100 People Who Are REALLY Screwing Up America -- #11 Bob Taft

[Chichiri]

Bob Taft, the Republican governor of Ohio, is the son of a former Republican Senator, the grandson of another Republican Senator, the great-grandson of a Republican President, and the great-great-grandson of a Republican Attorney General and Secretary of War. So one may accurately say that Taft comes from a long line of America-screwers.

Governor since 1999, Taft presided over the debacle that was the 2004 Presidential Elections in Ohio. He appears to be completely apathetic, at best, to the voting rights of the average citizen. Demopedia at DU has a good-sized list of election fraud incidents in Ohio in 2004 -- I hesitate to call it comprenhensive, because I don't think we'll ever be able to fully tally the crimes of the election thieves.

But when it comes to what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms, Taft is all over that -- he signed a gay marriage ban into law earlier this year. He's also a big fan of the gun lobby. The list of his America- and Ohio-screwing achievements is too long to get into substantially; suffice it to say that, as of this writing, his approval rating is below 20% -- the lowest of all 50 governors. Even the chairpersons of most county Republican Parties in Ohio want him to resign.

Two things deserve special mention, however. First, Taft is a convicted criminal. Earlier this month, he was charged with four criminal misdemeanors, for failing to disclose golf outings paid for by lobbyists -- a total value of $5,800. Taft pleaded no contest to the charges, and was fined $4,000 plus court costs. Despite his criminal record, Taft has annouced that he has no intention of resigning from office, and if impeachment ever threatens -- which it could, as Taft's conviction is grounds for such -- he has the option to fully and unconditionally pardon himself from such a conviction. (If you think he wouldn't, say so -- I want to see if you can do it with a straight face.)

The other item is that Taft may have a role in "Coingate" -- this refers to a scandal involving a covert funding channel used by the Taft administration, among other organizations (for instance, both Bush*-Cheney campaigns), to illegally move money from overseas and, shall we say, questionable places, into Republican bank accounts. The investigation into this scandal has resulted in the "suicide" of at least one investigator, among other things.

But of course, Taft would never be involved with such a thing, would he? After all, he has a spotless record . . .