I don't know if any other Kossack has a diary on this yet, but I was over joyed to hear on the local NPR this morning that District Judge Peter Economus laid more waste to OH SoS twerp Jon Husted. This is already in addition to the news covered well in this diary by Ohiodem1 It seems Husted's request for a stay didn't go down well with Judge Economus. I can't think why considering Husted was scheduled to appear before the Judge today to explain his initial failure to comply with the court order. That was last week's fails, this week has a whole new list of neck-punches for Husted.
According to the local NPR affiliate and this AP report, Judge Economus took little time to respond to Husted's request for a stay. Economus was very clear:
...Husted failed to demonstrate his likelihood of succeeding on appeal and didn't provide "sufficiently compelling reasons" for the stay.
So much for the SoS's poor argument that his appeal trumps enacting early voting schedules. And it gets better!
"Without further evidence of damaging 'voter confusion,' this Court is reluctant to stay its Order on such a speculative and slim 'public interest' argument," Economus wrote.
I had to fist bump the dashboard while driving to work when I heard that one.
Now by no means does this mean Ohio is out of the suppression woods. There were some cogent posts on the comments of Ohiodem1's diary that emphasized the need for genuine diligence and activity so that mid-term and local elections aren't consigned to disinterest, since that is how so many radical Tea-types have been gaining so much ground on the municipal and state level. When the useless Republican Sen Leader who has been my home state's U.S. Senator for, well forever hires a Tea Party strategist, hell I morn for the time when Wendell Ford and Alben Barkely were what a Kentucky Senator looked like. So while things remain hopeful just north of the Ohio River from my perch, there is so much further to go.
Meteor Blades covered the build-up and initial bitch-slap Judge Economus issued to Husted last week. I commented on that diary with the point that can't be driven home enough about this IMO: Husted started as just a young aide to a Co Commish, bit he used that to gain a state house seat and eventually the Speaker of the Ohio House. That put him in a prime position to run for Sec of State. Because we tend to look at local and statewide issues and personalities as inconsequential or a distraction from the hardship of everyday jobs, life, responsibilities, it is natural to sit-out or simply forget about mid-term elections. But time and again, small begets large and the radical right and religious zealots have used this apathy to immense advantage in everything from school board elections as a tool for forcing Christian Right dogma into curriculum, to placing hard-core anti-women advocates in office to limit choice and care options, to being a vehicle for talentless tools like Jon Husted (or Ken Blackwell, or fill-in-the-blank, there are many) to rise to where he literally is a tool for manipulative and disenfranchising agendas.
So while the rulings are favorable and just from Judge Peter Economus, Husted is a symptom of a much broader war being waged purely for power and for the silencing of all but a single, lockstep philosophy and opinion