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When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Everybody saw this coming.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The revolution will be supervised.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / No one knows why he went to the phone bank. Maybe he was lost?

No one knows why he went to the phone bank. Maybe he was lost?

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This is really a lot of fun:

@PeterHambyCNN
Peter Hamby
Incredible moments in politics: Romney visits OH GOP phone bank to rally troops opposing SB5 repeal, but refuses to take a position on SB5

It doesn’t matter what he says. Romney has already come out in favor of race-to-the-bottom “Right To Work”, although no one has asked him in the last twenty minutes, so who the hell knows. Even Mitch Daniels wasn’t stupid enough to keep pushing that (publicly, anyway) after he discovered his statehouse was filled with outraged working people.

So far, so good:

According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, Ohioans now oppose Issue 2 by a margin of 57% to 32%–a whopping twenty-five point margin two weeks out from the election, essentially back to where Quinnipiac showed the campaign in July before the ad wars and campaigning began in earnest. In September, the margin was thirteen points, meaning opposition has nearly doubled as Kasich has taken to the road and campaigned across the State on behalf of Issue 2.

If you’re in Ohio, vote.

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    I wonder if any of Romney’s opponents will try and pin his support for SB5 on his head in Ohio. That would be amusing to see.

  3. 3.

    kay

    @Zifnab:

    He doesn’t support or oppose it. He just visits random phone banks. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he showed up at one of ours.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OvenMitt is such a fucking loser. He’s got FAIL stamped on his damn forehead.

    The thing is, he did the stamping himself.

  5. 5.

    JCT

    Incredible moments in politics: Romney visits OH GOP phone bank to rally troops opposing SB5 repeal, but refuses to take a position on SB5

    Hmmm, perhaps he was indoors and couldn’t stick his finger in the wind?

    He gives the word “weak” new meaning.

  6. 6.

    kay

    @JCT:

    All the (elected) Republicans at the federal level are doing this. I called Portman (Senate) and my GOP House member last week, and they wouldn’t take a position.

    I’m going to keep calling them, because it’s entertaining, and that’s important, that I be amused :)

  11. 11.

    kay

    @Steve:

    It’s up on The Washington Monthly so I’d like to amend:

    Romney says he “supports what Ohio Republicans are doing”

    Except on the actual issues, I guess.

    I don’t know what else Ohio Republicans do. Golf?

  15. 15.

    kay

    @Martin:

    We’ll see if the weasel can somehow partition Ohio off from Michigan, which as you know is (one of his) “homes”, and his campaign practically camps there.

  16. 16.

    mistermix

    Romney is heading for Perry territory. That’s why Herman is beating both of these hothouse flowers like a rented mule.

  17. 17.

    PWL

    I wonder if the voters will figure out that Mitt is the same kind of profit-for-profit’s-sake corporate robot who’ve brought us the wonders of economic meltdown (anybody remember Bain Capital?).

    I love the reason he gave for not wanting his landscaper to hire illegal aliens: “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake!” Not because it was wrong or immoral. No, it was all about what it would do for HIM, and his chances for office.

    I’ll never know why America seems to love these bloodless, calculator-hearted corporate types. I mean, that type is just what we don’t need–someone who doesn’t see people-just Corporate Profit Units….

  18. 18.

    kay

    @mistermix:

    Romney is in a class by himself. He’s a cartoon character.

    Every day, mistermix. Every single day he changes his mind.

    I still think he’s going to be the nominee.

  19. 19.

    ImJohnGalt

    It’s exceedingly likely that in 3 weeks I’m going to be at a dining table with David Brooks. Yes, *THAT* David Brooks. Think that perhaps in the next open thread we could get some recommendations for serious reading material to prepare me for our dinner, as well as suggestions for questions/topics of conversation?
    I know I could just read pretty much all of driftglass’ posts, or anything recently by DougJ, but if there are any particular egregious ones of late (dredging back to 2004 to ask him why people against the Iraq war were anti-semites might be fun, but easily swatted away by “I’ve evolved”, or “it was a joke”.)

  22. 22.

    feebog

    First, SB 5 will go down in flames in Ohio in Novmeber, then Wisconson will recall Scott Walker sometime in April. Anyone care to guess who will win the trifecta?

  23. 23.

    jibeaux

    It’s simple, really. If he doesn’t take any positions on anything, then he doesn’t have to remember what his previous position on it was or what his current position on it is. It’s a lot easier that way.

  24. 24.

    pamelabrown

    @kay:
    Actually, Romney reminds me of a talking Ken doll. If Romney is the nominee which I think he will be, by default, I’d love for the Democratic Convention to pass out Ken Doll dressed in a suit and wearing flip-flops.

  25. 25.

    warn

    There’s a huge ‘Citizen Kang’ vibe with all of these guys (including Cain)

    “Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others!”

  29. 29.

    redbeardjim

    Kay, have you heard much about Issue 3, the constitutional amendment to block Obamacare in Ohio? I didn’t even know it existed until I got robo-polled about it last week.

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    It’s exceedingly likely that in 3 weeks I’m going to be at a dining table with David Brooks. Yes, THAT David Brooks.

    How hard would it be to slip a cyanide capsule into his cocktail?

    Or failing that, arrange for him to be alone in a dark parking garage with no security cameras?

  31. 31.

