Tuesday, August 09, 2011

The only "whackadoodle" in the room



Governor Kasich:

As a lifelong Ohio resident, I am disgusted and furious over your referral to residents of California as "whackadoodles." I may disagree with your politics, but you represent the state of Ohio and its residents nonetheless. Your "whackadoodle" reference, which I heard on Fox News and also saw on YouTube in a talk you gave at the Columbus Athletic Club, is inaccurate and juvenile. You disgraced your office, yourself and your constituents.

At the very least, an apology is in order. Until then, the only whackadoodle in the room, Governor, is you.

Sent to Governor Kasich on August 9, 2011

* * *

36 comments:

Bill said...

With all due respect to the Governer, he does have it wrong. California is not filled with whackadoodles, it is filled with whackjobs. Present company excluded.

Sean Craven said...

Hey, I'm perfectly willing to accept his snap judgment of me if he'll accept my snap judgment of him. Fair is fair, I always say.

Tony Rugare said...

Takes one to know one! Don't know what a whackadoodle is , but I do know that Kasich is a whack. He does one hell of a lousy job representing Ohio.

Norm said...

Eh, I don't care. But he should hear what we say about Ohio!

Jim said...

Just another ALEC member. What a dip.

Anonymous said...

Erin-I am now more than willing to reverse my "douche" assessment of this empty suit. He's definilespentetely more 'enema' material. But at least he's consistent with his VERRRRY chic choice of hair stylist...I hear Melvin of Poland is tough to get in to see this time of year...
Mike R
ps-"OKaTB"-have you been following the articles in 'The Nation' re ALEC? Highly recommended...

WV: 'lespente'...los pesos were le spente on le tequila...

Anonymous said...

'definilespentetly'? Huh?
definitely...I think...see what happens when you don't trust your first instinct on phrasing? And make sure you're in the 'wv' field before you type in the 'wv'?

Erin O'Brien said...

I realize there are bigger political fish to fry, but this infuriated me beyond belief.

Really? My governor is going to act like a name-calling high-schooler? Are you SERIOUS? I'd call it unprofessional, but that seems entirely too mild.

To attribute an entire state's unemployment woes to "whackadoodles" is beyond the pale. I will update if I ever hear back from his office.

Anonymous said...

Erin-I appreciate the link, and I recommend, as I mentioned previously, e-mailing these dirtbags at every opportunity. You have to be creative to be sure one of their minions actually reads it, but some of the responses can be hilarious...Mike R

Anonymous said...

BTW...the above recommendation cuts both ways...ego, stupidity, self-absorbtion and dishonesty keep drunkenly stumbling across the aisle...Mike R

Jon Moore said...

I trust dear Erin that the less than honorable Harry Reid received a similarly scathing letter expressing your displeasure when he referenced all of the smelly tourists in the summer, in the city.

Anonymous said...

If he was a Democrat, you would have neither written this on your blog, nor written to complain to him.

J9 said...

The problem with California isn't the whackadoodles, it's the power allowed for corporations in the rest of the US, at the sacrifice of worker's rights. During a town hall meeting conducted by the upper leadership of my company (where Dilbert was started), we were told that there would be NO hiring in CA, no expansion, and if we didn't like it, we needed to let our elected officials know that CA needs to be more business friendly...

Harry Finch said...

Gov. Kasich is the best reason I know for staying drunk 24/7.

Bill said...

Tonight, forced union dues paid for a huge circle jerk in Wisconsin. A very good reason to make dues voluntary. California unions are still very powerful and taking the state down.

Erin O'Brien said...

Alph and Anon: I was in a hotel room in Santa Monica, CA, when this jackass--my very own state governor--comes on the box and says that California is full of whackadoodles. This was on Fox--a national broadcast.

I was embarrassed for Ohio. I wanted to apologize for this miserable schmuck.

I don't normally watch Fox, but my husband had stopped his surfing on the channel because Kasich was on. A few days later, I go online and find video of the same moronic language at another event here in Ohio.

No, I don't follow every pol and what he says, but this one landed in my lap. Hence, the letter.

Ms Amanda said...

Having been born 'n bred in Cali I'd say few of us (now them since I hightailed it out of there) would be very offended by being called wackadoodles... It's pretty tame compared to what we call them. I do enjoy lovingly calling those I still know down there an assortment of charming names. Of course I hear Oregonians called a myriad of names as well, but I like most of 'em. Even dirty hippies, though we're personally not, because it keeps those f-ing Californians outta my state for fear of being turned into one.

Jim said...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/09/981704/-Exposing-ALEC,-Ohio-House-EditionWith-Poll

I was serious when I said he was involved with ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. If you don't know about it, you should.

Anonymous said...

