Ethics Commission to Probe Former Ohio House Speaker's New Business

[LiberalHeart]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Ethics Commission said it will investigate former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and his business partners, who are opening a business using public employees for renovations.

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4954994

[Robbien]

1. Ohio has an Ethics Commission?

Where has it been the last twenty years? The Toledo Blade has been the only ethics investigator operating in Ohio and they have taken a lot of grief over it.

[ShockediSay]

2. Ethics are (a) poor relative

compared to corporate lobbied globalism

[Judi Lynn]

3. Silencing the opposition ( Current Ohio Speaker John Husted)

Article published Saturday, May 27, 2006

Silencing the opposition

IT'S a safe bet that few Ohio taxpayers were watching the cable TV feed from the state House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon. Those who did witnessed a chilling testament to one-party political rule that has strangled - and now gagged - the governmental process in Columbus.

Exhibiting an arrogance of power not seen in the Statehouse since the days of the autocratic Vern Riffe, Republican House Speaker Jon Husted gaveled down Rep. Chris Redfern as the House Democratic leader - who also happens to be state Democratic chairman - neared the end of a statement assailing the GOP proposal for state spending caps.

Then the Speaker silenced the Ottawa County lawmaker by ordering his microphone summarily switched off. It was an authoritarian tactic we would expect to see in some tin-horn dictatorship rather than the halls of Ohio democracy.

This dismaying power play came during debate on legislation to remove Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell's tax and expenditure (TEL) amendment from the Nov. 7 ballot and replace it with weaker spending caps set by the legislature.
(snip/...)

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060527/OPINION02/605270319

[Judi Lynn]

4. Redistricting plans rejected: Democrats vote down GOP plan, then their own

Redistricting plans rejected
Democrats vote down GOP plan, then their own
By Jim Siegel
The Columbus Dispatch
Friday, May 26, 2006 12:15 AM

House Democrats refused yesterday to approve a GOP plan that could have dramatically altered Ohio's politically gerrymandered districts by putting the mapping process in the hands of a bipartisan, independent panel.
Because they are in the minority at the Statehouse, it was a rare opportunity for Democrats to control the outcome of a vote on a bill. And then the Democrats rejected their own similar plan, prompting Republicans to accuse Democrats of putting politics ahead of good government.

“If you believe that one-party control of state government is wrong, as I've heard people comment about many times, you cannot vote 'no' and preserve the very system that created it,” Speaker Jon A. Husted, R-Kettering, said during a rare floor speech. “If you do, you lose the right to complain about it.”

Rep. Kevin DeWine, a Fairborn Republican and sponsor of the measure, said it would create a more fair, open process of drawing districts, which could have a significant effect on political- party control and the number of competitive races Ohio voters see for Congress and the legislature.
(snip/...)

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/politics/politics.php?story=188362

[depakid]

5. Ohians get the goverment they deserve

Republican policies have just decimated the state- and yet people keep right on voting them in....