama-up-slightly-in-ohi...

Yes, yes, I know — "A lot can happen between now and the election." But actually, that's not true. It's incredibly rare for a candidate with a lead like that, who has lead the race steadily, to suddenly lose. He'd pretty much have to be arrested for molesting kindergartners or start babbling crazily at a speech using a lot of racial and ethnic slurs - maybe call someone "macaca." That worked for George Allen to hand James Webb at Senate seat in Virginia.

We're hearing that Rove's American Crossroads may be starting to ease off on their massive Ohio buys. Maybe "genius" Rove finally got the message: The Empty Suit hasn't got what it takes.

PPP's polling also showed Obama's lead unchanged at three points; the polling was done before the choice of Paul Ryan for his running made was announced.

Make that six. It's almost not worth it to try to compete with him any more in championship lying events.

In a stunning display of world-class mendacity, the Empty Suit has just snagged his sixth "Pants on Fire" from the Cleveland Plain Dealer's PolitiFact.

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2012/aug/13/josh-mandel/ohio-t...

It concludes, "We have a rating for statements that are both false and ridiculous. It's Pants on Fire."

"False and ridiculous." Anyone else think that pretty much sums up Mandel's entire existence?

What they're fact-checking today is "Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel says U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has sent billions of our tax dollars to foreign countries."

They found that Mandel pretty much included everything that had anything to do with a foreign country, such as the cost of maintaining our embassies and bills with bipartisan support that only tangentially had anything to do with other countries or whose allocations were not set by Congress, let alone by Sherrod Brown.

But this goes beyond the offensiveness of just lying. It encourages an ugly myth that too many Americans have swallowed: that this country spends some outrageous amount on "foreign aid" that we should be keeping in this country and that if we slashed it, it would go a long way to balancing our budget.

This article relates how a survey of Americans showed they thought 20% of our budget goes to foreign aid when in reality it's about 1%.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2676

I don't normally feature out-of-state congressional races — we've got too many hot races here in Ohio — but this is too good not to share. As extreme as he is, Paul Ryan's district is very swingy. Apparently, he's done a good job or masquerading as a "moderate," sort of like LaTourette. And he seems like a "nice young man," and Democrats haven't really challenged him.

That is changing. He's running against a real progressive named Rob Zerban, who has already raised a million dollars, a considerable sum for a house race. Zerban is pro-choice, he supports marriage equality, he's an environmental activist, and he's a trained chef!

http://www.robzerban.com/

Now Zerban's got the advantage of Ryan's radical budget being in the headlines, something that may have flown under the radar of many constituents previously. And it might not be a plus that Ryan is running for vice president. That will keep him traveling around the country and out of the district. It could give rise to a "Ryan doesn't care about Wisconsin-01" narrative, similar to the one that swirled around Dennis Kucinich in 2008 when he had four primary challengers playing on peoples' annoyance with his presidential run.

But Zerban has found and is exploiting Ryan's real achilles heel: his biggest groupie is Dick Cheney, who said last year, "I worship the ground Paul Ryan walks on."

There's video. Zerban has it posted. This isn't going to help Ryan in either one of his races. So sad. LOL.

It just doesn't seem to be completely obvious to this guy. Boy, would Mary Ellen O'Shaughnessy have been a great secretary of state.

Ohio secretary of state Jon Husted has now said that he may set uniform statewide extended early voting hours across the state.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/08/11/state-may-set-h...

After Husted cast a tie-breaking vote at the Cuyahoga Board of Elections to limit early voting to weekday business hours and did the same in Franklin — limiting voters in the state's two biggest urban, Democratic counties to inconvenient times for working people who don't have flexible schedules, it came out — thanks to Caleb Faux, executive director of the Hamilton County that blood-red collar counties around CIncinnati like Burler and Warren were voting for extended hours.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/03/1116276/-Meanwhile-in-Ohio-tilt...

One of the reasons Husted gave for making Cuyahoga go with limited hours was that it
wouldn’t be fair to have extended hours when other counties might not have them. Unless Republicans have the unfair edge, of course.

“Jim Crow has been resurrected in Ohio,” said state Sen. Nina Turner, D-Cleveland, on MSNBC. She noted that the bulk of Ohio’s African-American voters live in urban counties that don’t have extended hours.

Hard to argue with that.

Husted was able to do this because Democrats are generally in favor of more voting opportunities for everyone, while Republicans favor them only for themselves. So, while the two Democrats on each four-person county BoE will tend to vote for extended hours, their Republican colleagues apparently want to do this only when the main beneficiaries are Republicans. Thus Husted gets to break a tie only in Democratic counties. Democrats in Republican counties agree that extended voting is good for everyone, so there's no tie to break

I got an email today from one of the right-wing groups I subscribe to in order to find out what's getting their undies in a bunch.

This email was passed on by Mitt Romney and was titled simply "Paul Ryan."

Isn't that very headline just crackling with excitement?

Here is what the email said:

Paul Ryan is a strong conservative leader, and I am proud to have him as my running mate.

He is widely respected for his leadership skills and his intellect, and for his ability to tackle serious issues.

Together, we understand that a limited government and fiscal responsibility will unleash prosperity for all Americans.

Donate $15 today to help restore America's greatness and build a stronger middle class.

