Politics, statesmanship and an empty suit

Let's go about this week's initial offering in headline sequence.

Politics

Two of Hillsboro's most well-known Republicans – Kay Ayres and Bob McEwen – are somewhat entangled in a political battle within the Ohio GOP.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Howard Wilkinson touched on some of this last week.

As best we can tell, and has been widely reported, it boils down to this: Gov. Kasich would like to see GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine step down. Bob McEwen supports the governor. Kay Ayres supports the chairman.

At stake could very well be the 2012 presidential election. No kidding. More on that in a moment.

Both sides have good arguments.

The case for DeWine, who has chaired the Republican Party for the past three years, is that he led Ohio to midterm victory – including Kasich's win over former Gov. Ted Strickland – in 2010.

The case for Kasich? Well, the last time I checked, he is the governor. And by most accounts, he has delivered on promises of new jobs in Ohio. Frankly, he's doing a good job. (By the way, Ohio's unemployment rate dropped again in February for the seventh consecutive month.) 

Wilkinson said Kasich "may try to push DeWine out on April 13, when the party’s 66-member central committee meets in Columbus – although it is not at all clear if he has the votes to do that."

As we reported last December (Ayres blasts governor; supports GOP chairman), the Highland County Republican Party chairperson sent a pointed message to Gov. Kasich and House Speaker William Batchelder regarding DeWine.


"The attempted coup is splitting the party when it needs to be unified going into the 2012 elections," Ayres said. “It’s almost become: We have met the enemy, and it is us.”

Maybe it is.

Ayres has worked for more than 30 years in Ohio politics, serving as chairman of the  Highland County Republican Party since 1978. She has assisted hundreds of candidates and campaigns over the years from the courthouse to the White House.

She also just lost her state central committee seat in the March 6 primary.

What's up with that?

Enter Bob McEwen?

Maybe.

According to Wilkinson, "Speculation about who Kasich wants (as GOP chair) has centered around Franklin County GOP chairman Doug Preisse, GOP political consultant Rex Elsass, and former congressman Bob McEwen of Hillsboro."

The former congressman and I talked about it earlier this month, but he was noncommittal on taking over the GOP chairmanship.

It's no secret that he still harbors some resentment for the party operatives going back to his bitter 1992 primary campaign (following redistricting) against fellow Republican Clarence E. Miller, who was first elected to Congress in 1966, and his subsequent campaigns in Ohio's Second District.

That 1992 GOP primary was so close it forced a recount and a lawsuit.

Referencing Wikipedia: "When Ohio Secretary of State Bob Taft dismissed Rep. Miller's charges of voting irregularities in Highland, Hocking and Warren counties, Miller filed suit in the Ohio Supreme Court. Only in August did Miller drop his challenge and then only because his campaign was out of money. In the final count, McEwen won 33,219 votes to Miller's 32,922, a plurality of only 297 votes. Each had won the counties they had formerly represented.


"After the final result, Miller refused to endorse McEwen and carried an unsuccessful legal challenge to the redistricting to the United States Supreme Court, insisting district lines should be drawn on a politically neutral basis" (haven't we heard that recently?).


Congressman Miller, of Lancaster, died last year at age 93. But the lessons not learned some 20 years ago may haunt the party in 2012.

After the primary, McEwen lost the general election that year to a relatively unknown minister and counselor from Scioto County. Oh, yes, after serving in Congress, he would go on to become governor of Ohio. Welcome to the main stage, one Ted Strickland.

After losing his Sixth Congressional District in 1992, McEwen was asked to seek former Congressman Bill Gradison's seat in a special election in 1993. Despite winning the most counties in the Second District, he lost to an up-and-coming Republican who would go on to become part of President Bush's Cabinet and who is now a U.S. senator. That, of course, would be one Rob Portman, who is reportedly on the short list of Mitt Romney's possible VP candidates.

Several years later, in 2006, Bob McEwen entered and lost what he has told me was his final congressional campaign. Again, he won the most counties in the Second District but lost out in Hamilton County, where a certain corporate newspaper has shown him very little mercy for the past 20 years.

So, here we are two decades later. The problem with gerrymandering remains as bad now as it was then. The in-party bickering hasn't changed. And most observers still need a scorecard to know who's on which side at the same dance and party.

What's at stake now, in addition to the 2012 presidential race, is much the same as what was at stake in 1992. Money. Lots of it.

Oh, yeah, one final thought. A relatively unknown Arkansas Democrat challenged a well-funded and well-known incumbent Republican president in 1992. The Democrats won that one, didn't they?

(And so began the 32-year – and counting – reign of having a Bush or a Clinton in the nation's presidency or Cabinet.)

Highland County played a bigger role than you'll ever know…

* * *

Statesmanship

This week's Statesmanship Award goes to Third District Congressman Mike Turner.

In case you missed it, President Obama was caught in a private conversation over the weekend with a live microphone in Seoul, South Korea, when he told outgoing Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that Vladimir Putin should give him more "space" and that "after my election, I have more flexibility."

The conversation went like this:

President Obama: "This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility."

President Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir, and I stand with you."

Congressman Turner was among the first to challenge the president. Good for him.

“Congress has made exquisitely clear to your administration and to other nations that it will block all attempts to weaken U.S. missile defenses," Turner said.

"As the chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, which authorizes U.S. missile defense and nuclear weapons policy, I want to make perfectly clear that my colleagues and I will not allow any attempts to trade missile defense of the United States to Russia or any other country.

“You have already walked away from detailed promises to modernize the U.S. nuclear deterrent; are you now planning to walk away from your promises regarding U.S. missile defense as well?” Turner asked.

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl also criticized the commander in chief.

Kyl said what remains unknown is what Obama has planned for after the election after gaining the reported “flexibility” in dealing with Moscow.

“Perhaps the Russians, in whom President Obama recently confided, could shed some light on his missile defense plans for the American people who otherwise have been left in the dark by this president.”

Congressman Turner and Senator Kyl are right to question an administration that would imply or suggest foreign collaboration and/or information sharing on U.S. missile defenses.

The American people deserve better.

* * *

Empty suit

Do you even have to ask?

Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.