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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > September > 10
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Hobson on Defense Department decision regarding KC-X
Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, expressed some relief that the Defense Department abruptly decided Wednesday, Sept. 10, to push back the decision to reward a $40 billion contract for the next generation of aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force to the next presidential administration.
“All I want is the right decision,” he said. “I want to protect our industrial base.”
He said that were the Seattle-based Boeing not to get the contract, it would have a difficult time surviving as a wide-bodied aircraft manufacturer. Northrop Grumman is working with European Aeronautic Defense and Space.
The Air Force had originally given the contract to Northrop Grumman, but after the Government Accountability Office released a report heavily critical of the contract award, the Defense Department stepped in to oversee the contract award. Wednesday’s decision to wait, Hobson said, was the first time he’s seen the Defense Department take such action.
Hobson is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee’s Defense subcommittee.
“It’s probably better off to boot this to a totally new administration who can look at this fresh,” he said.
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Eye on Ohio: “Education” ad for McCain
The Ad: “Education,” 30-second TV commercial
Producer: McCain campaign
Where to see it: In key markets in Ohio and other crucial states
The Script:
Anchor: Education Week says Obama “hasn’t made a significant mark on education”. That he’s “elusive” on accountability.
A “staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly”.
Obama’s one accomplishment?
Legislation to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners.
Learning about sex before learning to read?
Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.
JOHN MCCAIN: I’m John McCain and I approved this message.
Video: As child-like music plays in the background, a series of unflattering photos of Barack Obama appear overtop black and white school scenes like lockers, a classroom of empty desks and school buses. When the announcer says “learning about sex before learning to read?,” young children sitting at an art table come into focus in the background.
Analysis: This is a misleading attempt to scare families away from Obama. Parts of it are flat out wrong. It claims that Obama’s one accomplishment for education is passing legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to Illinois kindergartners. The 14-page bill passed out of committee in 2003 but never became law. The bill indicated “age appropriate” sex education based on medically accurate information should be taught kindergarten through high school. The first page mandated that pupils whose parents objected not be required to take any sex ed and it required school districts to emphasize abstinence as an effective means of preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The bill did not hand down curriculum to school districts, mandating kindergartners learn about sex before learning to read. When Obama’s opponent tried to use this against him in his 2004 race Senate, Obama stressed that it was meant to protect young children from sexual predators by teaching them about good touch versus bad touch and give them basic information such as storks don’t bring babies. “There is no curriculum out there - from a comprehensive sex education standpoint or from an abstinence only point of view - that teaches kindergartners to have sex. It doesn’t exist,” said Earl Pike, director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, which advocates for comprehensive sex education programs. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, “It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls.”
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Pick your ticket: McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden
The general election campaign is off to a rousing, raucous start here in Ohio and across the country.
Republican John McCain and Sarah Palin, McCain’s vice presidential running mate, and Democrat Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate, already have been campaigning in Ohio and they’re expected to return often.
Here’s your chance to pick the ticket that you’d like to see lead the nation starting in 2009.
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Hillary Clinton to campaign in Ohio for Obama
She beat him in Ohio’s Democratic primary but now Sen. Hillary Clinton is coming back to the state to campaign for Barack Obama for president.
Clinton will campaign in the Lorain and Akron areas on Sunday, Sept. 14, Obama’s campaign announced today, Sept. 10.
Clinton will discuss the Obama-Biden plan to “strengthen Ohio’s economy” in contrast to the McCain-Palin “platform to offer four more years of the failed policies of the Bush administration,” the Obama campaign said in a press release.
Also, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, Obama’s vice presidential running mate, will be in Parma on Thursday. Sept. 11, to meet with firefighters and other first responders to thank them for their service on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Obama campaign announced.
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Brown, Voinovich honor Tubbs Jones
U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich Wednesday, Sept. 10, introduced a resolution honoring the life of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who died Aug. 20 after suffering from a brain aneurysm.
“Ohio has lost one of its favorite daughters and most tireless advocates,” said Brown, D-Ohio. “Stephanie was that rare person who filled whatever room she entered. She touched so many lives both in Ohio and Washington that it’s fitting we honor her today.”
“Stephanie was a conscientious public servant, full of life and enthusiastic about her work for the citizens of Ohio’s 11th district, including my family,” Voinovich, R-Ohio, said. “She will most certainly be missed by her constituents, Northeast Ohio and the state as a whole.”
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Congressional watchdog targets Turner
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Wednesday, Sept. 10, released its fourth annual report on members of Congress they consider the most corrupt - and they put U.S. Rep. Mike Turner on their “dishonorable mention” list.
The top 20 include U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., William Jefferson, D-La., Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Ak. Of the top 20, at least 12 are under investigation and one other, U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., is under a self-initiated House ethics committee investigation.
