'Jobs Czar' Lee Fisher Joins 591,000 Ohioans Seeking Work: Resume Must Disclose He Was Deadweight Dud On Dem Ticket

Lee Fisher Deserves Some Blame

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There are those who are saying today that, "Lee Fisher, quite simply, cost Ted Strickland re-election."  The line originated with Tim Russo at Plunderbund.  And the fact is, Fisher's run for the U.S. Senate was punchless, disastrous, callous, inept, a massive display of ego, the mission of a fool.  Ohio's lieutenant governor did nothing to help the statewide ticket -- he could not raise money, he could not inspire voters, he was a human punching bag for Republican Sen.-elect Rob Portman, who pummeled Fisher.  Every campaign spot by Portman had the add-on impact of delivering a body blow to Strickland.  Fisher was in charge of creating jobs in Ohio -- he couldn't even make one for himself.  Now he's headed for the unemployment lines, where he will join 10% of the state's workforce. Fisher deserves to stand in that line; the other Ohioans deserve paychecks and careers.  To call Fisher an albatross around the neck of Gov. Ted Strickland's unsuccessful re-election campaign would be an insult to albatrosses.  Fisher is a loser -- he lost the 1994 race for attorney general, he lost the 1998 race for governor against Bob Taft.  He was pulverized by Portman on Nov. 2, 2010.    

Plunderbund's Russo has a great analysis of Fisher's anthrax-like harm to the statewide ticket. And he wonders why so many of the state's Democratic leaders were blind to his toxic presence:

"Establishment Democrats at the very top of our party were hell bent on preserving Lee Fisher for Rob Portman to destroy.  DSCC chair Bob Menendez was quite explicit in his threats to Jennifer Brunner. The crowning glory was the total abdication by EMILY’s List of their entire reason for being, abandoning a progressive woman statewide office holder in favor of a male establishment pillar built on sand who they must have known was about to collapse.  It’s hard to imagine a more effective way of destroying your organization’s credibility, and EMILY’s List did that for Lee Fisher.
Then, they all went away.  Every one of the people who made threats of lost state business, who acquiesced to those threats, thus stifling Jennifer Brunner’s fundraising, was nowhere to be found as Lee Fisher literally vanished during the summer, then in a last ditch effort to apparently entertain himself, spiraled into self-parody.

"What was Lee’s effect on the rest of the ticket?  Fatal.  My, how we can count the ways….but one stands out.  Blindingly so.  When Lee Fisher demanded and received the double-dip title of  'jobs czar,' neither he nor Ted Strickland probably expected the entire world economy to collapse in 2008.  Well, it did.  At that point, it should have been clear to every Democrat in Ohio, or Washington DC, that Lee’s presence at the top of the ODP ticket in 2010 would make every Rob Portman 'jobs' attack a double dip, too – those ads would hit Ted Strickland just as hard as they hit Lee Fisher."

Ohio Democratic Chair Chris Redfern Channels Dick Cheney: Drops the F-Bomb At Political Rally

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Republicans are feigning outrage after Ohio's Democratic Party chair Chris Redfern called opponents of healthcare reform "fuckers." He seems to have had Tea Party activists in mind. Former Vice President Dick Cheney had a similar opinion about critics of George W. Bush. On the Senate floor in 2004, Cheney told Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, to "go fuck himself." The U.S. Senate is supposed to be an august body with a bit more decorum than a political rally with union steelworkers. That's where Redern uttered his expletive. Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin Dewine pounced on Redfern for boorish behavior. But I can't find anything that shows Dewine ever said anything that took offense to Cheney's foul mouth on the Senate floor.

Here's Dewine about Redfern: “No one likes trailing in the polls but Ohioans deserve better than angry speeches full of name-calling and profanity. It’s certainly far from the political of post-partisanship that the Democrats promised two years ago. Let’s show a little class.”

Cheney remains unrepentant and said earlier this year that blurting out the obscenity was "sort of the best thing I ever did." Here's more on that: "(Newser) – As potty-mouthed vice presidents go, Dick Cheney is utterly unrepentant about his 2004 slip of the F-bomb in which he told Pat Leahy to go 'fuck yourself.' Dennis Miller on his radio show yesterday thanked the former veep for 'almost kicking Patrick Leahy's ass,' reports Think Progress. Cheney responds: 'You'd be surprised how many people liked that. That's sort of the best thing I ever did.'

