Strickland: leadership means attacking & insulting opposition

Let me state up front that I don’t believe that the Senate leadership has handled this budget crisis with perfection. I think Bill Harris is in a difficult position trying to keep to his own principles, lead a sometimes divided caucus, and solve an ugly budget crisis working with a Democratic Governor and Democratically controlled House.  That is a tough spot to be in.

I still think they could do a better job of offering alternatives, but that is easy for me to say as I don’t have to vote on the budget nor run for office.

But Governor Strickland and the Dems in the Ohio House have done an atrocious job throughout this process.  And what is the response now?  To attack and insult the very people they are negotiating with to solve the budget impasse they played such a critical role in causing.

And they have the guts to say the GOP lacks leadership?

It is important that we not forget what led to this point.  First off, the Democratic leadership in the Ohio House basically abdicated their responsibility and set the budget process back weeks if not months by refusing to acknowledge fiscal reality.

They passed a budget that was immediately revealed to be fraudulent. So the GOP led Senate had to spend their time fixing that outrageous budget knowing that things were in all likelihood going to get worse.  In other words, the Ohio House put the whole process deeper in the hole instead of taking even small steps toward fiscal restraint.

Next, it is important to remember the context and timing of this debate.  Strickland didn’t just roll out gambling as a strategy for fixing the budget as part of the normal process.  No, he reversed his own long, and ardently held, position on the issue and embraced one that he knew full well Senator Harris rejected and would not support. And he did this a mere two weeks before the budget was supposed to be agreed to by the GA and signed into law.  Did anyone really think that was going to work?

Strickland now pretends that the GOP is playing games:

In his harshest remarks to date, Gov. Ted Strickland accused Senate Republicans of engaging in “blatant political gimmicks” with hearings on his slot machine proposal and said they seem unwilling to work out differences onthe state budget.

“When someone not only refuses your proposals, but also refuses to put forward any solutions of their own, it’s not a negotiation. It’s game playing,” said Strickland during a Monday morning briefing with reporters. “It saddens me to say that, while I have tried to advance a forward-looking budget agenda, Senate Republican leaders have retreated to partisan game playing.”

The mild-mannered Democratic governor turned pugnacious Monday, saying that a few members of the Senate Republican caucus have “hijacked” the process, trying for political gain while the state suffers.

I guess.  If you can call going against your promises, and the will of the voters, at the very last minute in a desperate attempt to force your opponents to either raise taxes or make unpopular cuts a “forward-looking budget.”

The most basic political fact here is that both side don’t want to “own” the solution.  This is not surprising given that this is what politics is about 90% of the time; and that this budget is the worst in decades.

Strickland wanted to solve the budget problem with gambling which he found more palatable and more politically advantageous then either tax increases or more cuts.  And he basically hoped that the ugly budget and lake of time would force Bill Harris to go along.

Harris, in turn, wants the governor to bear the responsibility of expanding gambling without a vote of the public when they have rejected the idea four times already.  Harris said, in essence, you want to use the gambling get out of jail card then do it via executive order and leave me out of it.

Strickland’s only rejoinder to that has been that such a policy increases the odds of litigation.  This lame answer has yet to backed up or explained in any detail or with any coherence.  Strickland simply doesn’t want to be out on that particular limb all by his lonesome.

And since when is holding hearings a “gimmick” in this context?  It seems to me that these hearings have in fact brought some interesting facts to light; the fact that the casino ballot proposal would undercut the financial deal Strickland proposed with slots for one.

So what is Strickland’s response to this deadlock?  Call press conferences and attack the very people he will have to convince to change their mind.  Does he really think attacks such as this is likely to lead to compromise and solutions?

No.  Everyone knows full well that his rants about game playing and partisanship are in fact the kettle calling the pot black.  It is a vain attempt to try and change the public’s growing dissatisfaction with Strickland’s leadership.

And this whole the Senate hasn’t put forth any solutions of their own is obviously not true:

Strickland also rejected an idea discussed by Senate Republicans over the weekend that would include a one-year education budget and put the racetrack slots issue before voters this November to fund eductaion in the second year of the budget. “I will only sign a comprehensive two-year balanced budget,” he said. He said a plan that would base education funding on a ballot issue that may or may not be approved by voters was “not credible.”

Yes, it would be foolish to trust the voters with something like this …

Now who is playing political games?