Brown and Blackwell on Hardball tonight

[ArtVandaley]

Sherrod Brown was on Hardball tonight, and he said that it is very clear that the Ohio Republican Party is vulnerable, so I think he may finally be considering challenging DeWine.
Let's hope so.

[rodeodance]

1. chris just asked if congress should get rid of steriods in baseball. what

about in the Military??????--discussion coming up after break.

[ewagner]

2. Did you see Blackwell???

He's running as hard as he can AWAY from the Ohio Republican Party.

He even went so far as to say that the reason the race in OH2 was so close was because the Repub was running with ESTABLISHMENT REPUBS!

This could get really good...

:popcorn:

[Kolesar]

3. That is a bizarre Blackwell quote.

[mosin]

6. Blackwell

It's not a bizarre quote at all from Blackwell. Blackwell is running against the establishment he feels betrayed him. In 1998, he wanted to run for governor, but the party establishment asked him to step aside and let Taft run. They said it was Taft's turn, and that Blackwell's turn would come later. Now it's supposed to be his turn, and the establishment still won't support him. He has said publicly that the greatest mistake of his life was stepping aside for Taft in 1998.

And he's also right about the OH-2 race. It was close for two reasons: Hackett campaigned as a conservative and was able to effectively (and accurately) label Schmidt as an establishment Republican tied to tax increases and corruption in Columbus. You would have thought Hackett was a conservative Republican from his ads, complete with quotes from Bush about military service, quotes from the "conservative Club for Growth," and complaints about Schmidt voting for Taft's tax increases. Unless you visited Hackett's website or talked to him personally, you would have had no idea he was a progressive. And I'm not being critical, it was brilliant, and completely honest campaign in a very conservative district.

[cmd]

4. The Republicans have run away from Blackwell

In my opinion, Blackwell is now running on the right wing Christian ticket. He is building his base and support for his horrid Citizens for Tax Reform proposal in the fundie churches all over Ohio. That proposal will doom any progress in Ohio. The take over by right wingers will almost be complete.

[mosin]

5. TEL amendment

Although, I can't stand Blackwell, I support the TEL amendment. Ohio taxes and spending are out of control after many years of bipartisan mismanagement. Neither party has shown any discipline, and the Republicans running things in the last decade have been the worst of all.

Limiting spending growth to population growth plus inflation and requiring voter approval of tax increases is just the ticket for getting Ohio on track. It's no shock that almost no one in either party establishment supports the measure, but it's silly to say that the "proposal will doom any progress in Ohio."