GOP Eating Their Own?

The Enquirer reports that the GOP has six possible candidates to run for County Commissioner against Todd Portune. The primary is coming up in March of next year, so the battle for money should be going on like a Thursday after Thanksgiving sale.

The real question is who will challenge Kabaka Oba to get the Democratic nomination to run for John Downlin's seat? John Cranley? Alicia Reece? Howard Bond?

The Democrats will be eating their own in the Race for Mayor of Cincinnati. Mark Mallory, David Pepper, and Alicia Reece are all talking about running for Mayor in 2005 as is the current Mayor, Charlie Luken. With an open primary, 2 or more Democrats could be on the ballot. That would be interesting.

Cincinnati Television News Spawns Another Political Candidate

Ken Lucas will not seek re-election, but Nick Clooney is running in his place. Nick's candidacy will surely garner a lot of attention because he is the father of George Clooney. George has slowly been dipping his toes in the water of political advocacy; I wonder how involved he will be in his dad's campaign.

UPDATE: more coverage from the Enquirer, FOX41, and ONN.

UPDATE#2: AP has the story on Yahoo and it hit the most viewed stories at #13

The Archbishop Knew?

This report from WCPO indicates that Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk was told about allegations of sexual abuse sometime between 1988 and 1994. If he knew about these allegations, why is Pilarczyk getting away with this?

Smells like 1970

The FBI is investigating anti-war protestors. Will the summer of 2004 election season make 1968 look like a picnic? I once again will predict there will be violence, to some degree or another, at the national political conventions next summer. Also from Reuters.

UPDATE: Wes Flinn comments.

MIAMI 49, OU 31

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

A sweet victory against the dreaded BobKittens. I take joy in this win over the Alma Mater of many local journalists. I don't think this will help coverage of Miami in any way.

News Coverage: Enquirer, Post, DDN, & PD.

Mike Allen's Failure

From Mike Allen's Statement yesterday:

Hold them accountable.

Make sure this doesn't happen again.

I cannot tell you how many times or how many people have said that to me over the last year. But they were not talking about a serial rapist, or a multiple murderer, or the vicious rioters who brought our city to its knees.

They were talking about one of the most respected and revered institutions in our county - the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Mr. Allen's failure is exemplified by not answering the plea from the public who wanted "them" to be held accountable, instead he went after "it." Allen let individual priests who knowingly protected rapists and molesters go unpunished, not even releasing a list of names of those who were involved. He did this to help keep civil lawsuits from being filed against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Mike Allen stated that his office was confident that there were no priests active in Archdiocese of Cincinnati who has been accused of wrong doing as part of this scandal. He failed to assure the public by not considering two important questions:

1. Are any priests (or other staff) who have been accused of wrong doing active in any capacity in ANY church or organization ANYWHERE in the world that involves interaction with children?

2. Are any priests (or other staff) who knew about or covered up any wrong doing still active in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati?

If those questions were answered, I missed it.

The media coverage locally has been heavy, but restrained. The Enquirer has covered many angles of the story, but failed to raised or at least report the questions I asked. I figured if the crime was any other organization those questions would have been asked, investigated, and reported. In Cincinnati, a Catholic stronghold, the Enquirer knows its place and knows not to push the limits on criticism on the local Catholic Church and its leaders. The Enquirer editorial especially reeked of hollow repudiation of the Catholic Church and seemed to shift all of blame to the "tiny minority of pedophile priests to victimize so many." Read it Here: Editorial, Wells Column, Story1, Story2, Story3, and Story4.

Mike McConnell from WLW took a much more strong stance against the church. He refered to Mike Allen's attitude towards the Catholic Church as a "bow down respect," where it gets 1,000 times the usual benefit of the doubt. Mike, a life long catholic, even stated that he would not attend a church in the Cincinnati Archdiocese until Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk resigns.

Other Coverage: Post1, Post2, Post3, Post4, Post5, WCPO, WLWT, WKRC, NY Times, Plain Dealer, DDN, CNN/AP.

Deal with Archdiocese of Cincinnati

Reports are coming all over that the Prosecutor Mike Allen has made a deal with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk is beating the rap. There were several scenarios where Pilarczyk was potentially guilty of covering up multiple felonies. I think Mike Allen has let down the public. He should have gone forward with a full prosecution of specific priests for the cover-up of known rape and molestation incidents. Slapping the wrist of the church is about as harsh a treatment as Enron is getting. It is ironic that the plea agreement that is out there is being referred to as the "Flynt plea." Mike McConnell came up with the idea that is should be called the "Flynt-Pilarczyk plea" from no one. It is surreally that a church would basically admit to breaking the law. That is a blow to it stature in this city. It will be interesting how they will ever be able to preach on "morality" again without being laughed out of pulpit.

Coverage: Post, Post2, WLWT, and WCPO.