Hamilton County's Dem Chief Rips Jean Schmidt: 'Saturday Night Live Got It Right'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Hamilton County Democratic Chairman Tim Burke says OH-02 U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt's House speech asserting "the Chinese are drilling off the coast of Florida" is another Saturday Night Live moment. He was, of course, referring back to the now legendary 2005 comedy bit that lampooned Republican Schmidt for calling Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a Marine Corps Vietnam War hero, a "coward."

Burke says Schmidt, who lives in Clermont County near Cincinnati, should retract her statement that the Chinese are involved in energy extraction off the coast of Florida because it is both ludicrous and false. She made the statement June 5 on the House floor, a speech that is available here on YouTUBE. Burke says Schmidt has not offered a scintilla of evidence to back up her claim. Instead, she has cited the political grapevine, and says she was repeating what others have said. In a letter to Schmidt obtained by The Daily Bellwether, Burke says:

"If you continue to believe that such drilling is going on, where is it located? How far off the coast? Latitude and longitude? How many platforms are involved. I don't think you will or can answer those questions because you know your original claim was false.

"While I have no reason to believe that you made a deliberate attempt to deceive, you made a statement on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that was not true, a mistake that should be acknowledged and corrected. That is all I asked. So I was surprised to see your vitriolic, wild reply. I shouldn't have been give your history: plagiarizing as you own a newspaper column already published by another member of Congress; suggesting a nuclear waste dump might be a good thing in the Second District; and in another embarrassing speech on the floor of the House, accused a colleague in Congress, a Marine Corps hero, of being a coward. I guess Saturday Night Live got it right."

There's more on the ongoing "Chinese drilling off the coast of Florida" flap here. The issue is being driven by the Republican congresswoman's refusal to admit she made a mistake, and her insistence that others have made the same claim. In fact, no one has said the Chinese are drilling off the coast of Florida. There have been statements that China and Cuba may be starting to explore for oil in Cuban territory. Burke seems to have delivered a strong punch by demanding that she reveal the latitude and longitude of the Chinese drilling platforms that she claims exist somewhere off the coast of Florida.

The North Korea Of Ohio: Hamilton County's Glorious Leaders Fear Democracy

[Note to readers: Upates from other blogs and news sources will be posted as they become available.]

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- At a time when the United States has soldiers dying and risking their lives in Iraq in hope of bringing democracy to the Middle East, when Benazir Bhutto sacrificed all so the people of Pakistan could select a leader at the polls, when Putin and the junta in Myanmar clamp down on political competition, and Kenyans protest what seems to be a rigged election, Ohio sees this:

"In an unprecedented last minute deal, the Republican and Democratic parties have decided not to compete against each other for the two Hamilton County commission seats up for election this year. . . Leaders of both parties said they think that the arrangement -- unprecedented at the level of county commissioner, the top of the food chain in county politics -- will benefit both parties."

Reporters Howard Wilkinson and Sherry Coolidge wrote that for today's Cincinnati Enquirer; it ran on Page 1-A of the print edition this morning and reads like an obituary for the democratic ideals of America's two-party system. (No web is available at the moment). Or, it can be viewed as a paean to a manipulative ruling class of lawyers and CEOs who have the most to gain, the story of a snobbish elite. One Dem who read the story remarked that George Vincent, the GOP chair, and Tim Burke, the Dem chair, should erect a huge statue of themselves in downtown Cincinnati on Fountain Square. It could be like the oversized monuments to strongmen who disdain democracy -- Saddam's effigies and the Stalinist-inspired tributes to Kim Jong-il came to mind.

Right now, the deal between the county party chiefs is being sold as bipartisanship. It is being argued that the times are financially troubled in Hamilton County -- the budget was $30 million short of balance. Apparently, a competitive election would just get in the way of keeping things orderly and cleaning up the mess. Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, a beneficiary of the deal, praised the arrangement when he spoke to the Enquirer:

"What you have is both parties agreeing -- in what is a unique circumstance -- to place an emphasis on working together to solve these problems and not to lose a year where the primary focus of attention is on a hotly contested, partisan race."

But transfer those words to Vice President Dick Cheney's mouth. Imagine Cheney on the White House lawn announcing that the two parties would not contest the 2008 president election. Cheney -- "What you have is both parties agreeing -- in what is a unique circumstance -- to place an emphasis on working together to solve these problems and not to lose a year where the primary focus of attention is on a hotly contested, partisan race."

What seems lost in Hamilton County at the moment is an ideal: Contested elections are about letting people decide their future. Skeptics see that the two political parties advanced their own interests ahead of the public interest in open and competitive elections. They see that the parties consider balloting as nothing more than a monkey-wrench thrown into the machinery. Perhaps this means the era of the Bosses are back; the whole event reeks of Boss Tweed. He used to say, "As long as I count the votes what are you going to do about it? Say."

