A special Valentine today, to a special man.

[Berry Cool]

...No, not him. (Although I did dream about him last night, which I don't usually do. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't THAT exciting.)

I have another man in mind today.

As you all know, we in Ohio have more than our share of embarrassing political gasbag idiots. We have Ken Blackwell, who rigged our elections for years and is still trying to create trouble. We have Mean Jean Schmidt, who wears ugly dresses not seen since the Bicentennial to slime Dems and imply that they're "cowards" and troop-haters for wanting to leave Iraq. We have Rod Parsley, who wants to "reclaim Ohio for God" and turn us into a theocratic state. We have Steve Austria, who badly needs a new history book because he thinks FDR caused the Great Depression. We have George Voinovich, who doesn't know there's no crying in the Senate and can be counted on to reliably vote for anything Democrats are against and against anything they are for. We have John Boehner, the Boner who makes all Ohio embarrassed every time he pops up, dewy with drops of moisture, at some inopportune moment, and stands in the way of what we're trying to accomplish (Botany, was that you who came up with the essay on him yesterday for Steph?). And we have Bill Cunningham, that loser radio blatherer in Cincinnati who says more stupid things in one night than most people do in a lifetime.

But we also have another man...one of whom we can be proud.

On the second day of the month, this man's mother died. He must surely still be in the depth of grief now. Yet he flew back to Washington from her wake last night on a White House-provided plane, because he knew his vote was needed as the last one in order to pass the badly needed stimulus bill in the Senate.

Without him as Vote #60, it would fail. And after all the hard work and effort to even get three Republicans to sign on, he wasn't going to be the reason why it failed, and why the efforts to pass a bill dragged on for even longer.

I don't know whether, at any point, his mind turned to the commuter plane crash near Buffalo, and that horrible reminder of how thin a line there is between being one of the grieving and becoming one of those grieved for. Maybe it never did. Maybe all he thought about last night was his loss and his mission. But if the thought of that sad event crossed his mind, I couldn't blame him.

At any rate, he showed up. He voted. He was Vote #60, and the stimulus bill passed.

This morning, he's back in Ohio for his mother's funeral.

Thank you, Sherrod Brown...for being an Ohio politician of whom we can be proud.



Please join me in my sincere Valentine's Day wishes to a special man; his wonderful wife, the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Connie Schultz; and everyone they love. It won't be a happy day for them, but may they know the love that others feel for them today.

[SharonRB]

1. Well put, Berry

He's a true patriot.

And if Al Franken had been seated, he wouldn't have had to make the trip at all.

[Berry Cool]

2. And if George Voinovich had had half a heart, and voted for the bill instead of against,

he also wouldn't have had to make the trip.

It would've been no skin off his nose. He's not running again so there'd be no political price to pay with his constituents. He could have just done it out of kindness and respect. But noooooo. Not in this brave new world in which any Republican who votes with Democrats on anything is targeted as eeeevul. We're lucky we got the votes from them we did. The jerks in the House should be ashamed of themselves. Luckily, we still don't need no steenking Republicans there.

I wish the whole Minnesota flap would be over and Franken would be seated. The sooner it happens, the sooner this Senate nonsense will be done.

[Botany]

3. I wished I had known earlier that his Mom's service was in Mansfield, OH

this AM. I would have stood outside the Church to pay my respects to
the Senator, his late mother, and family.

And yes that was me on Steph listing Ohio's "contributions" to America

BTW you forgot Rep. Bob "HAVA" Ney
Tom Noe and wife of coingate, election rigging, and kickback fame
Ex. Gov. Bob "Convicted" Taft
Matt Damnschroder who shorted machines in 2004 in Franklin County
Bob "Rig Cuyahoga County so blacks don't vote" Bennett
The Columbus Dispatch

*******************
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8196795&mesg_id=8196863

[Berry Cool]

5. You know, there are so many political crooks in Ohio, it's hard to list them all

Yep, still got the Help Rig America's Votes bunch, the coin dealers (and we don't mean Obama commemorative coins), and all the Tafts who ever lived...the list goes on.

Oh, and there are some people who hate the Plain Dealer as much as the Columbus Dispatch, but they do employ Connie Schultz so they get a pass from me on that count.

[Botany]

4. The Boner

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x271755

[Berry Cool]

6. What can I say except, once again...What a Boner!!!!

You know, I'd like to take his TOUPEE and throw it on the House floor.

"Has anyone taken the time to see what's INSIDE this rat's nest? I don't think so..."

*THUNK*