Friday Line: Ohio is "GOP's Biggest Success Story" Because of Dem Primary

From Chris Cilliza's Blog "The Fix" on Friday

6. Ohio (R): To date, the Ohio race may be Republicans' biggest success story this cycle. Former Rep. Rob Portman (R) got into the race early and managed to clear the primary field. Since then he has stayed below the radar, presumably to focus on fundraising in order to show a huge amount of money raised in his first quarter report. Democrats, meanwhile, seem headed to a primary between Lt. Gov.Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner -- among others -- that will deplete the eventual winner's resources and allow Portman to define himself in the absence of a Democratic opponent. Democratic strategists argue that the primary isn't a sure thing -- noting that a primary fight dissolved in 2006 in Ohio -- but we don't see either Fisher or Brunner blinking in the near future especially with polling that shows the primary to be a total jump ball. (Previous ranking: 4)

GOP Budget Without Numbers Draws Scorn

UFCW Endorses Brunner for Senate

Whoa! Ohio's largest private union, UFCW, endorses Jennifer Brunner for U.S. Senate instead of Lee Fisher. I had heard that Fisher wasn't the favorite of Ohio's unions, but I'm not sure why. Something that dates back to the 90s is all I heard.

In any case, congrats to the Brunner camp for the endorsement! And H/T Dave at Progress Ohio for the tip.

GOP "Alternate" Budget Contains No Numbers

First we had a lunchtime thought, now we have a lunchtime laugh: House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio's own!) introduced the GOP's "alternate" budget yesterday, and promised it would balance the budget and pay down the national debt while simultaneously cutting taxes even more. How would it do this? No one knows. Because it doesn't contain any numbers. No numbers! At all! How can you have a budget with no numbers? 

Reporters -- mainstream, liberal and conservative -- greeted the Republican document with a collective scoff.

"Are you going to have any further details on this today?" the first asked.

"On what?" asked Boehner.

"There's no detail in here," noted the reporter.

Answered Boehner: "This is a blueprint for where we're going. Are you asking about some other document?"

A second reporter followed up: "What about some numbers? What about the out-year deficit? What about balancing the budget? How are you going to do it?"

"We'll have the alternative budget details next week," promised Boehner. Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had wisely departed the room after offering his opening remarks. ("Today's Republican road-to-recovery is the latest in a series of GOP initiatives, solutions and plans," he had offered.)

Predictably, the scorn has been coming down from both left and right. However, FiveThirtyEight.com decided to take the satrical approach. Have a look. It's hilarious.

Lunchtime Thought: Tim Ryan as Lt. Governor? Seriously?

Over at Ohio Daily Blog, Anthony has just posted a weekend straw poll: who should Gov. Strickland pick as his 2010 running mate? One of the choices is U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-17th).

Seriously? I've heard this rumor before, and I have a hard time buying it. Tim Ryan is widely regarded in Washington as one of the rising stars of the Democratic caucus. He holds a coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee. Why in the world would he leave that behind in order to become Lieutenant Governor?

So he can run for governor in 2014? He can do that without leaving the house...Gov. Strickland himself demonstrated that in 2006. 

Because he's worried about his seat being redistricted out from under him? Well, that is a consideration. Ohio is going to lose two congressional seats in the 2010 reapportionment (according to Election Data Services, Ohio's 17th would be the 432nd seat in Congress based on 2007 census estimates. By the time 2010 rolls around, the Ohio 17th will be long gone) and with John Boicceri, Zack Space and Charlie Wilson currently holding down eastern Ohio congressional seats, chances are pretty good that there will be more Congressman than there are seats in eastern Ohio come 2012. 

So that's a possible scenario, Tim Ryan runs for Lt. Gov. and clears the way for Boicceri to represent the Youngstown area come 2012, and perfectly positions himself for running for governor in 2014. However, it'd be a shame for Ohio to lose that seat on apporpriations. Ohio has had a lot of turnover in its congressional delegation over the last two cycles, and with that comes lose of seniority and influence. When it comes to DC, we need all the help we can get. 