In a counterintuitive way, Cheney is correct. It certainly wasn't the worst thing he ever did in office. Yep, Cheney did way worse than that.

Matt Naugle at Right Ohio is shedding tears, obviously crocodile tears, about Redfern.

Ohio Democratic Party Is Now Selling Obama Gear: Official Online Store Taking Orders

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There doesn't seem to be any Hillary Clinton merchandise available today except for a couple of campaign buttons that are leftovers from a state fundraising dinner sponsored by the ODP. And the online store says it all -- the grueling nomination contest is finally finished. One of the campaign buttons still for sale displays a face shot of Hillary's top Ohio backer, Gov. Ted Strickland, alongside her mug. It makes it look like they were running on the same ticket. (Grab one as a collectible?) But she's dropping out of the presidential campaign Saturday, and a Clinton-Strickland ticket turns out to be pure fantasy. By fall, Obama merchandise will be flooding the state party's online store. Hope that it all is made in the USA.

Obama Supporter Subodh Chandra To Ohio Dem Party: Identify Our Supporters Immediately

[UPDATE: 2:30 PM -- A source in the Obama campaign says the list of supporters has now been released. Reportedly, it contains about 970 names. There is still some consternation that state party officials spent nearly a month preparing the document.]

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Cleveland lawyer Subodh Chandra, an Obama activist who was the top vote-getter in the 11th District delegate selection caucus last month, says there has been "unacceptable delay" in obtaining the names of the Illinois senator's supporters statewide. Chandra spoke to The Daily Bellwether about Ohio Democratic Party documents identifying Jan. 3 caucus goers who signed pledge forms declaring themselves Obama backers. He fears a stall.

Chandra expressed publicly today a sense of growing frustration with the state party. Obama organizers want the names so they can identify core supporters across Ohio ahead of the March 4 presidential primary. Those supporters would be called upon to form the nucleus of Obama's statewide operation. But there are concerns the ODP establishment is backing Hillary Clinton has played political hardball by holding onto the names. Chandra said he could not understand why the Obama camp hasn't received its lists:

"They could FAX them to me today. They should just FAX 'em. They could scan it into a pdf and e-mail it. They could FedEx 'em. We need to have those names. This is just just absurd. The notion that they are typing up the list is not an acceptable excuse. Make a decent photocopy and send it to us."

Chandra said he wants the actual copies of pledge forms the Obama backers filled out on cacus night. He said ODP officials are reportedly preparing spread sheet lists of the names and e-mail addresses. He said those databases could be inaccurate, or contain errors and typos. He said copies of the actual pledge forms would be more precise.

"These are people who came to support Obama at a caucus before Iowa happened, before South Carolina happened. We don't need anybody's compilations. We want the actual sheets."

Ohio Democratic Party And Obama Camp: Friction Showing Over Caucus Night Names?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There seems to be growing concern Ohio's Democratic Party is feigning public neutrality in the runup to the March 4 presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The Obama camp has been pressing ODP officials to release the list of caucus-night voters who supported the Illinois senator earlier this month when convention delegates were selected. The list would identify Dems who showed up in sites scattered across 18 congressional districts in Ohio, and could total more than 1,000 deeply dedicated Obama backers. For weeks, nothing has materialized. An Obama operative told The Daily Bellwether today:

"We could get that f-ing stuff done overnight. We know who our delegates are. We want to see who was there for us statewide. A monk with a quill could do this faster than the ODP."

Jerid Kurtz at Buckeye State Blog has noted suspicion the state party organization has tilted in favor of Clinton. The New York senator has been endorsed by Gov. Ted Strickland, and some Obama backers wonder if the ODP has quietly taken sides. ODP Political Director Rebecca Pearcey sent out an e-mail last week to the Edwards (now gone), Obama and Clinton campaigns explaining that the delay in issuing the list of caucus night attendees was nothing nefarious. Pearcey said the data would be released when it was compiled in a useable form.