Turner wasn’t in the top 20. Instead, he made the “dishonorable mention” list because his wife’s marketing term received a no-bid contract by the Dayton Development Coalition in 2006 to develop and market an advertising campaign. The coalition lobbies the Miami Valley congressional delegation, including Turner, for federal funds. Lori Turner later withdrew from the campaign.
The CREW report urges the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether Lori Turner secured the contract because of her relationship with Turner.
UPDATE: Democrat Jane Mitakides, who is challenging Turner in November, has taken note of the report, and just sent out a release detailing it. The release solicits readers to “Help Jane End the Corruption in OH-3” by giving money to her campaign.
UPDATE 2:
Turner disputes several facts from the report.
He said all earmarks referred to in the report went to the community, not the coalition. He also said that the earmarks referred to in the report were actually requested by former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, not him.
Here’s his statement:
“It is unfortunate that my opponent and her supporters are attacking these community projects. Perhaps she should talk to the County Commissioners and the Mayor who requested the funds. They should step forward and defend their projects.
One grant went 100 percent to the City of Dayton for the CareSource building. The other funds were actually secured by then-Sen. Mike DeWine. Another grant went to the County for the Austin Road Interchange project. All of this is a matter of public record.”
UPDATE 3:
Here’s Mitakides’ statement on the report:
“I was shocked and disappointed by the revelations in this report. Ohio families are facing too many economic hardships already, they don’t deserve to foot the bill for the sweetheart deals of yet another corrupt Ohio Republican. Rep. Turner has some serious explaining to do to the voters of this district.”
And here’s Montgomery County Democratic Chairman Mark Owens said:
“This is only the tip of the iceberg. I join CREW in calling for a Congressional investigation into the extent of Turner’s corruption and the cost that will be shouldered by the taxpayers as a result of his corruption. Ohioans deserve accountability from their public officials.”
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Brown signs onto bill cracking down on credit card companies
Sen. Sherrod Brown and Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray say they want to see federal regulators crack down on abusive practices by credit card companies.
Brown, D-Ohio, is also signing onto a bill introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., that would increase transparency in the credit card industry by requiring better disclosure of contract terms. That bill is now in the Senate Banking Committee - a committee of which Brown is a member.
Brown said he’s received a number of complaints from Ohioans who saw their credit ratings drop when they didn’t pay off the entire balance or saw their interest rate increase precipitously because they were slow to pay unrelated bills.
“There’s little wonder people are angry,” he said. “They do their best to understand the terms - and it’s hard to do that even for people who are pretty savvy about financial matters.”
He said over the past year, the credit card delinquency rate reported by the Fed has gone from 3.85 percent to 5.47 percent - an increase of 42 percent.
Cordray, a fellow Democrat, meanwhile, said a comment drive urging regulators to implement tougher rules on credit card companies spurred comments from 5,373 Ohioans.
The Dodd bill would prevent a change of contract terms during the term of the card agreement; allow consumers to close their accounts and pay off debts under the terms then in effect; apply increased interest rates only to subsequent debt and apply payments to the highest cost balance first; prohibit interest charges on debt paid on time (double-cycle billing); require bills to be mailed 21 days ahead of the due date rather than 14; prohibit interest from being charged on card transaction fees; prohibit the charge of a fee to pay off debt; prevent issuers from charging multiple over-limit fees; and improve disclosure and notice provided to cardholders.
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Defense Department ends KC-X bidding process
The Department of Defense Wednesday, Sept. 10, abruptly ended the process of searching for a contractor for the KC-X tanker, saying instead it will wait to award that contractor until the next presidential administration begins.
In a statement, the Defense Department said they believed soliciting and awarding contracts for the new tanker could not be done by January.
It’s the latest chapter in a lengthy competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman. Earlier this year, the Air Force awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman, only to have the Government Accountability Office reveal troubles in that process. Ultimately, the Defense Department took over the process.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated, “Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional - in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense. It is my judgment that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment. The resulting “cooling off” period will allow the next Administration to review objectively the military requirements and craft a new acquisition strategy for the KC-X.”
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Ohioans named to “Palin Truth Squad”
Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign is tired of “liberal smears” against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s vice presidential running mate.
To counter the “smears,” the McCain campaign on Tuesday, Sept. 9, launched the “Palin Truth Squad”, which includes national members and members from each state.
Former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, now Republican National Committee co-chairwoman, is a national member. State members from Ohio include: Auditor Mary Taylor, Betty Montgomery, the former auditor and former attorney general and Kay Ayres, Ohio Republican Party vice chairwoman.
“We will not allow those on the left and in the media to smear a woman who has always served her constituents with honor,” Jane Swift, former Massachusetts governor and squad member, said in a press release.
The squad will issue alerts and statements to voters and the media in the event of “false attacks,” the release said.