    Barry

    @PWL: “I wonder if the voters will figure out that Mitt is the same kind of profit-for-profit’s-sake corporate robot who’ve brought us the wonders of economic meltdown (anybody remember Bain Capital?).”

    GOP voters – no, they won’t. They’ll grumble, they’ll piss and moan, but in the end they’ll vote for the GOP candidate.
    If he loses, they’ll pile on like they were always against him, but that’s after he loses.

  33. 33.

    JenJen

    Just got my Vote-By-Mail ballot in the mail today, and honestly can’t wait to stick it to Kasich and stand up for Ohio workers. I’m going to skip all the way to the mailbox!

  34. 34.

    kay

    @redbeardjim:

    have you heard much about Issue 3, the constitutional amendment to block Obamacare in Ohio?

    I have, but I had to look for it. It’s going to pass, because the ballot wording is ridiculously favorable.

    It’s the Tea Party issue. Republicans had to put it on the ballot because they have to placate the Tea Party.

    I think it will pass, and I think it will backfire, because it’s poorly drafted. It’s going to affect a lot of current Ohio law, and be a litigation engine. The Tea Party will thus be responsible for a lot of worthless litigation, because they can’t draft a law.

    Then there’s the little matter of the US Constitution, and the supremacy clause.

    So, the short answer is it will pass because no one knows what it is, and everyone will hate it when they find out what it is.

  35. 35.

    JCT

    Gee, looks like Kasich and his pals are about to get run over by their own bus.

    What a world, what a world.

    If Romney is the nominee the Democrats are going to have a FIELD day with ads.

  36. 36.

    kay

    @redbeardjim:

    I love this:

    Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, along with Professors Maxwell Mehlman and Jessie Hill of the Case Western University School of Law today charged that a proposed amendment to the Ohio constitution, the “Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment” (Issue 3 on the November ballot), is “so sloppily and ambiguously worded that it would threaten a wide range of already-existing Ohio health programs, practices and policies enacted and supported by Republican and Democratic office-holders alike.”

    The analysis, done jointly by IO and Professors Mehlman and Hill, is contained in a report entitled “Bad Medicine: Unintended Consequences of Ohio’s Issue 3.” Read the report here.
    IO’s President (Janetta King) and Communications Director (Dale Butland) hosted a Columbus news conference in which the professors participated via videoconference from Cleveland.

    The four said that while Issue 3 is apparently aimed at eliminating the so-called “individual mandate” to purchase health insurance under the recently enacted Affordable Care Act, few Ohioans appear to have actually read the full text of the proposed amendment. Yet the language, definitions and prohibitions contained in the amendment are so broadly worded that Issue 3 would also ban or freeze in place (and not allow for any future changes to) countless other laws, rules and reporting requirements designed to provide oversight of the medical and insurance professions, and to protect workers, consumers and the public health.

    Few Ohioans, including the entire membership of the Tea Party, appear to have actually read the full text of the proposed amendment :)

    I think they outlawed county health departments, but I’m not sure. Anyway, bring on the lawyers!

  37. 37.

    kay

    @redbeardjim:

    The best part is, conservatives have done this once before:

    A constitutional amendment banning marriage equality bars prosecutors from charging some unmarried people under the state’s domestic violence law, a state appeals court ruled. Friday’s decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeals is the first from Ohio’s 12 appellate courts to rule that the Defense of Marriage amendment, passed by voters in 2004, means that the domestic violence law does not apply to unmarried people.

    They need some kind of Heritage workshop on amending the state constitution. They try it every five minutes, and they still can’t get it right.

  38. 38.

    redbeardjim

    @kay: Well, that’s what’s got me so confused — they don’t actually care about the effects of issues like this, they put them on the ballot to fire up the base in presidential election years. Why’d they stick this one in an off year?

  39. 39.

    kay

    @redbeardjim:

    What I read was that the Tea Party wanted it on, but the Tea Party couldn’t manage to get the signatures (even with all their alleged grassrootedness) so the GOP got the signatures for them.

    I think Republicans have to do what the Tea Party wants, don’t you? Ostensibly? Supposedly? In theory?

    The Issue Three signs here are, indeed, outside Tea Party households.

    I went to an event where I was supposed to explain Issue 3 to people, and it was really difficult. I lost them about 5 minutes in, and we ended up talking about voting rights. I’m not explaining this ridiculous law, I decided, and they weren’t listening anyway. No one has read it, no one understands it, and I’m not doing 20 minutes on the supremacy clause. I don’t even think I HAVE 20 minutes on the supremacy clause.

    I could talk really slow? Say this?

    Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and Federal Statutes as “the supreme law of the land.” The text decrees these to be the highest form of law in the U.S. legal system, and mandates that all state judges must follow federal law when a conflict arises between federal law and either the state constitution or state law of any state. (Note that the word “shall” is used, which makes it a necessity, a compulsion.) However, the Supremacy Clause only applies if the federal government is acting in pursuit of its constitutionally authorized powers, as noted by the phrase “in pursuance thereof” in the actual text of the Supremacy Clause itself.

    Just leave it to courts to sort out, is my approach, because that’s where it’s going to end up anyway.

    If the Tea Party want to secede, or nullify, or whatever the hell they’re about, I’m FOR that :)

  40. 40.

    HyperIon

    Kay, you are getting snarky!

    It’s interesting to watch you change/evolve/adapt as this issue continues forward.

    Hang in there and keep up the excellent work on this issue. I’m thinking good thoughts.

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