The names are important because they would quickly identify Ohioans who could be enlisted in Obama's statewide operation against Clinton. Said one insider:

"That's of immediate importance. If we find out that the names have been withheld from us for the past month, that would be a very stirring issue. I'm very interested in chasing the information down. What I'm suspicious of is that they have given the list to the Clinton campaign."

GOP's Kevin DeWine and Dem Chair Chris Redfern: This Year, Ohio's Prezzie Primary Counts

BATAVIA, Ohio (TDB) -- The two party leaders shared a stage at the Clermont County Chamber of Commerce today and agreed: Ohio's March 4 presidential primary now seems certain to play a significant role in selecting nominees for the White House. Deputy GOP Chair Kevin DeWine said he's convinced the early primaries and Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 won't lock things up for any candidate.

"It's my personal opinion it won't be decided by then. Hold on, because here come the presidential candidates."

Dem Chair Chris Redfern was equally as certain: "Ohio will be important, obviously, in November. But it appears Ohio will play a role in the primaries as well. There's no end in sight."

Traditionally, Ohio is a key state in the general election and often decides who wins the presidency. Its primary -- which comes late in the cycle -- is usually meaningless because the everybody already knows who the Republicans and Democrats plan to crown at the national conventions. So far, that hasn't happened.

DeWine and Redfern also agreed the run up to the November vote for president will be more intense in Ohio than ever before. Both said the campaign will be fought across all 88 counties, and Redfern said John Kerry lost in 2004 because his strategists focused too narrowly on urban areas. Redfern said Kerry could have won if he'd spent money in small towns, "just a few bucks on rural radio in places like Fulton County." He said the Dems have no intention of ignoring Clermont County this year even though it is overwhelmingly Republican.

DeWine said the state Democratic Party "now has a more organized 88-county strategy" that the Republicans intend to match. "We are planning to play in counties that have a dark blue Democratic tint to them."

Both said Ohio was crucial in November, but DeWine elaborated:

"Ohio has a long history of being on the side of the winner. The bottomline is: If you don't win the Buckeye State you don't win the White House. Especially if you are a Republican."

A questioner from the audience wondered who Redfern was backing -- Hillary, Obama or John Edwards. The state Dem chair said he was staying neutral. GOP leader DeWine said he had endorsed Hillary Clinton. That remark wrinkled some foreheads and led to a round of nervous laughs in the room. DeWine continued, "In the Democratic primary."

Ohio Democratic Party Says: Check Out Columbus Dems Council Ads

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- These three ads are posted on the state party's Web site and they show what three Democratic City Council incumbents in Columbus are talking about as they seek reelection.

It's a good peek into the themes candidates are voicing in other cities -- in fact, Ohio's biggest city -- which has turned into a Democratic stronghold. Because of the Internet and YouTUBE, things are no longer balkanized. Cincinnati and Toledo, Cleveland and Dayton, all can see, and share, what the current crop of political ads at the City Hall level consider touchstone issues. And all can access or grab a theme that looks to resonate.

Open Letter To Ohio's Dem Party: Give Hispanics Party-Backed Scholarships

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Elenamary warns that the Ohio Democratic Party could be taking the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc for granted. The Hispanic blogger sees a need for aggressive marketing, voter education and even a Democrat-bankrolled scholarship program that would give $500 financial awards to Latino students who volunteer to work on campaigns.

That last idea -- if applied statewide for all young volunteers regardless of ethnic background -- holds the germ of a creative investment plan. Candidates and campaign treasuries do often accumulate accounts containing unspent political donations. Budgeting just a small portion for a pool of funds at the state party level earmarked for volunteer scholarships would be a superb marketing tool. It would clearly demonstrate that speeches and position papers about education were much more than cheap talk.

From Elenamary's open letter to the Ohio Democratic Party:

"Offer scholarships. The scholarships can be an exchange for volunteering to work on a democratic campaign. Volunteer for your local democratic candidate and get a $500 scholarship to an in-state university institution. When people volunteer on a campaign they have a feeling of making a difference and being part of the difference, of being part of the institution. We want people to feel the Democratic party is their party. I bet odds, too, that once you've worked on a campaign you're more likely to work on another and stay politically active."

