John Kasich Won’t Go Where He Needs to Go in Criticizing Ohio’s GOP
Former Columbus-area congressman John Kasich’s OpinionJournal.com op-ed yesterday leveled a number of valid criticisms at the state GOP: corruption, cronyism, tax and spending increases, etc.
But he missed the boat on the ideological divide in the party, especially when he discussed the situation of Mike DeWine:
Some conservatives are angry at Sen. DeWine, and are threatening to withhold support, largely because he joined forces with the “gang of 14″ to end the judicial filibuster spat last spring. Ironically, two of Mr. Bush’s most conservative nominees to the federal bench, Priscilla Owens and Janice Rogers Brown, would not have been confirmed without this agreement, and arguably Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito would have faced filibusters from Senate liberals opposed to their nominations. Nonetheless, his relationship with some conservatives has worsened.
Well of course it has.
First of all, almost from his first day in office, Mr. DeWine has never been acceptably right of center, and he’s gone steadily downhill from there.
The Gang of 14 “compromise” that is supposedly his saving grace will make it that much harder to enforce the perfectly constitutional up-or-down vote option when (not if) the Democrats betray their promise regarding what constitutes “extraordinary circumstances.” It also leaves an unacceptable number of appeals and other court nominations (17, I believe) in an unacceptable limbo.
But to pretend it’s all about the Gang of 14 is delusional. As Black Swamp Conservative said after Mr. DeWine’s Fulton County endorsement meeting humiliation Tuesday night: “I am proud of this committee for having had the clarity to understand that having “voted with the President 92% of the time” means that he voted with the Democrats on the most crucial 8%.” That means preserving the current tax structure (known to most as “making the tax cuts permanent”), drilling in ANWR, controlling spending, and getting a handle on immigration instead of say “ole” and letting anyone who can figure out how to sneak in have a clear path to citizenship instead of sending them back and insisting on upholding the legal process.
Mike DeWine is against all these, Mr. Kasich, and his relationship with almost all conservatives has worsened. The only question is whether it has worsened to the point where he can lose in the GOP primary.
