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"You really are clueless, an embarrassment to the name. Hope you're adopted." -- June Dever
"this guy is right about conserving a clue. he hasn't one and that leaves more for the rest of us." -- Jim Lovell
"Your e-mail addy... should be 'dever@getalife.net.'" -- Sponge
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| And the Ohio GOP Continues to Implode |
| Posted by: dever on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 - 05:10 AM |
Bob Bennett was, at one point, considered a political genius for shifting control of Ohio politics to the GOP. The problem is, he didn't win those victories by recruiting and supporting republicans - the party backed a bunch of Democrats-in-drag, err "moderates" (He out-democrated the Democrats) and Ohio has been paying the price. There are precious few fiscal conservatives and civil libertarians leading the show in Columbus, replaced instead by "Republicans" that would be "Democrats" in any other state. Not to be outdone, the Ohio Democratic Party responded by recruiting and running fringe nut-jobs like Lee Fisher - until now. Here's the perfect example:
After 10 years of bitter fighting by the populace and plenty of broken promises, Ohio was finally one of the last of the states to pass concealed carry reform. Ohio's CCW experiment is a couple years old now, and during that time some major flaws with the system have been exposed. The most obvious flaw is the restrictions on carrying a firearm in a motor vehicle - in short the weapon must be in "plain sight" (with no definition of what degree of visibility constitutes said "plain sight") or it must be in a locked compartment. Complying with this prevision is, at best a nuisance, at worst a safety issue - causing needless handling and re-holstering of a firearm. While I fully expect my fellow concealed handgun license holders to be a cut above with regards to training and weapon handling, the reality is that most people neglect or have insufficient experience with holster work. It not covered in great detail in most firearm safety courses and most ranges prohibit it. (Which is just another reason you should go spend a weekend at Tactical Defense Institute!)
After listening to feedback from license holders and holding public hearings, the Ohio House passed HB347 with broad, bipartisan support - removing the nonsensical "plain sight" language from Ohio's concealed carry provisions. As expected, Gov. Bob Taft threatened to veto the bill and it has since died in the Ohio Senate, which still seems hesitant to put itself in a position where it would have to consider overriding the veto of our notorious "Republican" governor - lame duck Democrat-in-Drag, or not.
This has not gone unnoticed by the Democrats in the southern part of the state, nor by gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland who released the following statement:
"Ohio's GOP leadership has demonstrated that they are unwilling to act on important legislation to strengthen protections for Ohio's gun owners.
"The improvements needed to Ohio's current concealed carry law outlined in HB 347 have bipartisan support from both Democratic and Republican legislators in the Ohio House of Representatives. But the Republican-controlled senate has stalled this very important bill indefinitely.
"As governor, I would support passage of this bill in its entirety and would sign HB 347 into law the moment it hit my desk. I urge the legislature to stop the delay and pass this legislation as soon as possible."
Twelve years of ineffective leadership has finally put the Ohio GOP in a position where they've allowed their Democrat opponents to take support of gun rights issues away from them. The irony is so thick one almost requires a chainsaw to cut through it.
The real trouble for the Ohio GOP is that their opponents have their number this time - instead of Tim Hagan as a candidate, they've recruited a moderate who enjoys strong bipartisan support in his congressional district.
Footnote:
Perhaps my problem is that I'm not truly a conservative, but a "small l" libertarian who had viewed the GOP as pretty much running in the same direction I thought we should travel. With the anti-civil liberty and fiscal irresponsibility shift in the Ohio GOP (and the RNC, nationally), it has become increasingly difficult to reconcile my differences with the party. The only positive I see for the Ohio GOP this year is that Ken Blackwell is very much an outsider and despised by Bob Bennett's party machine. Had Jim Petro won the primary, it would have represented another four years of Voinovich/Taft non-leadership. Unfortunately, Blackwell is an uber-social conservative - so as much as I'd like to see a Blackwell victory as a giant middle finger to Bennett, I have yet to find an argument that would truly persuade me to vote for him.
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