GOP CATASTROPHE IN THE MAKING FOR OHIO

The GOP Establishment types are probably happier than any other Republicans in the country about the disastrous Karl Rove treason scandal and the numerous scandals starting to break out among Republicans in Congress, like Randy "Duke" Cunningham (who has already announced he's bowing out of the public sphere), Tom DeLay, Richard Pombo, Charles Taylor et al. It's not so much that Governor Robert Taft, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, Attorney General Jim Petro, State Auditor Betty Montgomery, kingmaker Thomas Noe don't like other Republicans; afterall they DID steal the 2004 presidential election for BushCheney. The reason they're so happy is because suddenly someone else looks filthier and more corrupt than they do and because someone else is in the headlines and on TV accused of criminal behavior. There's been tons on this blog about "Coingate" and how Taft, Blackwell and the rest conspired with Noe to loot the Ohio Workmen's Compensation Fund and use it as a piggy bank for financing GOP elections and dirty tricks. Put that together with further outrages from the extremely corrupt, extremely tainted (and extremely right-wing) Ohio Congressman Robert Ney (who rumors say is about to be indicted for selling Congressional votes to wealthy campaign contributors), and you can see why the Ohio Republicans are grateful for a little time off from the media spotlight. But, meanwhile time keeps ticking away. There's a Special Election to fill the seat of Robert Portman in less than 3 weeks and, for what was once considered as red a district as anything in Mississippi, Texas or Alabama, the race looks mighty tight (with a smart, charasmatic Iraq War vet Dem battling it out with a stepford wife anti-choice extremist Repug). The impending race that is really giving the Repugs bad nights, however, is the race to replace Governor Taft, who currently resides in the State House but will probably soon be changing his address to the Big House. Taft, who Ohio's voters correctly blame for the Coingate scandal, is not only reviled by Democrats and Independents, but is pretty persona non grata among Republicans. Mr. Right Wing himself, Grover Norquist, famously remarked not so long ago "We have an idiot, stupid, corrupt, dumb rotten Republican Governor in that State... who has been busy looting the state, raising taxes, lying to the gun owners. Ohio is the only state in the nation that has lost jobs and isn't recovering because he's been beating the economy to death in the state... he should be taken out and horsewhipped." The Republicans hoping to replaceme him are the very people who are likely to be indicted for the Coingate Scandal: Ken Blackwell (2004's Katherine Harris, who corrupted the Ohio election allowing BushCheney to steal the White House again), Jim Petro and Betty Montgomery, none of whom are held in very high regard in Ohio.

I found this early July poll on a right-wing website called PoliPundit.com/
“501 Republican Voters were polled and asked favorable and unfavorable on all 3 candidates and whether they would vote for them.
Favorable Unfavorable Would Vote For
Betty Montgomery- 49% 39% 44%;
Jim Petro- 42% 46 % 40%
Ken Blackwell- 44% 50% 43%
AND, REMEMBER, THIS DATA COMES ONLY FROM REPUBLICANS!

Then they polled 501 independent or swing voters.

Favorable Unfavorable Would Vote For
Betty Montgomery 46% 42% 26%
Jim Petro 54% 33% 42%
Ken Blackwell 22% 60% 23%

Then they took the Republicans, Independents and Democrats and inquired about the 2006 race by asking them to choose between several hypothetical match-ups:

Montgomery (39%) vs Congressman Ted Strickland (52%)
Montgomery (42%) vs Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman (48%)

Petro (44%) vs Strickland (51%)
Petro (44%) vs Coleman (44%)

Blackwell (36%) vs Strickland (58%)
Blackwell (42 %) vs Coleman (49%)

The Republican commentator, who is pushing for a retired hack ex-Congressman, John Kasich, to enter the race, then went on to curse out the greedy and corrupt state Republicans: "Many thanks to Bob Taft and his cronies as well as Mike DeWine and George Voinovich for putting us in this predicament." How about all you suckers who voted for them and allowed your state to fall into one party rule???