Senator Sewer shows Derek Merrin how the game is played
It's a textbook example of what separates a contender from a pretender.
The Rooster got the drop on another State Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) press conference yesterday after I settled the score for my old friend State Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) last week.
Honestly, folks, it’s a sad, sad state of affairs for Merrin’s Holy Rollers and only getting worse.
Merrin stuffed a bunch of his sycophants into a pervert closet called “The Ladies Gallery” to read anti-trans hate, tax giveaways to the rich, and further eradication of public schools into the record before an increasingly disinterested press corps.
State Rep. Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville), forever Merrin’s loyal toadie, attempted the fake “gotta tie my shoe” routine to obstruct my path towards bustin’ up his boss after the press conference, and I stepped over him like Allen Iverson did Tyronn Lue in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
I wasn’t there to discuss the “priority legislation for the Ohio House Republican Caucus.” I’ve been living under that nonsense all my life.
I asked Merrin about the negative billboard ads ran against State Rep. Jon Cross (R-Kenton), a former Merrin supporter who jumped the camp of Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) on that fateful Jan. 3rd vote.
The ads, I learned later from someone who would know, were financed primarily by investment banker Mike Gibbons, last seen spending tens of millions in his own money to finish fourth in the absolute freak show that was the 2022 Republican Senate primary.
The ads, purchased by something called the Ohio Accountability PAC, is a newly formed SUPER PAC that shares the same mailing address as something called the Government Integrity Fund.
Most interestingly, the ads were placed through Huntington Billboards, the company owned and operated by State Rep. Jena Powell (R-Arcanum) and her political jackal of a brother, Justin.
Merrin, Powell, and later State Rep. Phil “Abu Ghraib” Plummer (R-Dayton) played dumb while I roasted all three as they made their way into safe harbor in the depths of the Ohio Statehouse where dark horrors like them belong.
In the olden days, that would have been a successful day at the office, as the plan to ruin Merrin’s New Year’s Eve plans has escalated to this point.
But, while making my way out of the Statehouse, I ran into the odious State Senator Niraj Antani (R-Sewer).
Senator Sewer and I have had our battles, and there will be more to come, but I couldn’t resist a chance to bust him up about that Instagram picture he posted to this “Close Friends” circle showing him getting drunk in the DJ booth at Seesaw bar in Columbus on Jan. 20th:
You can see the veracity in my original reporting in his face:
After Senator Sewer spoke with two other men, I doubled back on him to relay the story of busting up Merrin’s so-called press conference.
You can play the whole video, but the salient part comes in Antani’s immediate reaction to hearing that Merrin ran.
“You never run away,” Antani said.
And like I said, for as much as I’ve bashed Antani, he understands a basic rule of politics: It’s never a good look for politicians to run from honest questions.
Not understanding rudimentary rules of the game is what separates Antani, a State Senator already seeding his future Secretary of State run, from Merrin, a House backbencher masquerading as an influential leader in Republican circles.
Hard times for the Holy Rollers. Hard times indeed.
Me, contemplating handing it to Niraj Antani: I do not have to hand it to Niraj Antani.
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