Bill, re "circle jerk",
Do you have a corresponding opinion on the wisdom of the Citizen's United ruling by the Supreme court, allowing unfettered corporate money into the campaign system?
Do you have a corresponding opinion to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker attempting to push through the union-stripping legislation attached to a so-called 'budget repair' bill, a bill which was only necessitated by a $140 million corporate tax giveaway as one of his first acts as governor?
Do you have a corresponding opinion about the fact that NO ONE in Wisconsin ran on union-busting? NEVER mentioned it once? If they had mentioned it, even ONCE, don't you think Faux News would be running the footage in a continuous loop?
Mike R
wv: avenj-The defeat of SB 5 in November will avenj all the cops, firefighters, teachers, librarians, etc, tha Governor K-sick is trying to screw over.

Anonymous said...

@Badger-
The Nation magazine ran an excellent series of articles about ALEC and their influence on GOP lagislators.
Highly recommended.
Mike R

VideoDude said...

First he calls police idiots. Now this! Where are the jobs, Mr. Kasich?

Bill said...

Everyone seems to hate Kasich. Can you recall him? Careful though. We recalled a governer here, in CA, and ended up with someone twice as bad. Arnold Schwarchenkennedy.

Anonymous said...

Bill,
Ohio's constitution has no provision for re-call of state officeholders. What we DO have is petition initiative to overrule legislation-which is what is happening right now. The legislation which contains K-Sick's union-busting bill, known as Senate Bill 5 (SB 5)has been challenged by a petition drive and is up for reversal in November. The petitioners needed approximately 230,000 signatures-they collected 1,230,000 of which approx. 900,000 were ruled valid.
Mike R

Bill said...

Mike: If the polls are acurate, SB5 should go down big. If someone gave me the right odds, I'd place a big bet that SB5 stands and that union busting catches on across the country.

wv: rednke LOL

Erin O'Brien said...

What polls are you reading, Bill? Surely not the ones cited in this article.

Jon Moore said...

@Ms Amanda- even back in the dark ages when I lived in Western Montana (mid- seventies) there were numerous bumper stickers that read "Don't Californicate Montana". Of course we all know how that worked out.

Anonymous said...

Bill,
You seem oddly conflicted. You seem to empathize with our disgust for Kasich, but you agree with his goals?
Also, did you take into account the MILLION extra signatures collected to certify the repeal effort into you odds-making?
And, given the question I posed to you above in reference to the Wisconsin situation and the Citizen's United case, what is your animus towards unions? Do you think we're really better off with a veritable deluge of corporate money flooding the electoral cycle with no counter representing middle-class interests? Are you a trust-fund baby? I ask that in all seriousness, because unless you're quite wealthy, given the way the House Republicans are conducting themselves, everybody mid-level income on down is just fucked.
Mike R
ps to Erin-see James Galbreath in Atlantic Monthly for a study in how the issue of the debt is being misrepresented by the GOP in pursuit of their policy goals

Bill said...

Erin: Don't know if I articulated it properly. I agree that it appears SB5 is very unpopular and will be repealed.

Mike: I don't care, one way or another, about Kasich. It just looks as though some of the people who voted for him are sorry they did. I don't make the odds but just saying that I'd bet against SB5 getting repealed if someone gave me good odds. Of course, I've lost my ass on those kinds of bets before. In my opinion, unions do absolutely nothing for the individual and actually take away incentive for indiviuals to excel. I've never been in a union but have had to work with unions as a small business owner.

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

Sign that the apocalypse is nigh? Erin admits to watching Fox News.

Al
TRAG

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

One other thing. I don't think Kasich, Californians, or anyone else needs to worry about "whackadoodlery." They've got that market cornered in Vermont-You-Know-How-I-Feel.

Al
TRAG

Harry Finch said...

You hurt me, Al, you really hurt me.

Anonymous said...

I don't take chances: I keep Faux News on parental control, so that I am not offended by one second of its vile filth and lies by accident while channel surfing. :-)

Bill said...

Anon: U should join the 10s of people who watch MSNBC. All the news that's fit to make up. Very entertaining AND they spend lots of time quoting Rush! Great stuff.

VideoDude said...

Isn't it difficult to make up the truth? I think you have your channels wrong its Faux News that makes it all up.

Anonymous said...

Bill-
Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews are two of the most skilled, informed and intelligent people in their field of endeavor.
I have yet to find a factual mistake on MSNBC, as opposed to the balls-to-the-walls, take no prisoners attitude at Fox, as typified by Chris Wallace's moment of truth with Jon Stewart "we're the counterbalance"-not balanced at all but designed to be a distinctly right-leaning outlet.
It's bilgewater.
Or, for (Ohio Denizens of the Owners Manual) (ODOM? can i copyright that Erin?) It sucks canal water...Mike R
wv: pitinkfi: to emulate the high artistic stands of singer/actor Mandy Pitinkin (the origianl Che in Evita)

Bill said...

A shout out to the IBEW union members striking Verizon. They've agreed to stop throwing feces!