Ginther Must Go
When the going got tough, Ginther went to one of politic's time-tested tools: Feed the press a bigger story.
Andy Ginther does not deserve to represent Columbus as mayor. He never has, going back to his time as city council president when he was caught almost literally red-handed in a bribery scandal involving a red light traffic ticket company.
Columbus voters, by and large, have no problem with blatant corruption as long as their officials have that sacred (D) next to their name, which is why Ginther triumphed over former Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott in a four-way primary in 2015.
His first term as mayor went so swimmingly that he ran unopposed for re-election in 2019, and given the recent events in Columbus that should never happen again.
Mayor Suburbs had a rough Wednesday, when his doughy ass got dragged through the mud on numerous stories involving the ample time he spends on a golf course for a retiree let alone a mayor of a major metropolitan area like Columbus.
May 30th, 2020: Columbus police mace City Council President Shannon Hardin and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty around noon. Ginther makes his 2:30 tee time at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.
“From January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2020, Columbus Police Internal Affairs found Jaeger golfed with the mayor 166 times.” That’s even more scandalous when you realize the mayor has multiple body guards and golfs at multiple courses.
Mayor Ginther declines five interviews with investigators after (correctly) demanding that Columbus cops cooperate with use-of-force investigations.
These were all headlines before 2 o’clock on Wednesday. They’re each bad in their own right, but released hours apart from each other they’re indefensible even for paid flaks of the Franklin County Democratic Party.
I would be pissed if I were Shannon Hardin, the mayor-in-waiting. He took to the streets in the name of social justice and received a face full of mace at noon on a Saturday from a police force wildly out of control and the head of the city decided it was a good time to hit the links. At the end of the day Ginther is just some unlikable white guy who lives in a $525,000 house in some place called “The Knolls.” He shouldn’t be able to get away with blatant disrespect to leaders of the black community.
Ginther, for as dumb as he is, was smart enough to recognize just how bad this looked. So, he did what he had to do; he threw the suburban police department to the wolves in a move that could have saved numerous black lives had he had the fortitude to request it earlier.
From 10tv.com:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mayor Andrew Ginther is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a review into the Columbus Division of Police.
The review would work to identify possible racial biases within Columbus policing efforts, while also offering solutions for reform, according to a letter addressed to the DOJ on Wednesday.
“The City of Columbus is committed to reform,” the letter, signed by Mayor Ginther and City Attorney Zach Klein, reads in part. “We must align the reality of how we are policing with community expectations of how we should be policing.”
It’s about damn time city leaders defended their citizens like the Fraternal Order of Police defends criminal cops. This has been a long, long time coming which unfortunately won’t bring back any of the blood that senselessly got spilled on our streets.
Mayor Suburbs already planned to make this move. It’s not something that just happens on a whim. However, it’s no coincidence that a story this big got pushed out of City Hall within hours of three devastating stories on the mayor’s antics.
It’s a time-tested technique of politicians embroiled in scandal: Give the chattering class something else to chatter about. At worse it dilutes the white hot rage focused on you. At best it suffocates the rage entirely.
We saw New York Governor Andrew Cuomo engage in the same behavior. The New York Times reported Cuomo’s aides spent months trying to hide the true death toll in state nursing homes. Hours later, Cuomo announced he would lift the coronavirus curfew on bars and restaurants in May.
It’s because politicians like Ginther and Cuomo have contempt for their constituents. The only difference is their front-stage behavior is more agreeable than Republicans. They are adept at using social justice language to make it seem like they are the good guys.
But they’re not. They’re callously evil and all they care about is remaining in power. It’s up to the people to make sure they don’t get away with it.
THOSE WMDs. Everything that’s ever gone wrong on my camping trips… From pick-up artist to pariah… Atheists are sometimes more religious than Christians… The unbearable whiteness of ballet… Cheap, legal and everywhere: How food companies hooked us on junk… Show your immune system some love.
I am a member at OSU Golf Club and have a few observations.
One is that they started sending out regular email reminders that all your tee times are public records around the time the story broke. I didn't know what was going on until I read your earlier Rooster post.
Another has to do with something in the Dispatch that was giving as a defense that the officer (also a member) might not have played every time he had a tee time. That is likely BS - as a member you can play for free as often as you want but if don't show for a tee time you get charged.
Somehow I have never run into Ginther out there.