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Twisted Teabaggers
By: Dave Harding, ProgressOhio
Posted Mar 19, 09:16 PM
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TIME AND RECONCILIATION: THE END OF FAILURE?
Nobody wants to fail. Everyone wants to succeed. But over the years, Bush, Cheney and Rove, and now Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus, have shown us time and time again that you’ll never fail or be a failure if you talk about the future. The phrase “delayed success” has been used to explain this line of thinking that on the surface makes sense but in reality denies reality itself.
If the “we need more time” so “they can reconcile” argument put forth this week in Congressional hearings by is the newest tag-team-slogan strategy President Bush will adopt to further foment confusion about where we are and where we’re going, based on where we’ve been, then we’re all in for a very long and very bumpy ride.
Read More »In a post that shows his angst about a Republican Common Pleas Court judge singling out Ohio Rep. Tom Brinkman for having committed an illegal act that justifies being held to account for, he chides and lectures a poster at ePluribus Media about due process and says the "legislature cannot just censure somebody because ProgressOhio thinks they should." He missed the point: Others think so, too.
Read More »Back in 1970, in the aftermath of the shooting of innocent Kent State students by Ohio National Guardmen called out by a reactionary Gov. Jim Rhodes to quell protests against the Vietnam War, the first stanza of the then-hit song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young went like this:
Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.
Like the predominant overcast skies that rule Ohio weather in general, the forecast for the future of a one-time titan of industry looks gloomy. Until last fall, when Ohioans put Democrats in charge of most statewide offices, fiscal and morally uptight Republicans have for decades controlled the state legislature, crafting public policies designed to reward their big business buddies at the expense of average citizens while aiding and abetting right-wing, conservative Bible babblers who thought their wrongheaded policies of intolerance and division were a roadmap to good times and prosperity.
Now standing on the bottom rung of the ladder of success it built up during the 20th Century, most notably during the halcyon days of World War II armament production and its subsequent post-war industrial expansion, Ohio now finds itself looking up at an increasingly steep grade whose key mile markers are all about jobs and education. But just to stay where it is, which is at or near the bottom of all states in so many important categories, the state, whose vainglorious tourism slogan a mere 20 years ago boasted it was “the heart of it all,” needs a collective political epiphany to turn it around. The odds of that happening are long at best. Read More »
Now standing on the bottom rung of the ladder of success it built up during the 20th Century, most notably during the halcyon days of World War II armament production and its subsequent post-war industrial expansion, Ohio now finds itself looking up at an increasingly steep grade whose key mile markers are all about jobs and education. But just to stay where it is, which is at or near the bottom of all states in so many important categories, the state, whose vainglorious tourism slogan a mere 20 years ago boasted it was “the heart of it all,” needs a collective political epiphany to turn it around. The odds of that happening are long at best. Read More »
Reliable sources say Sally Florkiewicz, one of the two Republicans on the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, is ready to toss in the towel. Once this (Cleveland) Indian submits her letter of resignation, as the two Democratic board members did last week in response to the strong urgings of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner who has the constitutional authority to summarily dismiss them, only one little defiant Indian will be left. Of course, the last one to get the message is Robert T. Bennett, the CCBOE's chairman and chairman of the Ohio GOP.
Shorten Session
Ohio is one of eight states that have a virtual full-time legislature. This is bad news for Ohio taxpayers and citizens who so often say they want less, not more government.
In a Stateline.org article on the subject, it noted the following salient point about session lengths:
With the 126th General Assembly finally concluded and a new statewide officeholders ready to change the tone, attitude and direction our battered state has undergone following 16 years of Republican control of all aspects of government, citizens are now being warmed up for lawmakersw and their contributors to show their pleasure with the term limits they approved in 1994 by extending them from eight to 12 years.
This idea is a dad decision and the wrong direction if we want to focus their attention of priorities and limit their time to introduce more frivolous bills than ever before.
Link Read More »
Ohio is one of eight states that have a virtual full-time legislature. This is bad news for Ohio taxpayers and citizens who so often say they want less, not more government.
In a Stateline.org article on the subject, it noted the following salient point about session lengths:
The annual flurry of state legislative activity is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the early 1960s, only 19 state legislatures met annually. The remaining 31 held regular sessions every other year. By the mid-1970s, the number of states meeting annually grew from 19 to 41.
