Blackwell tells religious leaders to ignore complaints

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1137602652261220.xml&storylist=cleveland

1/18/2006, 1:11 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

HARTVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A group of pastors who have complained to the Internal Revenue Service about two evangelical churches' support of GOP gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell are trying to unfairly pressure the churches, Blackwell says.

"You tell those 31 bullies that you aren't about to be whupped," Blackwell told a luncheon attended by 450 religious leaders on Tuesday. The secretary of state said that "political and social and cultural forces are trying to run God out of the public square."

Blackwell was the only candidate for governor invited to address the event sponsored by the Ohio Restoration Project, led by the Rev. Russell Johnson, pastor of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster.

Johnson and Blackwell denied allegations in the complaint filed Monday by the ministers, who say Johnson's group and World Harvest Church in Columbus led by the Rev. Rod Parsley should lose their tax-exempt status because they improperly used their churches and affiliated groups for partisan politics...

[EST]

1. Gloriosky!!!

Can this really be happening?

[HughBeaumont]

2. It's because God doesn't BELONG in the public square, BootBlackwell!

How's being a GOP lackey doing for you, Kenny? "You scratched their back, they'll knife yours" kind of thing yet?

What are real conservatives to MAKE of this theocrat, election-thievin' dickhead?

[niyad]

3. this is the same blackwell who, as sec't of state in OH--colluded with the

people who basically rigged and gave the state to bush?

[me b zola]

13. Yep, Fraudwell gets around

I just hope he gets around to serving prison time for his role in denying people, many Black mostly poor, the right to vote and for his other shinanigans in subverting the election process. May he rot in a prison orange jumpsuit.

[StaggerLee]

4. Bullying?

No, it's a call for accountability. You should try it sometime Blackwell.

[grytpype]

5. So Blackwell is coordinating the response?

Too bad the IRS isn't actually going to do anything about this.

[MasonJar]

6. When has a little law bothered this crook?

[ladjf]

7. How did Ohio become so corrupt? What about the rank and file

voters in Ohio? Are they unaware that they are living in a concentrated cesspool of political corruption?

[AndyTiedye]

8. The People Are Aware, And Supported Election Reform 2-1, But...

since Blackwell controls the counting of the votes, those reforms "lost" by 2-1 instead.

Nobody is asking the people anymore.

[ladjf]

9. Something very terrible is taking place in Ohio. If it gets much

worse, the credentials of their elected officials should be revoked. That, of course, won't happen. Ohio has turned into a rogue state.

[PassingFair]

11. Thank Goodness Paul Hackett is there.

His voice is ringing out LOUD and CLEAR.
The dems can capitalize if they will only get behind him.

[ozymandius]

10. Would it be impolite to tell this guy to eat shit?

just wondering

[f-bush]

12. Blackwell is an ignorant crook (election stealer)

[salin]

14. ministers and religious leaders are "bullies"?

treading on some ice Mr Blackwell... treading on some very thin ice.

[tomreedtoon]

15. I thought God could be anywhere He wanted.

Or are we talking about God at all? Isn't it the power-hungry evangelists and churches who want to push their way into the public square?

Since I live in a community with various "activist preachers" intruding into public activities as a form of free advertising, I know where these guys are coming from.

[Maeve]

19. The state of Ohio politics is such that God doesn't WANT to be there!

This is what happens when you get one-party rule on a state-wide basis.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Holy Crap! What a blatant show of abuse of power!

What happened to government as an honest broker?

[Algorem]

17. Petro wants inquiry into Blackwell campaign tactics

Petro wants inquiry into Blackwell campaign tactics
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1137663331189680.xml&coll=2

Thursday, January 19, 2006

-- For the second time in a week, someone is asking for an inquiry into Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's campaign tactics in the race for governor.

Blackwell rival Jim Petro, the Republican attorney general, asked the Ohio Elections Commission in a Wednesday letter whether it is a violation of state election laws for an issue campaign chaired by one gubernatorial candidate to sponsor negative telephone advertising about another.

Without naming Blackwell or the committee he spearheads, Citizens for Tax Reform, Petro campaign manager Bob Paduchik sought advice on the legality of recent phone polling by the anti-tax group that called Petro "part of the problem in Columbus."

Among his concerns was that Citizens for Tax Reform, as an issue-advocacy group, can take large individual and corporate donations that a gubernatorial candidate cannot...

[malaise]

18. Is the Ohio Restoration Project

a beneficiary of Jackoff's largesse or are they receiving any funds from those trying to jerkoff Jackoff's tainted money?

Edit -sp

[Javaman]

20. "these aren't the droids you are looking for..."n/t

[greiner3]

21. He's the blackest white man I've ever seen. n./t