[ back ]
Government no longer of people
(by Dave Lange - December 09, 2010)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Government no longer of people
It may be paradoxical or merely coincidental that, seven score and seven years ago, the words, "government of the people, by the people, for the people," were spoken so eloquently in the Gettysburg Address by the "Father of the Republican Party," President Abraham Lincoln.
The question today is whether the government of Ohio is of the people, by the people and for the people. It's an open-and-shut case.
After pledging during his recent campaign to lead an open government, Gov.-elect John Kasich quickly reverted to his Wall Street persona and tried to shut the door in the public's face. "I'm mystified at this," the modern-day Republican ineloquently told the Cleveland newspaper last week. "Frankly, I'm shocked. Maybe the people that demand all this openness ought to think about how they want their kids treated."
Meanwhile, Timothy Grendell, the Republican state senator from Chester, was going to quit that job just as soon as he got elected to the Ohio House of Representatives but now has decided not to take the new job after all, because he likes the old job in the Ohio Senate better. "Remember, I was elected to both seats -- same voters," he said in words that would make the Grand Old Party cringe.
For Mr. Kasich, case open. For Mr. Grendell, case closed. Either way, to hell with the notion of government of, by and for the people.
The governor-elect, conveniently forgetting that he and his political appointees soon will be employed by the government and paid by the people of Ohio, attempted to keep the selection process of filling jobs in his administration a secret. He was dumbfounded to learn that the resumes submitted by those seeking to work for the state government must be open to their would-be employers, who happen to be the people.
Ignorance of the Ohio Open Records Law being a sad reflection on Mr. Kasich's preparation for the highest office in the state and contempt for the people's right to know being a poor excuse, he rationalized, "When a person applies for another job, it doesn't make their current employer happy."
Working in the administration of the governor in one of the nation's largest states isn't just another job, and it's hard to imagine those applicants' bosses holding grudges against them. Furthermore, by what sense of fairness should employers be denied the right to know when their employees are looking elsewhere? And why should employers be surprised by people's desire for career advancement?
Mr. Grendell actually does know the difference between Ohio Senate and Ohio House districts, but there's no excuse for treating the people's right to democratically elect their representatives with such scorn.
The people of the 98th Ohio District, which makes up one-third of Mr. Grendell's 18th Ohio Senate District, had a right to know when they voted on Nov. 2 that he had no intention of honoring their decision. They could understand him abandoning his Senate seat because of the term limit that would force him out of that office in two years. But he took their trust and played it like a diabolical fiddle. He didn't steal the election. He stole the democratic process.
Sorry, Mr. Lincoln, but it's a government of the politicians, for the politicians and by the politicians.
[ back ]