Today, 44 state legislatures meet annually. The remaining six states--Arkansas, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon and Texas--hold session every other year.
With the 126th General Assembly finally concluded and a new statewide officeholders ready to change the tone, attitude and direction our battered state has undergone following 16 years of Republican control of all aspects of government, citizens are now being warmed up for lawmakersw and their contributors to show their pleasure with the term limits they approved in 1994 by extending them from eight to 12 years.
This idea is a dad decision and the wrong direction if we want to focus their attention of priorities and limit their time to introduce more frivolous bills than ever before.
Link Read More »
The Cincinnati Enquirer, the conservative megaphone of southwestern Ohio that earlier endorsed lightning-rod area Republican candidates Ken Blackwell for Governor and Jean Schmidt for Congress, issued a Halloween endorsement today for Ohio Secretary of State that was a big treat for one candidate and a big trick for the other.
Having already received the endorsement of Ohio's other major newspapers, clinching the Enquirer's support today constitutes a spectacular run of the table by Democratic candidate Jennifer Brunner, the well respected and now widely endorsed candidate, over her challenger Greg Hartmann, a Texan now living in Ohio whose slim and shady personal and professional records pales when compared to those of Ms. Brunner. Read More »
Having already received the endorsement of Ohio's other major newspapers, clinching the Enquirer's support today constitutes a spectacular run of the table by Democratic candidate Jennifer Brunner, the well respected and now widely endorsed candidate, over her challenger Greg Hartmann, a Texan now living in Ohio whose slim and shady personal and professional records pales when compared to those of Ms. Brunner. Read More »
In breaking news, the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC) issued a finding October 24, 2006 that found there is probable cause that Mr. Hartmann has lied about how his Democratic opponent, Jennifer Brunner, a respected former common pleas court judge and election-law expert, handled the case used in Mr. Hartmann's ad that many election experts say is reminiscent of the "Willie Horton" TV spot used by Republicans in 1988 to race-bait voters into supporting their party's presidential candidate, George H. W. Bush, father of the current president.
The ad, in which Mr. Hartmann brags about the "hundreds of violent felonies" he handed as an assistant prosecutor, contains lies that any experienced prosecutor would know better to use. The OEC ruling constitutes the latest in a series of slap-downs of Hartmann's record and rhetoric. He is still reeling from newspaper articles showing he has allowed identify theft to take place on his watch as clerk of courts and that he has willfully refused to pay court-ordered debts dating back to his college days and early working career. Read More »
The ad, in which Mr. Hartmann brags about the "hundreds of violent felonies" he handed as an assistant prosecutor, contains lies that any experienced prosecutor would know better to use. The OEC ruling constitutes the latest in a series of slap-downs of Hartmann's record and rhetoric. He is still reeling from newspaper articles showing he has allowed identify theft to take place on his watch as clerk of courts and that he has willfully refused to pay court-ordered debts dating back to his college days and early working career. Read More »
According to a report by Identify Theft 911 published in the Cincinnati Business Courier (CBC) on identify theft in Ohio, it appears that hundreds of thousands of Ohioans were victims last year to identify-theft crimes.
Greg Hartmann, the Republican clerk of courts in Hamilton County running for secretary of state on a platform that promises to deter identify thefts, will not like the report's findings, given the fact that while clerk of courts he has contributed to 141 Ohioans having their identify stolen from his website. Read Hartmann's sad tale here: Link Read More »
Greg Hartmann, the Republican clerk of courts in Hamilton County running for secretary of state on a platform that promises to deter identify thefts, will not like the report's findings, given the fact that while clerk of courts he has contributed to 141 Ohioans having their identify stolen from his website. Read Hartmann's sad tale here: Link Read More »
Responding quickly to the "Willie Horton" smear ad launched by Texan Greg Hartmann, the Ohio GOP's mediocre and unqualified candidate for secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner struck back with the truth in this ad: Link.
