* Just when you thought Ohio Republicans couldn't move backward any further, a news article from the Washington Examiner might help change your mind:
Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has a small lead in a new survey of potential Republican primary candidates seeking the nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown....
"Ohio Republicans prefer their former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to take on Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown for Senate next year," PPP said in a release.
"Blackwell is the favorite of 17% of Ohio’s usual Republican primary voters, ahead of Jon Husted’s 14%, unlikely candidate Drew Carey’s 12%, Mary Taylor’s 9%, Jim Jordan’s and Steve LaTourette’s 8%, Josh Mandel’s 6%, and state senator Shannon Jones’ 1%. A full quarter, far more than support any of the candidates, are undecided or prefer someone unnamed."
Blackwell, who has an agenda to the right of Attila the Hun, did not do very well in his last adventure into Ohio politics when he lost to Gov. Ted Strickland.
* There was a story that Republicans were calling people to testify in committee hearings who were contributors to their campaigns. The Dispatch revealed that witnesses called to a transportation hearing in Columbus had been contributors to the campaign of Republican Rep. Steve Stivers and other Ohio Republicans.
A hearing chaired by Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL), called a witness named Franklin Nutter, who is the President of the Reinsurance Association of America, a lobbying association. Reinsurance Association of America contributed (in 2008 + 2010) to the Biggert's campaign, according to OpenSecrets. Americablog revealed that Rep. Issa also had failed to note that his expert witness in his committee, Tom Nassif of Western Growers Assoc., was a big donor.
Are the Republicans determining which people to call for hearings in front of committees by whether or not they contributed to their campaigns? Are Republicans calling only lobbyists to testify in their hearings?