Ohio's Boehner Blames Democrats For Pork: Another Republican Sees Bush Inaction

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint released a Congressional Research Service legal memo that contends the White House can easily eliminate billions in pork barrel spending projects. The memo says the money was not appropriated correctly, and thus President Bush is under no obligation to spend a dime. In fact, the memo portrays the President as part of the problem.

Congress sent the White House a $500 billion plus spending bill last week. Ohio's John Boehner, R-8, the House Minority Leader, said the budget bill was "bloated" with wasteful projects. Boehner is pushing for earmark reforms that would expose pork barrel projects. On Dec. 21 he said:

"To shine the brightest spotlight on wasteful pork spending in Washington, I have introduced a petition in Congress to bring about transparency and accountability to the earmarking process by requiring every single earmark to be publicly disclosed and subject to challenge on the House floor. We need 218 signatures on the petition to force a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and to date, 197 lawmakers have signed. I hope that my colleagues who have not signed this petition will join us in the fight to clearly tell the American taxpayers how we're spending their money."

Boehner wants Congress, which is now controlled by Democrats, to change its wasteful ways. He says nothing about the White House. DeMint wants more action from Bush and makes it clear the President already "has the tools he needs to stop wasteful earmarks." The conservative South Carolina senator released a Dec. 18, 2007 CRS memorandum that contends many earmarks are not binding and can be ignored if Bush would issue an executive order. The CRS said:

"Based on our review of the relevant constitutional provision, statutes and applicable case law it appears that the President possesses the necessary legal and constitutional authority to issue such an executive order. That said, the issuance of an executive order appears to be a discretionary act whose issuance is solely vested with the President of the United States. With respect to your second question, it appears that because the language of committee reports [earmarks] do not meet the procedural requirements of Article I of the Constitution -- specifically, bicameralism and presentment -- they are not laws, therefore, and are not binding on executive agencies."

Cincy Enquirer Gives Ken Blackwell's Railroad Rant A Ride

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Republican Ken Blackwell, now a fellow at a conservative think tank in Ohio, received a big chunk of space in today's Cincinnati Enquirer for a column that sounded like he was blowing the whistle on a scam to suck jobs out of Ohio. But the attack on a huge federal loan for a small South Dakota railroad was really about tooting his own horn. The headline over the Blackwell piece: "Midwest doesn't need to be railroaded."

But there was no fresh news about the project. It was killed earlier this week by the Federal Railroad Administration, an action that neither Blackwell nor the newspaper seemed care about during years of wrangling in Washington that led up to the decision. If any stories were published, they don't stand out. Meanwhile, Blackwell is fresh off a losing campaign for governor of Ohio and the railroad loan he is now so steamed about as wasting tax money and threatening Ohio jobs did not emerge as a significant issue in that race. In today's Enquirer column, Blackwell wrote, "Continued government funding of this small railroad company would have embodied one of the most disturbing examples of government waste in recent memory."

Who knew?

The Enquirer ALLOWED Blackwell and his co-author, Capitol University Law Professor Brad Smith, to rail that the project was a serious threat to Ohio and would throw Ohioans out of work. "To those in Ohio and other parts of the economically struggling and coal producing Midwest, it would have represented something equally upsetting: government interference with free market forces in order to fund the competition. Ohio is coal rich and is developing new methods to burn the resource cleanly and efficiently. Giving the DM&E tax dollars to flood the Midwest with subsidized Wyoming and Montana coal would have set back Ohio's clean-burning coal initiatives. By underwriting the transportation costs of those competing with Ohio coal producers, the loan would have cost the Midwest jobs."

Again, who knew?

If this major threat was lurking on the horizon, why are Blackwell and the newspaper joining forces to inform people today? And why is the messenger Ken Blackwell?

The Enquirer endorsed former Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell last year when he ran against Democrat Ted Strickland, a former U.S. House member whose congressional district covered most of the state's coalfield counties. The newspaper's decision to hand over column space to Blackwell could be viewed as an effort to promote his political comeback and take a jab at Strickland for not protecting the coal country. Blackwell was allowed to portray himself as a watchdog of the public coffers:

"Unless wasteful requests are continuously flagged by taxpayer advocates and soundly rebuked, deals where only one party benefits will sneak by, while the nation's taxpayers and the economies of Ohio and Midwest will foot the bill."

Again, if the deal was really that awful, why no significant news coverage in the Cincinnati Enquirer? Were the editors asleep as this major job-busting threat to the state's economy was rolling down the tracks?

