Posted on 03/08/2006 8:01:25 PM PST by conservative_2001
As a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1984, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) expressed her contempt for a future colleague and allegedly likened young Republican activists to Hitler, according to an interview published by the local paper at the time.
While shadowing Schmidt at the convention, The Cincinnati Enquirer reporter initially described Schmidt as a “woman who will speak her mind whenever she pleases.”
Schmidt, who was 32 at the time, provided evidence for this assessment during her time with the reporter, who quoted her taking issue with future Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), who was then President Reagan’s transportation secretary. During her tenure at Transportation, Dole wanted to impose a nationwide drinking age of 21.
“I hate that woman,” she told the reporter. “I just can’t stand her. Anyone who wants to force an increase in the drinking age to 21. … She can send our boys off to fight wars when they’re 17 and 18 but won’t let them drink till they’re 21.”
She added, “That stinks.”
The article also details her “booing” during a Dole appearance at the convention.
A spokeswoman for Dole, chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, declined to comment for this report.
Barry Bennett, Schmidt’s chief of staff, said, “The conservatives and the moderates didn’t get along very well in the 1980s. You can’t take a remark in the heat of a campaign out of context. That’s not fair.”
Bennett added that Schmidt was a Reagan supporter when the article was written.
Later in the article, while expressing her opinions about young Republican activists, she said, “They look like young Hitlers to me. … They’re so grim and deadly serious about the cause.”
“How are we going to attract mainstream kids to our party, kids who like to have fun and don’t take themselves so seriously?” she asked.
Bennett disputed that Schmidt made the comment, explaining that her twin sister, Jennifer Black, who was also mentioned in the paragraph, made the remark.
When asked to comment about her sister’s supposed remark, Bennett replied, “I don’t work for her sister.”
Michael Harlow, a spokesman for former Rep. Bob McEwen (R-Ohio), who is challenging Schmidt in the May primary, said, “It is disappointing to hear the contempt Mrs. Schmidt holds for Senator Dole, a woman who Bob McEwen and most Americans hold in very high esteem.”
He added: “Also, the hardworking activists she called ‘Hitlers’ were instrumental in our successful efforts to gain the majority for just the second time in 70 years.”
Schmidt defeated McEwen in an 11-candidate primary in July in a special election to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who became the U.S. trade representative.
James P. Urling, chairman of the Cincinnati-based Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), a group founded by another former Schmidt opponent, Tom Brinkman, said, “Jean Schmidt has a history of nasty barbs aimed at values we all hold dear.”
Schmidt faces a primary in May against McEwen as well as a general election in November. Brinkman has since dubbed Schmidt “Mean Jean” and has called her a “pathological liar.”
Bennett responded by calling Brinkman “the king of outrageous comments” and "a fringe player in politics in Cincinnati."
Schmidt’s unabashed candor became national news and the butt of a joke on "Saturday Night Live" in November. She had made negative remarks about 17th-term Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) after he called for Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq. Schmidt later withdrew her words.
On Tuesday, Schmidt removed a claim on her website that Reps. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) had endorsed her in the Republican primary this year after Tancredo and Chabot’s office said it was not true.
A federal legislator is out of the loop on Ohio taxes. The suggestion that Schmidt on balance is a closet liberal, is well odd. Focusing on one thing, can get to be a fixation, and cause one to lose perspective.
The district McEwen lost in 1992 was one of the most swing Congressional seats in the entire country. Strickland won by 2% in 1992, lost by 2% in 1994, and won by 2% in 1996. By comparison, Ohio-2 gave John Kerry only 33% of the vote, yet Schmidt nearly lost it to a political neophyte who is as nearly mentally unstable as she is. If it was merely a solid Republican district instead of a very solid one, Schmidt would have lost it.
And if you want to talk about ethics, even there McEwen has it all over Schmidt.
http://www.dispatch.com/topstory.php?story=dispatch/2005/07/08/20050708-B1-00.html
With a global biotech company picking up the tab, five state lawmakers and their guests dined at an Italian restaurant and got luxury box seats to the Cincinnati Bengals’ first Monday night football game in 15 years.
The tickets to the Oct. 25 game cost $300 apiece, and the total tab for the evening topped $5,000.
Now, four of those lawmakers — three current Republican House members from the Cincinnati area and a former GOP state representative running for Congress in southwestern Ohio — are facing a state investigation into why they didn’t properly report the entertainment as a gift, as required by Ohio law.
"I have a hard time thinking I wouldn’t remember someone taking me out for a night like that," said Tony W. Bledsoe, the legislative inspector general, who ensures lawmakers and lobbyists follow the laws designed to minimize ethical conflicts.
"Apparently it was a very nice Monday night out in Cincinnati."