Airing on the same day that saw two more major newspapers - The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Morning Herald Journal - endorse Brunner over her "Texas long-horn" Republican opponent, Brunner's hard-hitting, truthful ad crushed the sleazy accusations contained in Hartmann's attack ad, which mimicked the scurrilous, nasty race-baiting ad used by Lee Atwater in 1988 to characterize then-Massachusetts's governor Mike Dukakis as soft on crime, a fabrication that turned the tide and installed George H.W. Bush as president.
Hartmann's sophomoric attack ad on Brunner [Link would be laughable at best if any of it was true - but it isn't. Its real message is not about Brunner, an election law expert and common pleas judge that one paper after paper says is the best qualified candidate in years to be secretary of state, but about Hartmann, the son of Dick Cheney's lawyer who was born and raised in Texas and only lived in Ohio for a scant seven years. What it shows is how desperate the "Texas Flash" is to find a square inch of ground he can attack Brunner from, especially as Ohio voters, who in one poll after another are turning in droves to Democrats to stop the slide of their once-mighty state into one where good-paying jobs and young brains are leaving en mass for greener pastures.
Brunner, whose race for chief elections officer is being closely watched across the nation, will put a stop to how the office has been run for the last eight years under Cincinnati Republican Ken Blackwell, the GOP's candidate for governor whose extremist views and radical gimmicky programs has enabled Ohio Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland, the sensible, moderate candidate, to lap him in recent reliable polls.
Finding itself near the bottom of states in key measures like job and income growth but tops in black-eye categories like home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, Ohio has suffered from years of questionable election practices and outcomes. While Florida took the national cake in 2000 with its election meltdown, all eyes focused on Ohio in 2004, when Mr. Blackwell, in his second term as SOS opted to serve as the co-chairman of the Bush/Cheney ticket in Ohio, while brazenly telling Ohioans he could be fair and impartial.
As we learned in Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial" about Mr. Bush's war of choice in Iraq, Bush White House political advisor Karl Rove called Mr. Blackwell in 2004 and told him to lie to John Kerry about the number of provisional votes, so Mr. Kerry would be convinced any challenge to the vote would be a waste of time.
Ohio, with 20 Electoral College votes, put Mr. Bush back in the White House. We now know that no more than about 118,000 votes, and some say as few as about 47,000 votes from faith-based African American in Ohio, was the difference between victory and defeat for Mr. Kerry.
Mr. Hartmann, whose personal arrest record and meager professional accomplishments can't hold a candle to those of Jennifer Brunner, promises to be nothing more than a younger version of Mr. Blackwell, who has sliced and diced the Ohio SOS's office into pieces he could outsource through no-bid contracts to his private sector vendors, who do not have the best interests of Ohio voters and taxpayers at heart.
If Jennifer Brunner, who as a judge stood up to the rampant corruption of now-disgrace and convicted Ohio governor Bob Taft when she ruled that a state school facilities commission was conducting business in an illegal fashion, is to restore trust and integrity back to Ohio election law and election procedures, ads like the one the razzle-dazzle kid from Texas is hoping will again bamboozle Ohio voters to vote for the wrong person must be seen for what it is: a cheap shot without merit that reflects his willingness to misrepresent the actions of a judge whose personal and professional credentials and qualifications are unmatched.
Jennifer Brunner, when elected on November 7, will become the first woman to hold the office and the first board of election member to advance to such an important post. Ohioans who read the papers know that Republicans are cooking up another sour election stew.
To contribute to her campaign or help with phone calling, visit Jennifer Brunner website at: www.jenniferbrunner.com.
For more information about why Hartmann is the wrong choice for Ohio, visit Link
Airing on the same day that saw two more major newspapers - The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Morning Herald Journal - endorse Brunner over her "Texas long-horn" Republican opponent, Brunner's hard-hitting, truthful ad crushed the sleazy accusations contained in Hartmann's attack ad, which mimicked the scurrilous, nasty race-baiting ad used by Lee Atwater in 1988 to characterize then-Massachusetts's governor Mike Dukakis as soft on crime, a fabrication that turned the tide and installed George H.W. Bush as president.
Hartmann's sophomoric attack ad on Brunner [Link would be laughable at best if any of it was true - but it isn't. Its real message is not about Brunner, an election law expert and common pleas judge that one paper after paper says is the best qualified candidate in years to be secretary of state, but about Hartmann, the son of Dick Cheney's lawyer who was born and raised in Texas and only lived in Ohio for a scant seven years. What it shows is how desperate the "Texas Flash" is to find a square inch of ground he can attack Brunner from, especially as Ohio voters, who in one poll after another are turning in droves to Democrats to stop the slide of their once-mighty state into one where good-paying jobs and young brains are leaving en mass for greener pastures.
