Your only REAL bet is God. Anybody else is just a gamble.
Posted on 12/26/2005 7:54:58 AM PST by Pontiac
State Auditor Betty D. Montgomery peddled a novel idea to The Dispatch editorial board the other day. She said that the next Ohio governor ought to govern. That means coming up with innovative ideas, proposing real solutions, making hard choices, and then having the heft to enact and enforce them.
"What you need is a backbone, a veto pen and some leadership - that's what representative democracy is all about," Montgomery said.
No profundity in that observation, but still she put her finger on a simple, emerging truth: Ohioans are craving a strong leader more than at any time in recent memory.
That much was obvious to colleague Mark Niquette and me after interviewing dozens of Ohio voters in October to gauge their concerns roughly a year out from the Nov. 7, 2006, election. Returning from the road, we debriefed and discovered that, as usual, the economy and jobs topped voters' priorities.
But there was something new that Mark and I heard from so many people that it was too powerful to ignore. It revolved around trust. A palpable angst permeated the would-be electorate. People, we learned, don't seem to trust anything anymore. And it's not just government, but also corporations, banks, the media, schools and even churches.
People don't trust that their jobs are secure, that their promised pensions will be there at retirement, that their investments are safe, that their children aren't being polluted by television or that they're being taught well in schools or that they won't be abused by wayward clergy.
Jaded by the false premise for invading Iraq, the pay-to-play perversion of politics and unrelenting government scandals, people repeatedly answered the same way when Niquette and I asked what they wanted most in their next governor:
"Somebody I can trust."
Voters are in no mood for tricks, gimmicks, or the tit-for-tat inanity that defines modern campaigns. They want authentic and serious candidates with the courage to govern.
Montgomery made her case by outlining a credible plan for performing a governor's most important duty: crafting a budget that gives Ohio taxpayers and businesses the most for the roughly $25 billion they turn over to the state every year.
The plan really is no plan at all, although to get attention Montgomery gave it a catchy name, "Prove It!" It calls for starting state agency budgets at zero and requires department heads to justify to the governor every dime they already spend and every dime more they want to spend.
Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? And if it's not working that way, it's high time to find a governor who can make it.
Montgomery's rivals for the 2006 Republican gubernatorial nomination also have budget plans with catchy names: Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell calls his TEL, the Tax Expenditure Limitation plan, and Attorney General Jim Petro's calls his CAP, Citizens' Amendment for Prosperity.
They involve Ohioans voting to embed complicated formulas in the state constitution to save the governor and legislators from themselves by capping how much the state can spend or tax.
Blackwell figures his plan, which already is qualified for the Nov. 7 ballot, will sound so good to voters that it will carry him into the governor's office. It would limit state and local governments' annual spending growth to 3.5 percent of the sum of the rate of inflation plus population growth.
Petro's plan - a transparent me-too political ploy - would limit the amount of general-fund revenues the state could collect to a fixed percentage (5.5 percent) of the total business and personal income earned in the state during a year as determined by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Whew!
Got these plans figured out? Better bone up; Blackwell and Petro want you to make them and their restrictions a permanent part of your 202-year-old state constitution.
"There is no silver bullet," Montgomery said. "The challenge of budgeting is to let representative democracy work, not to put in the constitution these oh-please-don't-make-me-govern gimmicks."
Whether she's the best candidate in the GOP field, Montgomery at least recognizes reality: Frustrated Ohioans want a govern-or.
Kinda like GW is doing with Iraq and the Al Queda threat in the US???
"coming up with innovative ideas, proposing real solutions"
Am I the only one who gets scared when government tries to do those things?
...What you need is a backbone...
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Good luck in finding a politician like this.
If there was a person like this wanting to become a politician, the msm and libs would run him out before they ever got elected.
Have to agree with you.
When I worked to get GWB elected I thought he was such a man.
And to date he has signed every pork laden spending package put in front of him.
Where are the rock ribbed Republicans?
Northern Ohio Ping
Your only REAL bet is God. Anybody else is just a gamble.
Where are the rock ribbed Republicans?
>>>>>>>
Apparently, they no longer exist.
You are of course correct.
But God isn’t running.
So we have to find someone less trustworthy but still electable.
We have 3 Republicans announced which is most trustworthy, which is most solidly conservative.
He has been part of the leadership.
But he has rocked the GOP world with his petition to repeal the sales tax increase and his Tax Expenditure Limitation plan.
I think Taft’s administration would like Blackwell to just go away.
I wonder if Blackwell wins the nomination, will the State Party show him much support?
So far here is Betty Montgomery's platform:
1. We need a Governor to govern.
2. To cut spending, we merely need a Governor with backbone and a veto pen.
Man, I'm overwhelmed by these breathtaking ideas! Nobody's ever come up with them before. Of course, this is the same Betty Montgomery who supported Issue 1, Bob Taft's boondoggle which included $500 million for his big-spending 3rd Frontier. So much for the backbone to cut spending.
As for Betty's conservative credentials - she's pro-abortion, anti-gun, and supported Bob Taft's tax hikes and big spending increases. She's even more liberal than most of the RINO's in this state.
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