State Stimulus Transportation Projects Announced: Two Projects Absorb Nearly Half of Funds

Gov. Strickland announced today the transportation projects that will receive funds from the stimulus bill. The $775 million allocated for highway projects was spread out to projects in all 12 ODOT districts and 87 of Ohio's 88 counties (Noble County did not submit an eligible project). However, I couldn't help but notice that $370 million of the total will be heading to fund just two projects: $150 million will fund construction of the US 33 Nelsonville Bypass in Hocking and Athens counties in Southeast Ohio, while some $220 million will be funding the desperately needed reconstruction of the I-90 Innerbelt bridge in downtown Cleveland. 

For those who are unaware, the Innerbelt bridge carries I-90 across the Cuyahoga River and into downtown Cleveland. The current bridge is of the same design as the I-35W bridge which collapsed in Minneapolis during the summer of 2007. ODOT structural engineers have said that key cross members of the bridge are at 62% of full strength, and as a result one lane in each direction of the bridge has been closed and trucks have been detoured around it. 

The full Ohio project list is available here.

BREAKING: Marilyn Brown Will Announce for SOS This Afternoon

I have just received an anonymous tip that Franklin County Commissioner Marilyn Brown will announce her candidacy for Secretary of State this afternoon.

One Dude Who Knew What He Was Talking About

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) looks like a freaking claravoyant when you read this quote (H/T Upper Arlington Progressive Action)

Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota,made this prediction in 1999 in a NYTimes article is titled, "Congress Passes Wide-Ranging Bill Easing Bank Laws" about the repeal of Glass-Steagall a Depression-Era law to separate bankers and brokers:

"I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010. I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness,"

- Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, November 5, 1999.

Byron was one of only 8 Senators to vote against the bill. He was joined by six Democrats: Barbara Boxer of California, Richard H. Bryan of Nevada, Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, and Paul Wellstone, and one Republican Senator, Richard C. Shelby of Alabama,

Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Congress had ''seemed determined to unlearn the lessons from our past mistakes.''

''Scores of banks failed in the Great Depression as a result of unsound banking practices, and their failure only deepened the crisis,'' Mr. Wellstone said. ''Glass-Steagall was intended to protect our financial system by insulating commercial banking from other forms of risk. It was one of several stabilizers designed to keep a similar tragedy from recurring. Now Congress is about to repeal that economic stabilizer without putting any comparable safeguard in its place.''

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Resigns

What was it I said yesterday about "Bad Boys"?

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul resigned Wednesday afternoon, hours after The Plain Dealer asked him about thousands of dollars of cash given to him by employees.

McFaul's last day will be April 1.

McFaul served as sheriff for 32 years and was reelected to a ninth term in November. He ran into trouble months later, when budget cuts forced him to lay off deputies. But McFaul promoted friends and relatives while laying off others.

Since January, The Plain Dealer has published several stories about how McFaul operates his office. The stories documented his hiring and promoting practices, illegal fundraising, favoritism for friends and political allies. Pay records show he only comes to the office about one day a week.

Tax Cuts Don't Boost Revenues

From Time Magazine, December 6, 2007:

If there's one thing that Republican politicians agree on, it's that slashing taxes brings the government more money. "You cut taxes, and the tax revenues increase," President Bush said in a speech last year. Keeping taxes low, Vice President Dick Cheney explained in a recent interview, "does produce more revenue for the Federal Government." Presidential candidate John McCain declared in March that "tax cuts ... as we all know, increase revenues." His rival Rudy Giuliani couldn't agree more. "I know that reducing taxes produces more revenues," he intones in a new TV ad.

If there's one thing that economists agree on, it's that these claims are false. We're not talking just ivory-tower lefties. Virtually every economics Ph.D. who has worked in a prominent role in the Bush Administration acknowledges that the tax cuts enacted during the past six years have not paid for themselves--and were never intended to. Harvard professor Greg Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers from 2003 to 2005, even devotes a section of his best-selling economics textbook to debunking the claim that tax cuts increase revenues.