[UPDATE: 1:51 PM -- The Green Party's Justin Jeffre has a piece about the deal that is now posted Cincinnati Beacon blog. Jeffre says the era of transparent government promised by Cincinnati Democrats in county government was a sham. ". . . it looks as if the new Democratic majority is still too comfortable with inefficient government, back room deals, stifling debate and big money politics as usual. I've said it before and I'll say it again: there isn't a damn bit of difference between the corporate Democrats and the corporate Republicans. We get bipartisan wars, jails and other corporate profit making schemes."]

[UPDATE 2: 2:06 pm -- Jeff Coryell at Ohio Daily Blog is based in Cleveland, but he wonderes if democracy is evaporating in Hamilton County. " . . . frankly it strikes me as a dangerous abuse of power. The point of democratic government is for voters to have the opportunity to decide who represents them, and such incursions into that right should ring alarm bells. It's true that individuals can step outside the party system and run as independents, but as a practical matter political parties have a lot of clout -- in many cases they can effectively stifle electoral challenges." Coryell is a Democrat.]

[UPDATE 3: 2:30 PM -- Taxmanblog writes from the conservative side and warns the Republicans may gain in the short term only. "So for the Hamilton County GOP it's more about power than principle. As our last congressional election proved, when you don't run on principle, the public will take your power. Hamilton County is getting bluer and thanks to the Hamilton County GOP, the surrounding counties will be redder and larger. You guys can keep your ghost town of bums, pimps, drug dealers and welfare moms. I live in Warren County now why should I care?"]

[UPDATE 4: 3:10 pm -- The Whistleblower, which is published by Jim Schifrin and is considered odious itself by more than a few, will be out tomorrow with a cartoon of a skunk and a headline: Something Really Stinks in Hamilton County. Schifrin writes: "But it only confirms what The Blower has been saying for years about politics hereabouts, but unfortunately, the corruption and stupidity is even worse than we could've ever imagined. No self-respecting elected official would've ever agreed to take part is such a travesty. And just like we said, no self-respecting elected official did".]

[UPDATE 5: 3:34 pm -- The Cincinnati Enquirer publishes an editorial that denounces the agreement between the political parties. The newspaper calls it a bad deal for the voting public and adds: "At this point we aren't discussing the merits of the candidates involved, but Portune and Hartman should both be embarrassed to look their constituents in the face. With uncontested races there will no debate and no motivation for coming up with new ideas. Without opposition, these elections will be nothing but appointments."]

[UPDATE 6: 3:49 pm -- The headline on Kevin Osborne's story on the alt/weekly CityBeat's blog says a lot: And they call it democracy.]

[UPDATE 7: 1/6/06; 12:04 pm -- Bizzblog's Tom Blumer is now calling it the "Politicians' Republic of Hamilton County, Ohio." It's a play on the politburo-dominated politics that were conducted in the Soviet Union and the "People's Republics" that were on the map during the Cold War. China, of course, is still a People's Republic, a dictatorship where pressing for democracy can land one in prison or a readjustment camp. Blumer is disgusted by the no-compete deal between Republicans and Democrats in Hamilton County. "This should be cause for significant national embarrassment, if for no other reason than to deter all-too-comfy politicians in other cities from doing the same thing. It's also the best reason I've seen yet for having a 'None of the Above' choice on the ballot. Of course, that would be a choice that 'wouldn't benefit both parties,' so don't expect the Politicians' Republic of Hamilton County to adopt it any time soon."]

(Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia)

Hamilton County Democratic Hdqts Break-In: Nixon Is Not The Crook

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Hamilton County Demo Chairman Tim Burke has ruled out Watergate mastermind Richard Nixon, but adds that Cincinnati police consider the break-in last week at party headquarters a "serious crime." Burke said he has not been given detailed information about possible suspects from investigators, and that he doesn't yet know if the computer and robo-caller stolen last week were taken for political reasons, or to fence on the street. Burke said the cops tried to lift fingerprints and have an active criminal investigation under way.

Officials said there were other files and equipment in the office that did not seem to be touched, including material that belonged to Democratic County Commissioner David Pepper and Cincinnati City Councilman Cecil Thomas. He said the burglars grabbed a computer from a back room. Burke, who put the value of the lost equipment near $3,000, disclosed the incident was the second break-in at Demo headquarters in about a year.

"This one is a serious break-in. But it's a little early in the investigation to know why it happened. We don't have any answers. We have questions. But what the motivation was, we just don't know. Was it political? I can't answer except to say it's serious when a political headquarters gets hit."

Burke said the computer contained campaign records belonging to Democratic City Council candidate Brian Garry, who is endorsed by the party and the AFL-CIO. He said Garry suffered a major setback with the loss of the data and is scrambling to recover.

"For a campaign that doesn't have the money that some others do --- well, it's going to be difficult for him to make up the loss, or catch up. It's a little early in the season, so maybe he can. For Brian it's really a problem because he lost a lot of campaign material."

WCPO-TV, Channel 9 did a story about the break-in over the holiday weekend, and there was a lot of discussion about the incident Monday during the AFL-CIO's Labor Day picnic. At this point, nobody is sure if it was a political black bag job, a dirty trick, or a simple crime. The headquarters is in a city neighborhood called Pleasant Ridge, a residential community that is considered safe and relatively crime free.