Ohio Republicans: Money Grows on Trees

I should have but I did not follow that special Congressional election in Ohio that carefully. But I did watch a couple of Ohio Republicans on the Wednesday edition of Hardball. One was Jean Schmidt who strikes me as a Karl Rove puppet only capable of repeating the talking points:

The people in Ohio are very smart. They understand the sacrifice that these men and women are making on our behalf. But they also want to talk about other issues, issues like taxes and tax reform, like a strong energy policy. They want to talk about national issues, including Iraq, but also border patrol and border security. And yesterday, as I stood outside the polls for 13 hours, I never heard people talking about the war. They talked about issues that were more important and more local to them … And if the Republican Party grasps that, then we will go about the business of reestablishing the line of distinction between Republicans and Democrats, particularly on fiscal matters, because the Democrats don’t represent change … They’re not saying they want to cut taxes and grow our economy and create jobs. They’re not saying they want a right-size government to make sure that we check runaway state government spending and put more emphasis on the private sector. So, they don’t represent any change but the change of being from the outside to the inside. And so, Republicans that are going to be successful next year are Republicans that show a real distinction between the status quo and getting our economy moving again by cutting taxes and right size in government.

Let’s repeat for the millionth time – Bush has shifted taxes not cut them. Of course, the GOP loves to talk about “right size in government”, which seems to mean increase spending so the kids have to pay more taxes down the line. Later, Chris Matthews allowed Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to babble without challenge:

Let me just say to you, Chris, that what I said was that Ronald Reagan and George Bush cut taxes and they started to restrain state government spending.

Does Blackwell even know the difference between the role of state governments and the Federal government? The best he could do is to say “started to restrain” as he then noted state spending not Federal spending precisely because his party does not reduce Federal spending to pay for these alleged tax cuts. Of course, GOP guests on Hardball know they can get away with this spin as the host is as clueless as they hope the voters are.