Dear Ohioans, We Need You Again

I was pretty proud to be a native Ohioan last November 2nd. My heart swelled with pride when I heard about men in John Deere hats and Carhartt attire standing in line at the polls for hours and about overcrowded hitching posts in Amish precincts. The day after the election, Rush Limbaugh played his goofy theme song from start to finish. It's got to be one of the most vapid songs from a vapid musical era, but it has something to do with Ohio, and on that day it just about made me cry like a baby.

My emotions are quite different today. It's great and all that Ohio has two "Republican" senators. I just wish they would act like it.

In the last few days I've learned that Senator Mike DeWine is one of the key obstacles to Republicans moving forward on exercising the Constitutional option to gain a floor vote for judicial nominees.

"Although U. S. Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) has committed to vote to stop judicial filibusters, CCV staff spoke to U.S. Senator Mike DeWine's (R-OH) office on Friday, April 15 and he is still refusing to state his intentions on the issue."

Then news broke yesterday that Senator George Voinovich was unprepared to support the nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the U.N. at yesterday's Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Without Voinovich's support, the nomination would have failed. And why was the Senator not prepared to vote for Bolton?

"Voinovich, apologizing that he had been absent for hearings last week at which the panel heard from Bolton and from a harsh critic who alleged that Bolton had behaved improperly, said he had been impressed by the passionate opposition of committee Democrats."

How noble. Voinovich was ignorant and the Democrats were passionate, so the Senator was paralyzed. Reminds me of an ancient Roman official named Pontius Pilate. Apparently, Committee Chairman Richard Lugar was completely blindsided by Voinovich's pandering, so he was forced to delay the vote.

We need you again, Ohio. As a registered voter in North Carolina, there's nothing I can do but put information in your hands. Contact info for both senators is available here.

(Note that the contact info page is talking about a different issue, but the phone numbers should be the same.)