Brunner, whose race for chief elections officer is being closely watched across the nation, will put a stop to how the office has been run for the last eight years under Cincinnati Republican Ken Blackwell, the GOP's candidate for governor whose extremist views and radical gimmicky programs has enabled Ohio Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland, the sensible, moderate candidate, to lap him in recent reliable polls.
Finding itself near the bottom of states in key measures like job and income growth but tops in black-eye categories like home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, Ohio has suffered from years of questionable election practices and outcomes. While Florida took the national cake in 2000 with its election meltdown, all eyes focused on Ohio in 2004, when Mr. Blackwell, in his second term as SOS opted to serve as the co-chairman of the Bush/Cheney ticket in Ohio, while brazenly telling Ohioans he could be fair and impartial.
As we learned in Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial" about Mr. Bush's war of choice in Iraq, Bush White House political advisor Karl Rove called Mr. Blackwell in 2004 and told him to lie to John Kerry about the number of provisional votes, so Mr. Kerry would be convinced any challenge to the vote would be a waste of time.
Ohio, with 20 Electoral College votes, put Mr. Bush back in the White House. We now know that no more than about 118,000 votes, and some say as few as about 47,000 votes from faith-based African American in Ohio, was the difference between victory and defeat for Mr. Kerry.
Mr. Hartmann, whose personal arrest record and meager professional accomplishments can't hold a candle to those of Jennifer Brunner, promises to be nothing more than a younger version of Mr. Blackwell, who has sliced and diced the Ohio SOS's office into pieces he could outsource through no-bid contracts to his private sector vendors, who do not have the best interests of Ohio voters and taxpayers at heart.
If Jennifer Brunner, who as a judge stood up to the rampant corruption of now-disgrace and convicted Ohio governor Bob Taft when she ruled that a state school facilities commission was conducting business in an illegal fashion, is to restore trust and integrity back to Ohio election law and election procedures, ads like the one the razzle-dazzle kid from Texas is hoping will again bamboozle Ohio voters to vote for the wrong person must be seen for what it is: a cheap shot without merit that reflects his willingness to misrepresent the actions of a judge whose personal and professional credentials and qualifications are unmatched.
Jennifer Brunner, when elected on November 7, will become the first woman to hold the office and the first board of election member to advance to such an important post. Ohioans who read the papers know that Republicans are cooking up another sour election stew.
To contribute to her campaign or help with phone calling, visit Jennifer Brunner website at: www.jenniferbrunner.com.
For more information about why Hartmann is the wrong choice for Ohio, visit Link
The Dayton Daily News (DDN) offered a stinging article in yesterday's Sunday edition that nailed Republican secretary of state candidate Greg Hartmann for his willful negligence and foot-dragging in not protecting sensitive personal information on his office website, despite being told by law enforcement officials and private citizens of what might happen if he didn't act in a timely manner.
Hartmann, whose personal record and professional accomplishments pale when compared to those of his Democratic candidate, Jennifer Brunner, an attorney with years of election law experience who stepped down from the Common Pleas Court bench to run for secretary of state, is now being forced to eat his words on what he will do at the state level to protect identity thieves from hacking his site for the purpose of stealing private information.
With the DDN's story, and as major Ohio newspapers come out to endorse Brunner over Hartmann, maybe more of our intrepid Ohio reporters will start to out Hartmann for what he is: another Republican who will advance his career at all costs and stiff Ohio taxpayers by doling our favors to his lawyer friends and vendors who do not have the best interest of the state at heart. After sixteen years of Republican governors and 14 years of Republican control of the General Assembly, let's hope Ohioans shrug off the veil of misrepresentation and hypocracy Republicans have drapped over them for all these years.
Read and weep, Greg: Link
Behind in the polls and unable to match Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's best candidate to become secretary of state, Hartmann seems to be using a play from the Karl Rove/Lee Atwater play book of sliming his opponent with grossly distorted accusations, a la the Bush-41 TV spot about Willie Horton that tripped Up Mike Dukakis in 1988.