If the Op Ed today is true, it is a sad commentary about journalism as practiced in Cincinnati, where SW Ohio woke up to learn about "deals where only one party benefits" from a politician's newspaper column after the deal was killed.

Kentucky's Mitch McConnell: Stumps For Ohio's DeWine

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is scheduled to headline a Cincinnati fundraiser next week for Pat DeWine, the Republican Hamilton County Commissioner who is launching his reelection campaign with a $350-a-plate luncheon. A table for 8 costs $2,500. It's a right neighborly gesture by a powerful pol from across the Ohio River, considering DeWine wanted out of the county job not too long after he was sworn in. Yep, he wanted to pack up and leave for Washington and spent more than $1 million in campaign funds trying to get there.

DeWine is a lawyer at Keating, Muething & Klekamp and the son of former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, who was turned out of office after two terms last November by Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown. It looks like McConnell, a Kentuckian who is one of the nation's highest ranking GOP officeholders, found time in his schedule to help one of his old chum's kids.

Pat DeWine took office in January 2005, and within months was chasing after the Oh-02 House seat that White House Budget Director Rob Portman vacated to join the Bush Administration. DeWine finished down the list in the special GOP primary, a race won by U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, who went on to narowly defeat two Democrats in back-to-back general elections.

DeWine used to be in a majority on the county commission, but his Republican pal Phil Heimlich was defeated last fall. Heimlich is a lawyer and has lately been visible doing local TV analysis of a murder trial in Clermont County, which coincidentally happens to be Schmidt's home. Heimlich reportedly is considering running against her in the '08 primary.

But back to DeWine. Apparently, he now wants to stay on the commission. McConnell is a heavyweight and will help him raise a nice chunk of cash. Once upon a time, Hamilton County was a Republican bastion, but it has slowly been turning blue. No word yet on who the Democrats might run. DeWine is battening down for a serious challenge. McConnell's Senate Web site is HERE. DeWine's county portal is HERE ,
and if you CLICK THIS , a copy of his Jan. 3, 2005 inauguration speech pops up. What's particularly notable is that DeWine said he was being sworn in to reform the county, a quest he quickly attempted to abandon. It's been said here and elsewhere DeWine may have his back against the wall -- and he might turn out to be a fierce campaigner. Obviously, he still has friends in high places.

New Harris Poll: Democrats' Ranks Are Growing

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- For the second straight year, the number of Americans who consider themselves Republicans has eroded. A new Harris Poll for 2006 shows the Democrats have grown their lead in party affiliation, and more people considered themselves aligned with the political party than at any point since 1998.

White House political operative Karl Rove in 2004 and 2005 was on the stump pushing his idea that the GOP could create a political realignment that would put it in power for years, maybe a generation. But this data seems to say that Rove is a pipe-dreamer who never was the architect of realignment. In fact, the shift is going the other way.

Still, the Dems shouldn't start popping corks, or at least the party's liberal wing. Liberalism remains the L-word in American politics. The nation's two biggest blocs of political ideology are conservative and moderate and the percentage of conservatives increased last year. The polls did not seem to measure what proportion of the population would be "progressive," a label that is heard with increasing frequency after being revived during this decade. Progressives were big in the early 20th Century, but the label fell out of use.

"While Democrats have increased their lead over
Republicans, conservatives continue to outnumber liberals by a wide margin (37% to 19%), a slight increase from a 34 to 20 percent margin in 2005. Moderates have dropped and now are even with conservatives at 37 percent. This is a change from 2005, when they outnumbered conservatives by a modest 42 to 37 percent margin," Harris reported.

Looking back through the Harris data, conservatism peaked in 1995, when 40 percent of Americans aligned themselves with the philosophy. The polling company said the trend over the past 37 years has shown that Democrats once had a huge majority in party affliation that melted away. But they seem to have reversed their decline.

"The Democratic lead over Republicans has fallen from 21 percentage points in the 1970s, to 11 points in the 1980s and seven points in the 1990s. The lead has averaged six percentage points in the 2000s." Clearly, the 9% spread this year is a good sign for the party. But the polling also shows the center -- the moderates -- has shrunk. And just 24% of Americans consider themselves political independents, a huge shift from the 1970s, when nearly half the nation would not claim allegiance to either major party.

The entire poll is HERE. Harris did the poll by telephone between February and November 2006, and said it reached a nationwide cross section of 10,032 voting age adults. The company has been conducting the poll since 1968, but says data for six years are missing -- 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1993 and 1994.