Ohio Democrats Have Race Ruckus: An Opinion Column From 2000 Bites Back

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A newly recruited "outreach coordinator" for the Ohio Democratic Party won't be reaching out after all. She has been brought down by a racially insensitive column penned as an Ohio State University freshman nearly seven years ago. The column remained frozen in time on the Internet, where it was unearthed by a mouseclick and did the author in.

Pho's Akron Pages broke the story late last night. Amazingly, he was being urged to cover it up, which does not speak well for the Demo insider who tried to play censor.

An excerpt from the October 2000 column that kicked up the dust reads as follows:

"President Kirwan's [OSU prez at the time] plan to bring more minority faculty and students here is ridiculous. Why should minority students receive more scholarships and opportunities because they are minority? I could understand this plan if the minorities were doing well, but according to the graduation rates presented in Professsor Mityagin's article this is not the case. It seems the less likely one's chances of succeeding in college is, the more scholarship opportunities arise. the Diversity Plan is just one form of discrimination on this campus.

"Another example of discrimination is the presence of all-African American floors in residence halls. to me, this is a form of segregation promoted by the university. Nowhere on my housing application did I see a box I could check for an all-Caucasian dorm. Why? Because this would be discrimination and lawsuits would be filed against the institution."

Obviously written by a kid. Hopefully a college education opened eyes and changed the young freshman's views. Did the ODP overreact? The question could be argued either way. The thoughts expressed in the letter are deeply offensive. But they were nothing more than the youthful musings of a largely unformed intellect that moved in a different direction.

Bottomline: A lot of today's college students really need to pay closer attention to the types of things they are posting on the Internet. They have been getting warnings. Here's an example of the warnings coming true.

OH-02: Vic Wulsin Gets Great Play Today In Dems' Official Party Blog

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Vic Wulsin wrote a major anti-war post on the Ohio Democratic Party blog today. But there was no direct mention she is running in a contested primary for the party's nomination in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, long a GOP redoubt that increasingly looks vulnerable to a swing.

The seat is held by U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, a Republican who has been an ardent supporter of President George W. Bush. Schmidt looks shaky for 2008, and faces a challenger from her own party.

Since the ODP blog is read primarily by political junkies and insiders, it probably didn't matter that Wulsin's candidacy wasn't directly promoted. Instead, it gave her a great forum to bash President George W. Bush's Iraq War strategy as an increasingly bloody failure. And her picture pops up -- which put her in company with Gov. Ted Strickland and the other statewide Dem leaders whose photos appear on the party weblog.

Here are some of Wulsin's words:

"I believe our soldiers have served honorably and with great success, however, the time for soldiering has ended. They have completed their mission. I support a reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq, beginning as soon as possible. Our gradual exit should be replaced by genuine international cooperation and increased responsibility for the independent Iraqi government."

Wulsin, a physician who lives in the Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, said she trained at the VA hospital in Cleveland. "It was a pinnacle of health care. Every veteran deserves such treatment."

Ohio Dems: Cincy Chair Tim Burke's Statewide Post

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Cincinnati lawyer Tim Burke, chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party for the past 14 years, was elected president of the association comprised of all 88 county leaders across Ohio. The Ohio Democratic County Chairs Association describes itself as a statewide organization committed to training grassroots activists and creating field plans for moving Democrats into elected offices.

It has produced a TV program for local cable access in Athens about Democratic officeholders there. But it has not been a high-profile organization. Under Gov. Ted Strickland's adminsitration, the chairs will become more influential, particularly in patronage issues.

The announcement of Burke's election is HERE, and it was originally noted on Buckeye State Blog, where the news has been greeted with some disappointment. Burke has critics in Cincinnati, but the Xavier University classmate of former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has managed to hang on and his party has scored significant victories under his leadership. He and Republican Blackwell long ago parted ways.

The county chairs association is a rather obscure operation, but there is some information about its goals and activities HERE. The most recent newsletter (from last April) published by Burke's county party is HERE, although it is pretty stale.