The "Texas Flash" has a "Willie Horton" attack piece ready for airing, according to a link at brunnerblunders.com, where you can see the slimy depths to which his campaign, run by Republican hatchet man Mark Weaver, has put out.
Hey Greg, there's a hot seat waiting in hell for Republicans like you, who purposely and willfully try to hide their arrest records from the public, especially on job applications for assistant prosecutor, and outstanding debts they have not paid because they think they are above the law. You see how fast your Washington war lords like Rove are dumping their candidates like DeWine and Blackwell. It can and will happen to you as well, once more stories like the one the DDN ran come forward and show Ohioans that you are the wrong person at the wrong time with the wrong experiendce and credentials to run such an important office at such key crossroads in Ohio history.
Stay where you are and clean up your mess before you bring more mud into Ohio's house. Substance always beats flash.
Link
www.jenniferbrunner.com
Hartmann, whose personal record and professional accomplishments pale when compared to those of his Democratic candidate, Jennifer Brunner, an attorney with years of election law experience who stepped down from the Common Pleas Court bench to run for secretary of state, is now being forced to eat his words on what he will do at the state level to protect identity thieves from hacking his site for the purpose of stealing private information.
With the DDN's story, and as major Ohio newspapers come out to endorse Brunner over Hartmann, maybe more of our intrepid Ohio reporters will start to out Hartmann for what he is: another Republican who will advance his career at all costs and stiff Ohio taxpayers by doling our favors to his lawyer friends and vendors who do not have the best interest of the state at heart. After sixteen years of Republican governors and 14 years of Republican control of the General Assembly, let's hope Ohioans shrug off the veil of misrepresentation and hypocracy Republicans have drapped over them for all these years.
Read and weep, Greg: Link
Behind in the polls and unable to match Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's best candidate to become secretary of state, Hartmann seems to be using a play from the Karl Rove/Lee Atwater play book of sliming his opponent with grossly distorted accusations, a la the Bush-41 TV spot about Willie Horton that tripped Up Mike Dukakis in 1988.
The "Texas Flash" has a "Willie Horton" attack piece ready for airing, according to a link at brunnerblunders.com, where you can see the slimy depths to which his campaign, run by Republican hatchet man Mark Weaver, has put out.
Hey Greg, there's a hot seat waiting in hell for Republicans like you, who purposely and willfully try to hide their arrest records from the public, especially on job applications for assistant prosecutor, and outstanding debts they have not paid because they think they are above the law. You see how fast your Washington war lords like Rove are dumping their candidates like DeWine and Blackwell. It can and will happen to you as well, once more stories like the one the DDN ran come forward and show Ohioans that you are the wrong person at the wrong time with the wrong experiendce and credentials to run such an important office at such key crossroads in Ohio history.
Stay where you are and clean up your mess before you bring more mud into Ohio's house. Substance always beats flash.
Link
www.jenniferbrunner.com
Unable to match Democratic Secretary of State (SOS) candidate Jennifer Brunner's experience or qualificatons in key categories Ohioans want in their next chief elections officer, Greg Hartmann, the razzle-dazzle Texan who now serves as the Clerk of Courts for Hamilton County, has been relegated to lobbing I.E.D's [invented explosive deceptions] at Brunner for a tough and correct ruling she made in 2002, when as a Common Pleas Court judge she protected Ohio taxpayers from the pervasive corruption Governor Bob Taft and other Republicans have bestowed on Ohio by ruling the Ohio School Facilities Commission in violation of certain rules.
Mr. Hartmann, who despite his wealthy Texas pedigree and his pandering to conservative Ohio business groups finds himself at this late date behind Brunner in respected election polls, has been curiously silent on several issues that Ohioans need to know about now before they go to the polls on Tuesday, November 7.
Case in point: In an recent Toledo Blade article, Mr. Hartmann accused Brunner of playing politics from the bench. As the Blade put it:
A recent arrival to Ohio a scant seven years ago, Hartmann has close ties to Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Bush-43 through his powerful father, a Dalls attorney. In quick fashion, Mr. Hartmann has risen rapidly to the top of his county party despite being a newbie to southwestern Ohio politics. He then aced out veteran statehouse Republican Jim Trakas from Cuyahoga County for running for SOS. Trakas had once been the preferred candidate to go up against Brunner. Inquiring minds want to know more, Mr. Hartmann.
