Posted on 01/08/2017 6:55:19 AM PST by TigerClaws
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Donald Trump finally exacted revenge.
On Friday, the president-elect settled scores with John Kasich and the Ohio governor's Republican machine. The first political casualty: Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges.
Borges, a key Kasich ally, lost the top job after a series of dramatically deadlocked votes by the state party's Central Committee. Taking his place is Jane Timken, a prominent Stark County activist and donor. Most importantly, she's the person Trump wanted at the helm.
Timken initially edged Borges by a single vote but couldn't reach the required majority in the first two rounds of secret balloting. That prompted closed-door negotiations intended to help Kasich save a little face and keep Borges from walking away completely empty-handed.
Kasich loyalists will argue that the governor's team took Trump's to overtime -- that Timken, even after the personal calls Trump made to committee members on her behalf, was unable to clinch without some last-minute horse trading. But there are no moral victories here.
This was a race that, on paper, Borges and Kasich should have nailed. Instead, Trump is the clear winner in a battle of who has the most clout over Republicans in the Buckeye State.
A few more thoughts on the Ohio GOP's realignment:
Kasich lost home-field advantage. This Central Committee is stacked with Republicans the governor has long counted as allies. Many are activists he recruited years ago in an attempt to unseat Kevin DeWine, a past Ohio GOP chief who was deemed unfriendly to Team Kasich's political interests.
Borges needed support from 34 of 66 members to remain chairman. Kasich's operatives were closely counting votes before Friday's meeting. At times they seemed confident they had a comfortable cushion with as many as a dozen votes to spare.
They were wrong.
It's tempting to see this as a referendum on Kasich. But many on the Central Committee still admire him. This is more of a referendum on how Kasich behaved last year after ending his presidential campaign. He was publicly critical of Trump and refused to vote for him.
Kasich put Borges in a bind. He owed a lot to Kasich. A Trump loss could have boosted Kasich's 2020 White House prospects and made Borges an attractive candidate for Republican National Committee chairman. Borges was lukewarm toward Trump. And Trump allies -- including the newly powerful Bob Paduchik, who will have a top role at the RNC -- made it loud and clear that they didn't trust him and preferred not to deal with him in the future.
It's uncertain where Borges goes from here. On the surface, the terms of his surrender underscore his defeat because they suggest he extracted very little in exchange.
Several GOP sources believe Borges attempted to negotiate job security for his staff, but it's not clear how much longer they will be welcome at party headquarters. He also emerged from the closed-door meetings with a title of "chairman emeritus." That can mean a lot of things, but often it means little more than honorary status. Will Borges retain any role in party strategy?
The pressure is now on Timken. GOP insiders -- even those partial to Borges -- like her because she can raise big money. But one of Timken's first orders of business will be political, not financial. She has a brutally competitive primary for governor on the horizon in 2018. Attorney General Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Jon Husted, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor all are interested in running. The resulting battle lines could be intriguing.
DeWine and Taylor were listed among those backing Borges before Friday's vote. Husted is close with political operatives who in the past have feuded with Team Kasich. Renacci's district includes the Canton headquarters of the manufacturing company run by Timken's husband.
As party chair, Timken will have many egos to massage -- and some finesse might be needed to talk two or more of these prospects into down-ballot races or other consolation prizes.
There is a heavy dose of irony with Friday's vote. Say what you want about how Kasich and Borges handled the rise of Trump. Borges was a successful chairman.
Cleveland hosted the first GOP presidential debate and last summer's Republican National Convention. Ohio Republicans went undefeated in statewide races (including Trump's) in 2014 and 2016 and added to their already commanding majorities in the General Assembly.
Kevin DeWine and his allies made a similar argument five years ago. They had a dominant record, but that didn't stop Kasich from pushing them out in favor of his own people.
And that is precisely what Trump did Friday.
It is people like Kasich that ENABLED the Hillary to come as close as she did to winning, and now have indirectly ENABLED the Democrats to continue this policy of discrediting the Trump victory.
Kasich and people like him that REFUSED to support Trump once he had the nomination locked up must NEVER BE FORGIVEN for what they’ve done. They need to be ‘cleansed’ out of the Republican Party, PERMANENTLY.
"Right to Work" legislation should be at the top of the list! KaSICK's goons made a half-assed try and failed and never went back to finish the job.