Because of a lobbyist’s involvement, the event falls under the state law that forbids lawmakers from accepting gifts from lobbyists valued at more than $75, Bledsoe said.
Reps. Jim Raussen, of Springdale; Diana M. Fessler, of New Carlisle; and Michelle G. Schneider, of Cincinnati, along with former representative Jean Schmidt, a Republican from Loveland who is the heavy favorite to win a seat in Congress from Ohio’s 2 nd District, each should have reported the evening as a gift on their April disclosure forms, Bledsoe said.
The only one to disclose the event was Sen. Jay Hottinger, a Newark Republican who reported that he received Bengals tickets and an autographed football from former quarterback Boomer Esiason.
Torie, Jean Schmidt was a State Representative from 2001-2005.
During that time, Schmidt voted for Bob Taft's 20% Sales Tax increase. She voted for Bob Taft's 6 cents/gallon Gas Tax increase. She also sponsored legislation causing massive hotel tax increases in Hamilton County.
It wasn't just a matter of expressing support for Bob Taft or his specific policies. She's one of the RINO's in the State House who actually voted for Bob Taft's failed agenda. Some people have a problem with me using Jean Schmidt's own record against her, but I call it being informed.
Hey, I don't mind good-natured boosterism for some quixotic candidates, I do it myself, it's just that sometimes it simply crosses the line. In the case of McEwen, he destroyed himself with his own actions in Congress after 18 years in public service. He put himself above party when the seat he formerly occupied could've remained in GOP hands with a senior non-damaged and unblemished Republican whose district had been merged with his, and that led to Ted Strickland. His attempts now to reclaim the office (his 4th try shopping around 3 districts) in a dozen years is sad and pathetic, as are his attempts to destroy Ms. Schmidt at all costs.
I believe it's his daughter.
Mean Jean's remark reflects badly on her, but it was over 20 years ago. If she were being challenged by a better opponent, I could be persuaded to support him or her. But, for all her shortcomings, she's preferable to Bob McEwen.
However, I prefer Mean Jean's careless lips to Bob McEwen's district-shopping and bouncing checks.
"Mean Jean?"
I can smell your vendetta from here.
We've been over this ad infinitum, and all you respond with are personal attacks. You continue to ignore the then-26-year OTHER incumbent Clarence Miller, who would've easily held that seat until a younger Republican could succeed him (and at 89, Miller is still around today).
You want Schmidt defeated, we understand. But come back when you have a serious Conservative candidate minus the ethical baggage, not a self-defeating loser desperate to reclaim office by any means.
None so far. Schmidt wasn't supporting any liberal items in her first 1-2 years in the State House either. But by year 3, she shifted noticably to the left.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Schmidt's already proven she can't be trusted to remain a conservative. She'll turn into another DeWine if we give her the chance.
But you aren't using Schmidt's record against her, you're using smears from 198-frickin'-4. If you'd stick to the issues, you'd get a little respect.
The Justice Department investigated each of the House Members' accounts. Along with Jack Kemp and Dick Cheney, Bob McEwen received a Letter of Exoneration from any wrongdoing. In their cases, they actually made the deposits to their accounts, but they weren't recorded until often weeks later. The House Bank, run by Democrats, was still recording transactions by hand, and weren't recording deposits with any regularity.
McEwen wasn't my first choice either. But compared to Jean Schmidt, he comes out smelling like roses, whether it's their long-term voting record or ethics.
It's not the fighting for fringe candidates that gets me (although some Republicans would rather vote for the publicity-seeker you don't know rather than the winner who annoyed you once) it's the bridge-burning after the primary is over.
Schmidt the liberal wolf sartorially masked in mean Jean conservative fashions. Her red dress is a dead giveaway (that is the subliminal cue to her inner Marxist inclinations). OK. Whatever.
I constantly mention Schmidt's voting record. As for the date, Bob McEwen had a vote from 1982 used against him last year. McEwen's detractors here often reference events from the 1980's.
And you know what, all of the above is fair. When you run for public office, anything you've done in your public life is fair game.
We're going back to some rumors from 22 years ago? Give me a break.
Since McEwen was bounced out of Congress, he has done some lobbying work for Focus on the Family. During the 2005 special election, James Dobson endorsed him over Jean Schmidt. McEwen thinks Evangelicals owe him a cushy job in Congress.
I am not sure what the smoking gun is here. Schmidt was opposed to the raising of the drinking age? How horribe. Help me with some of this, please.
Not in the article on this thread.
As for the date, Bob McEwen had a vote from 1982 used against him last year.
Not in the article on this thread.
McEwen's detractors here often reference events from the 1980's.
Not in the article on this thread.
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