Help Me Out, Pat, What am I Supposed to Write?

In the time since my last post, I've had more than 10 visits from computers on the U.S. House of Representatives network. When I got my first visit from house.gov two years ago, I felt like I had really hit the big time. Nowadays, visits from the hill are pretty much everyday occurrences, and I can count on a couple of hits whenever a post includes the name "Pat Tiberi."

It's not that I'm really all that important, I've just moved up the search engine rankings over the past two years.

But this week has been different. The 10+ visits from house.gov I've gotten is now fairly typical. I've had 30-50 visits from house.gov computers, and additional visits from non-house.gov computers from congressional staffers (one prominent staffer uses a static IP address that actually causes his/her first and last name to be included in the server log of every site he/she visits. I've often wondered if he/she is aware of this).

And not only have I not posted on the Robinson vs. Tiberi race in OH-12, I haven't posted on any issues that are being debated at the federal level. Which leads me to believe that there's something that folks are EXPECTING me to write about, and they keep checking back to see if I've done it yet. Problem is, and I'm somewhat nervous and embarrassed to admit this, I don't know what it is.

Perhaps it's the endorsement of Tiberi by the Dispatch this last weekend. The Dispatch was insulting and disrespectful to Mary Jo Kilroy in their explanation of their endorsement of Stivers in the OH-15 race, but they saved their even more disrespectful and insulting tactic for David Robinson when they didn't even mention that Pat Tiberi had an opponent in the race for which he was being endorsed. I felt that it was most appropriate to ignore Pat and the CD in the same manner, but if anyone wants my take on this, the Dispatch was totally classless in that endorsement, and surprisingly single-issue. The Dispatch endorsed Stivers because they didn't like that Kilroy followed guidelines and hired union labor to work for the county. They endorsed Tiberi because he has promised to fight against giving workers sick days or making it easier for them to unionize. The Dispatch basically said "We hate f#$%ing unions, and you better hate f$&^ing unions too, if you want our endorsement." And what can I say, Tiberi's a reliable vote against all things labor, and if you rabidly hate unions, you're probably going to vote for Tiberi, too. That's not really news.

Perhaps Tiberi's folks are waiting for me to unload on him over the meltdown of our finance system. Given the $2.3 million dollars has received from the financial sector during his career running for Congress (for point of reference, LaTourette in OH-14 is being hammered for taking half that amount from the financial sector over the course of a longer career), it would be understandable that they'd expect bloggers like me to go ballistic. I mean, Tiberi's primary committee assignment for most of his career has been on the committee overseeing the financial industry, and that "oversight" involved plenty of the deregulation being blamed for the current crisis. But you know what? Right now, I don't give a damn. From my point of view, this crisis is an integral part of free market capitalism. Some people will tell you that a good market will always straighten itself out more efficiently than any outside entity could hope to do. In principle, they're right. It's just that sometimes the pure market solution involves thousands dying of hunger in the streets. I won't absolve Pat Tiberi of his role in the meltdown of the American economy, but the current events on Wall Street are only Pat's fault to a small and insignificant degree. They are only partially the fault of the conservative ideology that he espouses. The current events are a national crisis, however, because too many Americans are walking on a tightrope from paycheck to paycheck without a net. The pure market solution to health care is not acceptable. The pure market solution to education is unacceptable. The pure market solution to energy independence is unacceptable. The pure market solution to climate change is unacceptable. In all of these areas there is a role, a leading role, to be played by actors in a competitive market. But there is a role for government as well, before we find ourselves in a do-or-die crisis mode. It's Pat and his cronies who are responsible for the situation in which Wall St. can survive a Main St. catastrophe, but the opposite is not true.

Perhaps Pat's staff is more interested in gossip. For instance, Rodger Moore was David Robinson's campaign manager for a couple of weeks, and then he wasn't. I've known Rodger since he basically ran Emily Kreider's campaign in 2006. I'm not surprised by either his elevation or departure. Rodger is a very different guy than David Robinson, with a different style and outlook. If you had asked me beforehand if I thought it would be a good idea for Rodger to run David's campaign I probably would have said "I don't know. They'd either be ideally complementary or truly incompatible." I don't have any gossip, but I'm guessing both sides hoped for the former, and rapidly decided on the latter. I think it's good to figure these things out rapidly.

Beyond that, I'm hearing rumors that there's a whisper campaign going on via email against Robinson. If you want me to write about that, you'll have to get someone to whisper a little bit louder.

Of course, it's possible that they've been expecting me to push the new campaign lit the Robinson campaign has been putting out about Pat Tiberi, like the Tiberi Pie and the Tiberi Report Card.

But I have to admit, I'm leaning toward the possibility that they've pulled another stunt like this one, and they hope their gutter tactics can stay in the shadows this time.

Y'all have got my e-mail address. Tell me what you're looking for. I'll do a post.