As we all know, Ohio may well be the epicenter of corruption in state politics, and Ohio voters are sick of it. Indeed, recent polling has shown Congressman Ted Strickland well ahead of Secretary of Stealing...err, State, Ken Blackwell, and Congressman Sherrod Brown leading Senator Mike DeWine in the statewide races (Strickland for Governor, Brown for US Senate). So while things are looking pretty bleak for the Buckeye GOP, they do know a thing or two about what it takes to win. And that means slinging as much mud as possible at Congressmen Strickland and Brown until voters throw up their hands and stay home.
But now Ken Blackwell's campaign has hit a new low. Or, rather, it's an Ohio GOP staffer, who once belonged to Mr. Blackwell's camp, and who once served the fundamentalist Ohio Restoration Project's boss who hit a new low. And now his ex-boss at the ORP is "reserving judgement" on this new low...unless the Strickland family takes the matter to court.
SHAME ON THE REVERAND RUSSELL JOHNSON; SHAME ON GARY LANKFORD, JOHNSON'S AND BLACKWELL'S EX-STAFFER; AND SHAME ON THE OHIO GOP!
http://www.ohioelects.com/...
http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/...
http://www.dispatch.com/...
http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/...
The first link is from the Columbus, OH Dispatch, which
says in part:
The e-mail, obtained by The Dispatch, was sent to an undisclosed group of GOP supporters -- with instructions to forward it to others -- by Gary Lankford, whom the party hired in July as its "social conservative coordinator." He was paid $16,000 as a "voter contact consultant" for the primary-election campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell before taking the party job.
Among other things, the e-mail says Strickland married his wife, Frances, at 46, has no children and lives apart from her. It also links readers to an Internet blog that directly questions the sexual orientation of both Stricklands and notes accusations he is "soft on those who sexually assault children."
This has been blogged about before, including Ted Strickland's strong retort:
"They are scared to death of me," Strickland said. "The only way they can beat me is to destroy me. I've dealt with these kind of people. I worked in a maximum-security prison that was full of liars."
Strickland is a practicing psychologist, in case you're wondering why he worked at a prison. His job was to evaluate convicts there - although, knowing the GOP, they'll probably claim he was a prisoner "in a maximum-security prison that was full of liars" in the future, just to muddy things up some more. After all, the Ohio GOP has not only gone down the slippery slope of vitriol, they're trying to get their faces in the dictionary for that definition.
SHAME ON THE REVERAND RUSSELL JOHNSON; SHAME ON GARY LANKFORD, JOHNSON'S AND BLACKWELL'S EX-STAFFER; AND SHAME ON THE OHIO GOP!
The second and third articles continue the saga, as the Ohio GOP fired the staffer, Mr. Lankford, for the e-mail, which was sent to numerous GOP activist groups. This was after their initial denials of culpability in the affair:
Standing over the body with bloody knife in hand, the Ohio Republican Party pleaded innocent.
It didn't kill the candidate it had just stabbed to death, the party said. And if it did stab the candidate, it didn't know it was stabbing him. Most assuredly, the party protested, it would never condone stabbing the candidate it had just stabbed.
Only a political Houdini could rationalize that twisted logic. Still, that was the GOP's explanation -- for a couple of days, anyway.
By Thursday, state Chairman Robert T. Bennett knew the party had been caught red-handed and issued an apology to the victim, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for governor...
...After appalled recipients of Lankford's e-mail forwarded it to news organizations, including The Dispatch, and reporters began asking questions, the GOP went into its Houdini act. The party didn't know about Lankford's attempt to assassinate Mr. and Mrs. Strickland's good name, a spokesman said. That is not a strategy the party would ever contemplate. Certainly, the party would never condone Lankford's tactic.
But emerging details about Lankford's connections make it difficult for the party to disavow knowing exactly who it was getting when it hired him. Lankford was less than two months removed from serving as a paid "voter contact consultant" for the primary election campaign of Republican gubernatorial nominee J. Kenneth Blackwell.
And before being hired by the GOP, Lankford worked for the Ohio Restoration Project, a conservative religious group that has been accused of violating its tax-exempt status by favoring Blackwell at its meetings. The group is headed by the Rev. Russell Johnson, a staunch Blackwell supporter and pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster.
So it appears that Mr. Lankford has been around the block a few times within Ohio GOP circles. From the "Ohio Restoration Project", which openly smears Democrats as the 2nd coming of Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate combined, to Ken Blackwell's nasty, hate-filled campaign to the OH GOP, he's been shuttled around to peddle this message of outright lies, innuendo and hate. I wonder how he sleeps at night!
As it turns out, the messenger may have been taken out, but the message is still being promoted. Now Reverend Johnson is peddling a new idea: let the Stricklands PROVE they're not gay!
In an interview Thursday, Johnson perpetuated the rumor by suggesting that the Stricklands file a lawsuit and go to court to prove they are heterosexuals. If Lankford's claim is untrue, Johnson said, "It's slanderous and they've got a case. I'm withholding judgment until the facts are in."
So, let's see if I've got this right...
The Stricklands are being accused of being gay - an outright lie, one almost immediately disproved and condemnded by every honest Ohioan (including the Republicans who leaked the e-mail to the Dispatch).
The Ohio GOP initially denies they sent the e-mail through Mr. Lankford, then apologizes. Meanwhile, Mr. Lankford's REAL organization - the ORP's Chairman, Russell Johnson - suggests that the "burden of proof" is with the Stricklands, not Mr. Lankford.
Last time I checked, people are innocent before proven guilty in this country. Are politicians exempt from this? Well, they shouldn't be. Are politicians' WIVES exempt? They should damn well be.
SHAME ON THE REVERAND RUSSELL JOHNSON; SHAME ON GARY LANKFORD, JOHNSON'S AND BLACKWELL'S EX-STAFFER; AND SHAME ON THE OHIO GOP!
I had the honor of talking with Congressman Strickland in Washington last summer, when Congress was in session. In fact, it's been 368 days exactly. I spent a half-hour with him, and I can tell you plainly that he is an honorable, courageous and competent leader. Ohio will be well-served with him as Governor. And for the GOP to sink this low, to slander him and his wife - neither of whom deserved this - is a moral outrage.
If you're as outraged as I am, then there are a couple of things you can do about it:
1)Contact Russell Johnson at rjohnson@ohiorestorationproject.com or call his organization at 740-654-6211 [both methods are on the front page of the ORP's website], and tell him to REPENT for what he and his minion Mr. Lankford have done to Ted and Frances Strickland's reputation. Ask him (if you reach him) how he sleeps at night, knowing that he is slandering a Baptist minister and his wife.
2)Go to Ted's website, http://tedstrickland.com/ and send a few dollars not earmarked for Connecticut his way. If there were only five candidates who I could have win this year, he'd be one of them. He'll need that money to combat Ken Blackwell's army of extremists, and to restore sanity to Ohio.
3)Recommend this diary, so that more people get to see what kind of campaign our opponents are running.