The Republican National Committee recently conducted an?online straw poll?identifying 32 candidates who could get its nomination in the 2016 presidential race. Each of the 32 has quite a questionable history, though, that contrasts with the GOP’s consistent claim of it being the ?moral? option for voters.
Philander, racism, thievery, bribery, and combinations of these and other?sins?are?found across the slate, in fact.?In this series on the 32 potential candidates (updated every other day), Liberal America will offer a quick rundown on the hypocrisy clouding each one’s ?holier than thou? claims.
John Kasich
Governor of Ohio
Politics have been almost the entire career field of John Kasich. In 1978 at the age of 26, he became the youngest ever elected to Ohio state senate. He quickly jumped to the U.S. House of Representatives just four years later, where he served nine consecutive terms.
He didn’t find much success in other fields, though. For example, he hosted his own show on Fox News, but its Saturday night broadcast covered extremist zealotry instead of the mainstream topics its ?Heartland? name implied, including people who claimed to be both Jesus Christ and the anti-Christ. The show was cancelled in 2007. He was also managing director of a Lehman Brother’s office at the time of its infamous collapse in 2008.
Those cans and collapses apparently inspired Kasich to return to the political realm, where he was elected Ohio governor in 2010. Since taking the office, however, his term has been littered with questionable actions and multiple scandals. He was quickly criticized for appointing only whites to a 22-member advisory panel, for example. Early in his first year, he clipped state employees of their rights, decertifying their unions, increasing their insurance costs, and banning?their right to protest by strike. In 2012, he was investigated by the FBI on charges of requesting bribes and giving political appointments to friends.
Many of the scandals involve Kasich in after-the-fact cover-ups. For example, during investigation of an appointed state school superintendent, Kasich claimed executive privilege when asked to show his 2012 schedule, blocking it from public view. Kasich’s office said the denial was due to ?security risks,? but it seems the real reason was because he didn’t want anyone to know of the potential role he had in that scandal. School superintendent Stan Heffner took gifts from a privately-owned education vendor, then testified to state legislature on behalf of that company, arranging it to get new contracts with the state. Heffner then resigned and went to work for that company. Kasich now refuses to provide any information from his office for the same time period in which Heffner was engaged in that scandal.
Kasich’s predecessor (Republican Gov. Bob Taft) was no asset, either, and was convicted of accepting illegal gifts from lobbyists in the ?Coingate? scandal, along with 18 other state government officials, staff, and lobbyists. But Kasich has his hands in that one, too. After he was elected, Kasich removed chief Coingate investigator Tom Charles by appointing him to a new position, actually halting the then-ongoing research. Although Charles promised to complete the project and provide report on its findings, he only closed it, and has since then refused to provide any information. Kasich appointed Randall Meyer to continue the investigation, but Meyer (who made large donations to Kasich’s campaign fund) shelved the project. It took threats from Common Core to get the ball rolling again in 2013, but the final investigation report tells nothing new, Common Core says.
This year?Kasich is also catching ?frack flak? ? internal documents were found showing Kasich’s plan to aid the oil and gas industry get approval for hydraulic fracturing (?fracking?) in two state parks, and how to stifle public knowledge and criticism of the projects.
Before he considers a presidential bid, though, Kasich will have to focus on his re-election this year.? He won the 2010 race not by majority, but with a 49 percent plurality. Shortly after he took the office, a March 2011 poll found that Ohio voters were so upset with him that if the election were held all over again, Kasich would have gotten only 40 percent to the competitor’s 55. Ohio voters selected another candidate over Kasich in an August 2013 poll, too.
Visit Liberal America for future updates on?the other?GOP 2016 hopefuls.
What’s your take on these?hypocritical Republicans? State your case on?Liberal America’s Facebook?page.
See previous posts on GOP 2016 hopefuls:
Kelly Ayotte??|?Haley Barbour?|??John Bolton?| ?Jeb Bush?|?Hermain Cain? |?Ben Carson?|??Chris Christie??| ?Ted Cruz??|?Mitch Daniels??| ?Newt Gingrich??| ?Nikki Haley?|?Mike Huckabee?|? Bobby Jindal |