But with the ruling of the Supreme Court of Ohio (SCO) in the case of Seger vs. For Women, Inc., which found that a case left sitting in Greg Hartmann's office for more than 4 months should have been served by the clerk on For Women, Inc. "forthwith" as required by rule, he gets a taste of his own medicine, and he won't like it one bit. But for smart, informed Ohio voters who want to relieve the office of the fever of partisanship that it has suffered under for the last eight years, it is indeed sweet, preventative medicine. The ruling should put Mr. Hartmann in his place. It is a slapdown to an officeholder for favoring special interets over the interests of his constitutents and an admonition that you must follow the law, no matter what.
In its ruling, the SCO found that Mr. Hartmann's practice of holding documents because attorneys asked him to, violated the rules of the Ohio Supreme Court. In three separate opinions, the SCO criticed the practice used by Hartmann that allowed attorneys to "buy time" and delay cases, at the expense of the citizens of Hamilton County.
SCO Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, Justice Maureen O'Connor and Justice Terrence O'Donnell weighed in against what Mr. Hartmann decision to withold service.
Chief Justice Moyer said:
Justice O'Connor said:
Justice O'Donnell said:
Not only can Brunner take a punch, but she knows how to counter punch as well. In her media release on the SCO ruling, Brunner said: blockquote>"Yesterday my opponent held a press conference taking me to task for making the Ohio School Facilities Commission follow the law, while at the same time he, an attorney himself, stood exposed by the Ohio Supreme Court for his own failure to follow laws and rules as clerk of courts in Hamilton County."
"Greg Hartmann will be more of the same, like his predecessors, Bob Taft and Ken Blackwell, giving special considerations to his friends and looking the other way when people want to break the law. He'll be a rubber stamp for the failed policies and corruption of the Taft and Blackwell years," added Brunner."
Me thinks Mr. Hartmann doth protest too much. People living in glass houses [looking at you, Mr. Hartmann] ought not throw stones, least they come back at them twice as fast. Shattered...that would be the right word to explain what is happening to Mr. Hartmann's hopes to continue the broken, highly-partisan policies of Mr. Ken Blackwell, which have left Ohio's election system bruised and battered and worse for wear.
Jennifer Brunner is poised to be the first woman to be elected to this important position. She is the right person at the right time with the right prescription to restore trust and integrity to an election system Ohioans can again be proud of.
Mr. Hartmann, who despite his wealthy Texas pedigree and his pandering to conservative Ohio business groups finds himself at this late date behind Brunner in respected election polls, has been curiously silent on several issues that Ohioans need to know about now before they go to the polls on Tuesday, November 7.
Case in point: In an recent Toledo Blade article, Mr. Hartmann accused Brunner of playing politics from the bench. As the Blade put it:
Hartmann...took aim at his Democratic opponent's record as a judge as he argued she is too partisan to act as Ohio's chief elections official. The accusation stemmed from a 2002 ruling by Jennifer Brunner, then a Franklin County Common Pleas judge. She held that the Ohio School Facilities Commission was wrong when it disqualified a contractor from contention for a building project on the grounds it was not a responsible bidder.
A recent arrival to Ohio a scant seven years ago, Hartmann has close ties to Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Bush-43 through his powerful father, a Dalls attorney. In quick fashion, Mr. Hartmann has risen rapidly to the top of his county party despite being a newbie to southwestern Ohio politics. He then aced out veteran statehouse Republican Jim Trakas from Cuyahoga County for running for SOS. Trakas had once been the preferred candidate to go up against Brunner. Inquiring minds want to know more, Mr. Hartmann.
But with the ruling of the Supreme Court of Ohio (SCO) in the case of Seger vs. For Women, Inc., which found that a case left sitting in Greg Hartmann's office for more than 4 months should have been served by the clerk on For Women, Inc. "forthwith" as required by rule, he gets a taste of his own medicine, and he won't like it one bit. But for smart, informed Ohio voters who want to relieve the office of the fever of partisanship that it has suffered under for the last eight years, it is indeed sweet, preventative medicine. The ruling should put Mr. Hartmann in his place. It is a slapdown to an officeholder for favoring special interets over the interests of his constitutents and an admonition that you must follow the law, no matter what.