The same here. From neutral to weasel in a short time span. The onion begin to peel and with each layer cast aside, the remains make one cry.
Cruz is on the mend...he still bears watching but seems much improved since Trump's election.
Yeah, with only an Ohio State U. political science degree and no private sector work experience (save for drug-dealing in the Nixon Administration as a young aide right out of college), he was made managing director at Lehman after 18 years in Congress. He made millions before Lehman filed for bankruptcy. At which point he returned to Fox News and politics. He's not even qualified to deliver Trump's mail. Maybe his father is, but not John.
The corruption in our government is NOT confined to just the Demonrat Party. As Trump drains the SWAMPS, expect Demonrats AND Repubs to start their fight against going to prison.
Is Kasich compromised/corrupt? We'll probably find out as we get a real Dept Of Justice that actually prosecutes crimes.
Start planning on a strategy to knock out Sherrod Brown and Marcy Kaptur! That should be the First priority of the Ohio GOP.
The republicans of Kasich’s time in Congress, the 1990s, balanced a budget based on sham and tricks.
Clinton (BJ) had recklessly refi’d 30-year treasury debt for lower interest 5-year debt creating a short-term windfall to the Treasury. The newly freed up revenue from debt servicing was used to ‘balance’ the federal budget in conjunction with taking social security liabilities off the books.
Sham schemes and accounting gimmicks are not what any sincere accountant would call ‘balancing’ an out of control federal government.
But Congress and Clinton hoisted this sham up to take credit for it while the press blasted the public with the false meme of a historic balance budgeting act by Clinton and Congress.
To this day they still proclaim it as an achievement.
Here’s an apt analogy:
“Bill is driving a van on the highway and wants to get to Peoria by noon. It is presently 11:00 am and Peoria is 120 miles away. The speed limit is 60 mph.”
“Bill and his passengers decide to hypnotize themselves that the speed limit is 120 mph. Bill accelerates the van to 120 mph without regard to other drivers on the highway or to the engine steaming under the hood. To calm some of this elderly passengers, Bill gives them sleeping pills, pillows, and blankets.”
“Bill arrives in Peoria at noon and the passengers that are awake but under hypnosis all laud each other that they have made possible the impossible. The van is steaming and nearly wrecked. Some of the elderly passengers are still asleep in the van.”
Meanwhile, the national debt was increased to account for the future social security liability.
Kasich as a member of Congress walked proudly, boisterously in front of the press with nonstop repetition of the feat of ‘balancing the budget’.
As for Kasich as governor, his state received a wave of revenues from fracking expansion, a wave that has since died down. It wasn’t Kasich that created those revenues. He was head of his state government that was the beneficiary of wildcat drillers who took a chance. The wildcatters are the real heros in the story, not Kasich.
Had there been no fracking boom, Kasich would have had to spend his state into a deeper deficit.
“...the left in this country still think Trump is a buffoon and unqualified...”
It’s been said elsewhere, but I’ll say it again; I don’t think anyone here would deny that Trump tends to be a bit - how shall we say - “hyberbolic” in his speech.
The problem with Trump’s detractors is that they take him LITERALLY - but not seriously. His supporters have learned to take him seriously - but not literally.
Kasich is the Joe Biden of the Republican Party.
Only without the brains and charisma lol.
Wasn’t his dad a mailman or something ? /S
I heard that somewhere too, but wouldn’t believe it unless I heard it from Kasich himself.
While we’re on the subject of Ohio, wondering if Ohio has caught the Pike County mass murderers yet...?
Payback is a bitch—and is a cruel mistress.
And Graham? Corker (TN)? RINOS. Corker wants the Governorship, we don’t want him, but he has the bucks, crooked as a rattler sidewinder.
Marcy Kaptur!
Didn’t she have a daughter who was in a TV series ?
Just jogging the ol’ memory thigamajig...
Thanks for the explanation, Hostage. I was a relative novice in things political in that time frame. It wasn’t until I went back to school and experienced the indoctrination that they now call education that I started paying more attention. That was around 1995. I also read “Atlas Shrugged” around that time frame, and could see the parallels to our wretched government of the time.
Kasich and team acted like (Dems) asses
“Jane is a loyal Trump supporter & star” - Donald J. Trump
Wonderful post to help explain things to the rest of us. You should have your own newspaper column (if you don’t already).
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