From the Department of Colossally Stupid Ideas comes the Tea Party's quest to repeal the 17th Amendment, which provides for direct popular election of U.S. senators. And it has support from Republican candidate for the Ohio's 15th Congressional District, Steve Stivers.
Stivers said in a 9-12 Project questionnaire last year that he supported repealing the 17th Amendment. He reasserted that same position in a January 2010 interview with The Hill. And in a January news story, Stivers was receptive to the idea of repealing the amendment, calling it a states' rights issue....
What other extreme ideas does Steve Stivers have?*** The Ohio Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from Republican fundraiser, Tom Noe. Once the darling of the Ohio Republican Party, Tom Noe was even a major fundraiser for the campaign of George W. Bush.
Toledo Blade:
...Noe is serving his second year of an 18-year sentence for his 2006 jury conviction on 29 charges of corruption, theft, money laundering, and tampering with records. The Toledo-based 6th District Court of Appeals upheld his convictions on Dec. 31, and Wednesday's high-court ruling leaves that decision intact....
...The Blade first reported in April, 2005 on Noe's $50 million state rare-coin investment deal, triggering a multiyear state probe that uncovered massive corruption in the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation and led to charges against more than 20 public officials and money managers....
...Noe is incarcerated at Hocking Correctional Facility in southern Ohio. He had previously completed a federal sentence in his conviction of using others to launder illegal campaign contributions to the 2004 re-election campaign of President George W. Bush.
The Dispatch article had this about Noe:
...The man convicted of stealing millions from a state fund he had invested in gold coins, Beanie Babies and memorabilia says he will take his case to a federal court....
....After Noe's initial appeal was denied by the 6th District Court of Appeals in Toledo, he asked the Ohio Supreme Court to hear his case based on 11 legal arguments, including that he couldn't get a fair trial in Toledo because of the intense media coverage of his case there.
Justices Maureen O'Connor and Judith Ann Lanzinger, who had taken campaign contributions from Noe in the past, removed themselves from the case. The remaining justices voted 5-0 not to hear the appeal on nine of the 11 issues....
Noe just keeps reminding people of the corrupt Ohio GOP. Thank you.