Hamilton County GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou Gets Mean: Calls Obama 'An Empty Suit'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The GOP chairman in Cincinnati slipped out of Ohio for a vacation in an undisclosed location where there are palm trees and beaches. He says it's a Republican-controlled paradise. But he's uncharacteristically sour, calling Sen. Barack Obama a "self-proclaimed messiah" and "an empty suit." Maybe it's the heat. Or maybe margaritas fueled such brilliantly intellectual political commentary. He's definitely on par (sarcasm alert) with William F. Buckley's erudition. If Alex Triantafilou can find a single instance of Obama proclaiming himself the messiah, The Daily Bellwether will gladly send him a case of Corona to drown his political sorrows at the beach. If not, he should apologize and run across Fountain Square in a Speedo at high noon on a work day in August. Then people could decide who really is the "empty suit." Here's Triantafilou from the beach:

"I've really built a dislike for this Obama message and the man himself. A few months ago, I thought he was an attractive candidate and, as a political observer, I was impressed by his political skills. No more. He's an empty suit and a true believing ideological liberal who will kill the American entrepreneurial spirit by promoting class warfare, raising taxes on prosperity, and imposing a radical social agenda on America."

Hamilton County GOP Chair George Vincent: Soon To Exit?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- CityBeat's Kevin Osborne is reporting Hamilton County GOP Chairman George Vincent will depart no later than mid-April. He is supposed to be replaced by a sitting Common Pleas Court Judge who plans to resign his $120,000-a-year job for the partisan post overseeing the state's richest urban countywide political organization -- an organization whose grip has begun to ebb.

Judge Alex Triantafilou is currently seeking election to the judgeship, which was an appointment from former Gov. Bob Taft. According to CityBeat's Osborne, when Triantafilou drops out of the race to step in as GOP chair -- he does not have a Democratic opponent for the judgeship --the Republican party will name a replacement candidate for the November ballot. Osborne says the dealmakers already have made their choice: Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Russell J. Mock.

What's interesting about all this? If the changes indeed take place, judgeships get shuffled and voters have little sway over who fills these important elected offices. Instead, all the decisions get made by political insiders. Is that the kind of democracy John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had in mind when they created the Republic?