News Summary

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton's district is in northern Ohio, far away from Wilmington and its grim economic outlook, but you wouldn't have known it earlier this month when Sutton, a Copley Twp. Democrat and member of the House Judiciary Committee, faced DHL chief executive officer John Mullen and grilled him about why DHL was planning to strike a deal with United Parcel Service that could cost 8,000 Ohioans their jobs.

She asked Mullen why DHL didn't try to talk to Ohio leaders about what could be done to preserve jobs and help the company before it decided to hire UPS to carry its air cargo.

She asked why both companies had struck a confidentiality agreement that barred them from speaking about the agreement to Ohio state officials who were both surprised and dumbfounded by the proposal.

And she asked Mullen whether the company would submit to a voluntary investigation with the Department of Justice to review whether the deal violated antitrust laws.

She wasn't mean, and she took no obvious glee from asking Mullen tough questions.

But she asked them with a certitude reflecting her prior career as an attorney, and maybe that's why, at a press conference one week later, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, a Centerville Republican who has rallied the Ohio delegation to fight the deal and who represents the bulk of the jobs that would be lost, called Sutton his hero in front of news cameras.

On most political matters, Sutton's votes and positions differ wildly from Turner's – they're of two different parties and two different ideologies.

But on this one, they – and the rest of the Ohio delegation – are lock-step.

At this point, it's hard to fathom that the immovable train which is the DHL-UPS proposal can be stopped, but the Ohio delegation has done its best to step in front of that train, with such a show of unity that it's a little stunning.

Turner and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, both testified last week before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

One week earlier, they were joined by Sutton, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo and Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.

Elsewhere, Reps. Zack Space, D-Dover, Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland, Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland and Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, showed up at a press conference to show solidarity.

They are all very careful to praise each other and thank one another at these things, and that's admirable, but even more admirable has been the way they've come out in force.

This issue — because of its high cost to a swing state — is a political football in the presidential race, where both Barack Obama and John McCain have sparred over who's a better advocate for the endangered workers.

If it's a football game, the Ohio delegation, right now, is all on the same team.