In its ruling, the SCO found that Mr. Hartmann's practice of holding documents because attorneys asked him to, violated the rules of the Ohio Supreme Court. In three separate opinions, the SCO criticed the practice used by Hartmann that allowed attorneys to "buy time" and delay cases, at the expense of the citizens of Hamilton County.
SCO Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, Justice Maureen O'Connor and Justice Terrence O'Donnell weighed in against what Mr. Hartmann decision to withold service.
Chief Justice Moyer said:
". . . we cannot condone this general practice or the specific actions of the clerk in this case . . ."
Justice O'Connor said:
"The Civil Rules do not allow a clerk to suspend service for up to a year, but rather require immediate service, and the clerk violates his duties by failing to attempt prompt service. The clerk does not have the authority to agree to service that is not "forthwith" as the rules require."
Justice O'Donnell said:
"The rule as presently drafted, however, does not vest discretion in the clerk of courts to afford attorneys or parties special consideration when issuing service. A clerk who does so violates the rule by failing to "forthwith" issue the summons for service upon the defendants listed in the complaint."
Not only can Brunner take a punch, but she knows how to counter punch as well. In her media release on the SCO ruling, Brunner said: blockquote>"Yesterday my opponent held a press conference taking me to task for making the Ohio School Facilities Commission follow the law, while at the same time he, an attorney himself, stood exposed by the Ohio Supreme Court for his own failure to follow laws and rules as clerk of courts in Hamilton County."
"Greg Hartmann will be more of the same, like his predecessors, Bob Taft and Ken Blackwell, giving special considerations to his friends and looking the other way when people want to break the law. He'll be a rubber stamp for the failed policies and corruption of the Taft and Blackwell years," added Brunner."
Me thinks Mr. Hartmann doth protest too much. People living in glass houses [looking at you, Mr. Hartmann] ought not throw stones, least they come back at them twice as fast. Shattered...that would be the right word to explain what is happening to Mr. Hartmann's hopes to continue the broken, highly-partisan policies of Mr. Ken Blackwell, which have left Ohio's election system bruised and battered and worse for wear.
Jennifer Brunner is poised to be the first woman to be elected to this important position. She is the right person at the right time with the right prescription to restore trust and integrity to an election system Ohioans can again be proud of.
Brunner Endorsed by ABJ; Hartmann Texas Connections Revealed
Another nail was hammered into Greg Hartmann's campaign coffin for Ohio Secretary of State today, as the Akron Beacon Journal (ABJ) strongly endorsed Democrat Jennifer Brunner for the office.
Correctly assessing Hartmann's mediocre, some say incompetent performance as Clerk of Courts in recent years, the ABJ also saw that for all of the ballyhoo over Hartmann's youth and energy, he pales in every category when compared to Jennifer Brunner's qualifications, track record of accomplishment and her proven ability to be independent and impartial, even on issues like the gay marriage amendment.
ABJ:
Picking up on Hartmann's Texas roots and the strong connection he and his father Robin P. Hartmann have to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rover, the Boys from Texas who want to put party operatives into statewide election posts like SOS so they can continue to manipulate elections in favor of their party's candidates, the following comments gleaned from 2006Ohio Blog put some meat on these deserving bones:
Another nail was hammered into Greg Hartmann's campaign coffin for Ohio Secretary of State today, as the Akron Beacon Journal (ABJ) strongly endorsed Democrat Jennifer Brunner for the office.
"Of the two contenders, Brunner, 49, is the much more impressive candidate," the editorial said of the contest between Brunner and Hartmann, whose Texas roots are now being scrutinized, helping to explain his sudden rise to power within the Hamilton County Republican Party despite his ho-hum performance as a prosecutor and his missteps as Clerk of Courts.
Correctly assessing Hartmann's mediocre, some say incompetent performance as Clerk of Courts in recent years, the ABJ also saw that for all of the ballyhoo over Hartmann's youth and energy, he pales in every category when compared to Jennifer Brunner's qualifications, track record of accomplishment and her proven ability to be independent and impartial, even on issues like the gay marriage amendment.
