Schmidt managed to make a mess by attempting to apologize for telling the truth. The line "Cowards Cut and Run, Marines Never Do" is one for the history books and she should have leaned into the fire and challenged anyone to find the the lie or the slander in that simple statement of fact. Despite, the immediate retreat, the sting of those words made it impossible for all but the most rabid of the Democrats to vote for the resolution.
This is what it truly means when they talk about speaking truth to power. It isn't easy, and often you get beat down for having the courage to do this.
Brinkman is toast in this district if he wastes our money contesting this next primary. I have always liked him, but the matter is settled. He needs to take the good will he has and use it to score another victory for our team, not create a fight that we cannot help but lose no matter what the outcome. Bob McEwen has a significant following in Brown County, but ultimately he just doesn't represent the district anymore, just a Washington based opportunist to us...
You need to choose whether you would rather defeat Schmidt or work to defeat Hackett (and clones) this next cycle, you won't be able to do both. And worse, wasting money and workers in a safe district takes it away from the real fight. Are you going to take resources away from supporting Blackwell by burning them in the 2nd fighting conservative against conservative.. its lame.. Its more important to challenge the Dems in seats like Strickland's. Its important to work out the DeWine question and move past the woes of the Taft administration.
Actually I'd like to see all of that happen - Ken Blackwell for Governor, Paul Hackett defeated no matter what he runs for, and for a conservative to defeat tax-hiker Jean Schmidt in the 2nd CD.
Brinkman and McEwen won't square off against each other again. One will run, one won't, and it looks like it'll be McEwen. I'm not a big McEwen fan, but I'd rather we nominate a conservative who can hold the seat over a tax-hiking RINO who could easily lose it and nearly did the last time around.