* Politico, a right-leaning news outlet, is reporting some news about Josh Mandel's interview on a Canton, Ohio, radio station.
Politico:
...MANDEL’S PRESS PROBLEM — It’s not unusual for
Republicans to be wary of the press, but Josh Mandel’s relationship with
Ohio media outlets is so bad that it’s marring his own comeback
narrative. Mandel tangled with a Canton, Ohio, radio show host Thursday,
refusing to answer questions about hiring campaign aides and political
confidants to staff the state Treasurer’s office. For most of the
combative 3-minute back and forth
Mandel chose to talk over queries about staffing decisions and
salaries, accusing the host of being a pawn of Democratic Sen. Sherrod
Brown’s campaign. “Just answer the question,” host Ron Ponder implores
before lecturing the candidate and cutting the line. “Don’t come on and
just use this radio program as a foil to get out your campaign material.
Hang up on this dude, man.” Mandel could have calmly defended the
salaries and work of his staffers, but the Marine instead went into
attack mode, which rarely comes off well on talk radio.
Josh Mandel will not answer your questions. How will he answer the moderator at the debate with Sen. Sherrod Brown?
Besides losing it with a radio host in Ohio, Josh Mandel has been noticed by others. Charles P. Pierce of Esquire weighs in on Republican Josh Mandel.
One of the little miracles of this election season is that
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, an unrepentant and unreconstructed liberal,
is on his way to winning re-election easily despite having had been
carpet-bombed by Karl Rove and the rest of the corporate flying monkeys.
This has a lot to do with Brown's natural abilities as a politician. It
also has a lot to do with the fact that his opponent, state treasurer
Josh Mandel, is about eight bulbs short of an intellectual chandelier.
If he's not instigating hooleys in elevators, he's astonishing newspaper editorial boards with the sheer magnitude of his obvious incompetence:
Josh
Mandel has become a Saturday Night Live skit. Asked whether he would
abandon statements deemed "pants on fire" by the respected Politifact
column of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Republican candidate for the
U.S. Senate has said he will not — without a trace of embarrassment,
even telling reporters at one point that it is their job to "do the
grunt work." Mandel trades in hyperbole, hurling such words as
"ridiculous," "outrageous," "radical," "over our dead bodies." During a
session with reporters and editors of the Columbus Dispatch last week,
the state treasurer (for all of 20 months) labeled his opponent
"un-American," and Sherrod Brown, the Democratic incumbent, was sitting
in the room. Will Ferrell would be hard pressed to play the part better.
The dismaying thing is, Mandel is serious.
Josh Mandel's campaign has been one in which he has--
a.) pushed away the middle class,
b.) supported Paul Ryan's voucher plan for Medicare for retired grandmas and grandpas,
c.) trampled on the rights of women in the doctor's office and the workplace,
d.) supported SB5 that took away the rights of teachers, fire fighters, police officers,
e.) and disrespected the hardworking men and women who've dedicated their working lives to putting together American cars.
Josh Mandel has embraced the far right policies and campaign contributions of FreedomWorks, Americans for (their own) Prosperity, Jim DeMint, Republican tea party groups, and others. They are his puppetmasters and they've paid for his support if he is elected to the Senate (heaven forbid!).