Thanks,

Mitt Romney

"OK, Rupert, OK Dick Armey, OK megawealthy GOP string pullers — you can put the gun away. I did what you asked me to!"

(Oh, and the whole statement is in a little box with no salutation, no introduction. Just that formal statement.)

Mranwhile, Huffington Post, home of "bad news for Obama," has a headline story today titled "Romney's Pick Has Troubling Record?" It goes on to say "Paul Ryan Only Passed 2 Bills Into Law In More Than A Decade."

His legislative record, it turns out, consists of:

B. He passed " legislation to change the way arrows (as in bows and arrows) are hit with an excise tax. Specifically, his bill amended the Internal Revenue Code to impose a 39-cent tax per arrow shaft, instead of a 12.4 percent tax on the sales price."

This really isn't a big deal, considering the kinds of legislation he proposes, which most of us would rather not see passed. But it's interesting that HuffPo considers this headline news, especially after yesterday's headline that "Ryan's speech gets mixed revues, emphasizing risk of Romney's pick."

Well, my in-box is filled with emails reacting to Mitt Romney's wonderful, wonderful pick of "zombie-eyed granny starver" Paul Ryan (Thanks, Charles Pierce of Esquire for the description: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/paul-ryan-romney-vp-pick-11562917) as his running mate.

Of course, the Obama campaign was right on it, today branding Romney/Ryan the "go-back team."(To the Bush administration or to 1901, take your pick).

http://www.barackobama.com/romney/ryan/

So were numerous other Democratic and progressive groups.

Among the emails were responses from several of the dynamic women running to oust Republican incumbents. All tied their opponent to Ryan — not difficult to do.

Congresswoman Betty Sutton, who was pitted by the new map against fellow incumbent Jim Renacci in Ohio's new 16th district, was first out of the box.

She said,

Voters may see Romney, Ryan, and Renacci on the ballot, but what they’ll get if they are elected will be nothing but policies that favor the special interests and the super-rich at the expense of hard-working middle-class Americans. Congressman Renacci might think he can hide from the Ryan plan to end Medicare as we know it while giving himself and his fellow millionaires a big tax cut, but voters know better, and this November they will make their voice heard at the ballot box.

Her press release also reminds voters that the extremely wealthy Renacci was recruited by Ryan to run for this seat, ousting John Boccieri in 2010.

Here's the Ohio Democratic Party's email about Mitt Romney's stellar VP pick!

Dear Anastasia,

Today, we’ll learn a lot of things about Mitt Romney’s Vice-Presidential nominee, Paul Ryan.

But one story you likely won’t hear is about Ryan’s start in politics, as a young staffer just out of college, working for then-Congressman John Kasich’s Budget Committee. Ryan cut his teeth working long, tireless hours for Kasich, helping him slash programs for working families, grinding progress to a halt, and laying the groundwork to shut down the federal government.

Kasich made a big mark on Ryan, which became entirely clear last year when Congressman Paul Ryan followed in the footsteps of his mentor, proposing a radical, ideological budget that would end Medicare as we know it. These men are truly cut from the same cloth.

Romney as president would be bad enough. But Ryan as Vice-President would be catastrophic. He would pound a sharp stake into the heart of Medicare, and we can’t let that happen.

This election truly will decide who we will be as a country and the stakes have never been sharper. I hope you'll join me as we move America forward.

Thanks for standing with us,

Chris

Chris Redfern
Chairman
Ohio Democratic Party

I had a little debate at the farm this morning with one of my fellow team members about whether Romney would try to distance himself from Paul Ryan's toxic budget plan. He said Romney will stand by it; I said Romney can waffle on anything.

Oh — what's this?

From today's Romney campaign talking points:

1) Does this mean Mitt Romney is adopting the Paul Ryan plan?

· Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.

"As President, he WILL be putting together his own plan ...."

Which he apparently will not reveal until after he is elected.

Hey — remember who else did that?

JOHN KASICH!

When quizzed about how he would cut the state income tax (at one point he talked about eliminating it), which makes up nearly 50% of the state budget and still balance the budget, he said he'd try to get back to us on SOME of that by Election Day.

We didn't hear that he intended to steal money from public school systems and local governments, forcing draconian cuts to services or giant local tax increases. We didn't hear that he was going to ram through a bill that stripped public sector unions of their bargaining rights so local governments could balance their budgets on the backs of their workers without the workers having any input.

Nope, he kept all of that under his hat.

Poor Mitt Romney. He's really really trapped. Here he even introduces Ryan as "the next President of the United States." Is he thinking he'll get elected, and then resign before the inauguration? Or is it just that he really, really cant picture himself as President since he never will be? And he just diminished his chances today.

Not really much to say. This pretty much takes away everything Romney might arguably have campaigned on. And it puts Ryan's execrable budget with its destruction of Medicare and Social Security in a glaring spotlight, where previously it kinda flew under the wire, sending out signals to hardcore conservatives while allowing others to be lulled by Politi"Fact" lying that of course it doesn't end Medicare just because it completely changes it because it would still be CALLED Medicare. That lie just had its wings clipped.

I'm sure some pundits are calling this pick a "game changing." And it is. That's what they called McCain's pick of Sarah Palin. And it was. i'm sure you catch my drift.

[[[Happy Dance]]]