ABJ:
"Greg Hartmann, 39, touts a 20-point plan for the secretary of state's office, its direction and spirit departing little from the Brunner agenda promising an improved election process, better information for voters, even a program to curb identity theft. He points to his time in the private sector managing an airline services distribution company and his tenure as an assistant prosecutor in Hamilton County. The past three years, Hartmann has been the Hamilton County clerk of courts. All of that doesn't come close to matching the preparation of his opponent. Jennifer Brunner is the better choice for such a critical and now very prominent office."
Picking up on Hartmann's Texas roots and the strong connection he and his father Robin P. Hartmann have to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rover, the Boys from Texas who want to put party operatives into statewide election posts like SOS so they can continue to manipulate elections in favor of their party's candidates, the following comments gleaned from 2006Ohio Blog put some meat on these deserving bones:
"It appears that the relatively recent and rapid rise of Greg Hartmann (R-Cincinnati) in Ohio Republican political circles is not an accident but the result of his close ties to the Bush/Cheney camp, and the implications of that for the possible supervision of future Ohio elections by such a man are frightening indeed: The developing facts on Greg Hartmann are interesting and potentially alarming. His father, Robin P. Hartmann of the Dallas-based Haynes-Boone law firm, did indeed represent Dick Cheney in 2000 in his lawsuit attempting to establish that his residence is Wyoming and not Texas, since it's required that president and vice president not be from the same state. In addition, I've learned that Robin P. Hartmann was being touted to the media as a source to call as a reference for Harriet Miers after Bush appointed her to the Supreme Court. In other words, one can safely say that Hartmann Sr. is an ultra-insider in the Cheney-Bush administration."
"Now consider Greg Hartmann, who graduated from Pepperdine law school in 1997 and worked for less than a year at a Dallas law firm, ending in March, 1998. In January, 1999 he suddenly crops up in the Hamilton County prosecutor's office, where he worked without particularly distinguishing himself (or worse, facts developing) until appointed County Clerk of Counts in early 2003. We all know how he didn't distinguish himself there, as his sloppy work that allowed identity theft to occur has already been well-documented."
"Despite being an outsider in a heavily Republican area, with a many longtime party regulars, he became executive director of the Hamilton County Republican Party in 2002, 3-4 years after arriving in town, and was Hamilton County co-chair of the 2004 Cheney-Bush reelection campaign, an honor I'm sure many other of those longtime devoted Republicans would have liked. Obviously, strings were being pulled. Hartmann brought power with him that didn't belong to him. Nothing in his record suggests he is outstanding in any way."
"There's more to come. This suggests all kinds of potentially disastrous scenarios for Ohio, especially for future Ohio elections. This race is an absolute must-win for Brunner for the sake of the citizens of the state."
Posts By Month
Wilson Announces He Will Vote “YES” on Health Care
By: Dave Harding, ProgressOhio
Posted Mar 19, 06:32 PM
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By: Dave Harding, ProgressOhio
Posted Mar 19, 06:32 PM
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Congressman John Boccieri Statement Of His Position On Health Care Reform
By: Dave Harding, ProgressOhio
Posted Mar 19, 05:11 PM
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By: Dave Harding, ProgressOhio
Posted Mar 19, 05:11 PM
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ZACK, WHAT WOULD NIXON DO?
By: David Lore, Licking County Pro-Active Citizens
Posted Mar 19, 10:30 AM
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By: David Lore, Licking County Pro-Active Citizens
Posted Mar 19, 10:30 AM
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Representative Steve Driehaus: Keep standing up for us, not the insurance companies
By: User from Washington, DC
Posted Mar 17, 11:30 AM
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By: User from Washington, DC
Posted Mar 17, 11:30 AM
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Dennis, Ted Strickland isn't going to vote for you
The people on this site MIGHT. But not if you refuse to answ...
The people on this site MIGHT. But not if you refuse to answ...
Dennis, do you have learning disability?
Because you apparently cannot even comprehend what you write...
Because you apparently cannot even comprehend what you write...
they just keep digging their hold deeper
In an effort to claim that "99%" of AFP members are well-beh...
In an effort to claim that "99%" of AFP members are well-beh...
