Had enough? Taft's office blasts Blackwell

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Jon Allison, Gov. Bob Taft's chief of staff, is tired of watching Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell -- not to mention every Democrat in Ohio -- use his boss as a personal piñata.

On Thursday, he backhanded Blackwell in a letter to the editor published in the Wall Street Journal. Allison's letter was in response to an Oct. 19 column by WSJ editorial writer Jason L. Riley headlined, "Ohio's Fall Guy." Riley's column said Blackwell is a far superior candidate to Democrat Rep. Ted Strickland, but that Blackwell has the misfortune of having to run against "Ohio's disastrous GOP governor, Bob Taft, and a state party establishment that has self-destructed."

Allison fired back, challenging what he perceived as Riley's assertion that Blackwell "holds no responsibility for the assumed loss" of the Nov. 7 election.

"There can be no doubt that the current political climate in Ohio is poisonous for Republicans," Allison wrote. "Mistakes have been made, and the 2004 presidential race brought a multi-million-dollar political campaign that screamed at Ohioans that our economy is awful, and only Republicans are to blame. But to suggest that Ken Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state, is a helpless victim, burdened only by the sins of his brothers and sisters, is absurd. The same Ken Blackwell who (with Mr. Riley's assistance) blasts the rate of state government spending from 1994 to 2004 currently presides over a state office whose budget has grown on Mr. Blackwell's watch by about 73%. How did he afford the growth? Mr. Blackwell hiked 72 different business-filing fees. I cannot recall the last time your newspaper so ardently embraced such taxing and spending."

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2006_10.html#198931

[WCGreen]

1. Oh man, is that cool or what....

[liberalhistorian]

2. Well, little Bobby Taft, the truth

hurts, doesn't it! You did NOTHING for eight years except coast on the laurels of your family name. Come to think of it, none of those who held office with your family name, whether president or senator, ever did anything, either.

That being said, Blackwell is five hundred times more dangerous than little Bobby Taft, MUCH more so. How anyone, even a WSJ columnist, could even consider him a worthy, let alone "superior" candidate is totally beyond me. Then again, I don't have to deal with it anymore, since I've left Ohio. My parents say that they really WILL move if Blackwell somehow pulls it off and ends up in the guv's mansion, and I believe them.

[NEOBuckeye]

3. The difference between Taft and Blackwell...

Taft = Passive-Negative
Blackwell = Active-Negative

Taft doesn't seem to enjoy being governor and has obviously been passive in the role to the extreme. He seems largely in place out of some "family obligation" to his grandfather, the late former President Taft.

Blackwell, on the other hand, doesn't want to actually be governor, so much as he wants the ego boost and his name in lights. ("First Black Governor of Ohio!") His past political history suggests that he would be active in the role, and therefore very destructive in it. Not unlike our present Active-Negative President, Bush, who dislikes the job, but has been involved in it.

In short, if Ohio were a train careening towards a broken bridge, Taft would be twiddling his thumbs in the caboose, while Blackwell would be ignorantly shoveling more coal into the engine furnace.

I don't see Blackwell winning at all. He's way too unpopular, even amongst many moderate Republicans. If he did win, it would be so suspect as to generate an immediate backlash and call for an investigation into the election, with Republicans probably leading the outcry.

[A Brand New World]

4. Blackwell is going down!

QUOTE"I don't see Blackwell winning at all. He's way too unpopular, even amongst many moderate Republicans. If he did win, it would be so suspect as to generate an immediate backlash and call for an investigation into the election, with Republicans probably leading the outcry."

I agree - I think Blackwell is going down! I know for a fact of two Repubs (my boss & her husband) who did not vote for Blackwell. When she told me today, I figured she would say that she just didn't vote for Governor at all but she said that they actually voted for Strickland. I about fell off my chair. They are two rabid Repubs who have probably never voted for a Democrat in their life. They just do not like Blackwell at all. He's history I think. If they didn't vote for him, then not many will. YAY!!!!!