Rooster in Review: Until kingdom come

Here's what you may have missed from another whirlwind week of coverage.

I promised to post an interview with former Republican State Representative Gene Krebs this week. And let me be the first to say I failed at that mission!

Barring something seismic happening in Ohio politics over the weekend, that interview will be the primary subject of Monday’s dispatch.

I apologize for the delay; video editing becomes more time-consuming the more I learn about the craft. But that’s a burden I’m willing to bear for the sake of the Patriots Caucus.

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With the formalities done and dusted, the 136th General Assembly will begin in earnest next week.

God willing, it will be even less productive than the 135th General Assembly, which was the least productive General Assembly since the Eisenhower Administration.

I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve for some of Speaker Matt Huffman’s top henchmen, and they’re only possible thanks to those generous benefactors. Subscribe today! The fun is just getting started.

This week in Ohio Man…

Photo by Emiliano Bar on Unsplash

I don’t know a lot about Grove City. But from what I do know, it didn’t surprise me to hear that one of their residents participated in the January 6th chaos on Capitol Hill.

Donald Trump pardoned that man, but unfortunately for him, he had killed a woman while drunk driving before participating in the insurrection.

From Adam Conn and Matthew Herchik of nbc4i.com:

LANCASTER, Ohio (WCMH) – A Grove City man who was pardoned for his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol building remains in a Fairfield County prison.

According to the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Benjamin Shuler will not be released from Lancaster’s Southeastern Correctional Institution while serving a five-year sentence in the death of Olivia Wright, who was killed in a drunk-driving crash near Ashville on September 29, 2020.

Early that morning, Shuler veered left of center on Jackson Pike, near the Franklin County and Pickaway County lines, and struck Wright’s vehicle, which was traveling in the opposite direction. Wright, 22, of Circleville, died at the scene. Shuler was not wearing a seat belt, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

Pardoning a guy like Shuler would have been a scandal under a normal president, which, unfortunately, has never been an adjective used to describe President Business Deals.

But at least there is some karmic justice in the world for the sake of Ms. Wright’s family. I can only imagine the pain caused when they heard their daughter’s killer had been pardoned for doing a blatant crime only three months after that tragic crash.

The right-wing didn’t send its best on January 6th—or maybe it did. Either way, the silver lining to our current situation is that these guys aren’t smart enough to accomplish most of their goals.

This week in The Rooster….

Photo by Livia Widjaja on Unsplash

• “You’re an embarrassment to our party:” Everyone hated Josh Williams’ college football flag-planting bill. Americans of all political stripes

• The cocktail circuit strikes back. The Columbus City Council appointed the definition of a nepotism baby to fill a seat vacated by new Franklin County Prosecutor Shayla Favor.

• Rules of engagement: Tone Setters. It’s a faux pas for the Statehouse media to pursue politicians in the Statehouse if they don’t want to talk. Thankfully, I never ceded my power by agreeing to those terms.

• The Trojan Horse. SB-1 is a cleverly packaged piece of legislation that shows how the Republican Party uses the culture war to cloak otherwise unpopular attacks on worker rights.

The Saint Claire Files…

The Rooster could probably remain profitable with a sole focus on the grimy politics of Cuyahoga County and Cleveland. While I dabble in the dark arts, I feel criticism hits harder when it comes from subjects suffering under dirty political regimes.

Enter Saint Claire, Carnegie’s forgotten whore, who has been on a tour-de-force for the past three Fridays:

• Crossroads in Cuyahoga County. On the many problems with self-dealing political insider Kenn Dowell running for a vacant seat on the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. (Dowell renounced his campaign roughly 12 hours after The Rooster published this dispatch.)

• Birds of a feather. An examination of Consumers Against Deceptive Fees, a hilariously named “non-profit” that did dirty work for FirstEnergy.

• The other ‘unholy alliance.’ In obtained text messages, the twice-indicted former FirstEnergy Vice President of Bribes Michael Dowling explained the corruption of Rev. Dr. Aaron Phillips and the so-called Cleveland Clergy Coalition.

I’m proud to publish these dispatches in full, free of charge. But the thanks should go to the brave and noble foot soldiers within the Patriots Caucus. Their generosity in supporting independent political journalism allows me to hire talented freelancers like Saint Claire.

Feel free to pitch me if you have a worthy story to tell. Sacrosanct anonymity will be granted to those who need it.

THOSE WMDs. America is nearing a “demographic cliff” as the sharp decline in 18-year-olds threatens higher education and the economy… The last flight of the dog pilot… Meet the safecracker of last resort… Why some people believed “nobody cared about race” in the 1990s… The abortion absolutist.