George the Pudding

George Voinovich has had a very successful political career and has accomplished little more than that impressive resumé. Frank Lausche, now forgotten, was mayor of Cleveland, the most populous and important city, until recently, in the state of Ohio. He went on to become governor and then senator. Voinovich has done the same.

Lausche was slovene, Voinovich is serb and slovene. Lausche was officially a Democrat, though anti-labor and in many ways, anti-democrat and New Deal. There was talk of Lausche as a vice-president candidate on a ticket with the Republican general MacArthur or Eisenhower.

Cleveland was and is a city where the Republicans are a small minority. Ralph Perk was mayor and a successful politician in Cleveland. His politics would have fit easily into the Democracy, as most european ethnic natives who were in America before world war two. He saw that the Democrats had many candidates, while the other party had few candidates and much money. He strategically became a Republican.

Voinovich was of similar stock. While Voinovich was young and eager, he was the second best known Republican in the city. Perk was unseated by Dennis Kucinich, the boy mayor, who was a eager and excitable fighter. Kucinich was in no way part of the financial establishment.

The local moneyed interests (including Cleveland Trust Bank, Cleveland Electric Illuminating) caballed with George Forbes (the then city council president and leader of the negro political community after Carl Stokes) to drive Kucinich out of office and have him replaced by Voinovich.

Voinovich was mayor of the city and traveled the world while Forbes and the moneyed interestsa ran the city. Voinovich teamed up with the state's leading Republican, Jim Rhodes. Rhodes was governor twice two terms. The latter, with Voinovich as lieutenant governor. Voinovich is now senator.

I know the path of George, I have seen the places he had been. Voinovich grew up amongst working class ethnics in the Collinwood section of Cleveland. He went to Ohio University. A professor of mine, Carl Gustavson, told me that he knew that Voinovich wanted to be governor, when George was a student.

Voinovich, as governor, cried on camera, when he announced welfare benefits cut to balance budget. He, as senator, knew John Bolton did not belong at the UN. In committee, he held up his nomination, eventually he supported Bush jr. and voted for Bolton. George Voinovich knows what is right, and does the wrong thing. He is a pudding, he is soft and will smoothly slide away and easily moved by pressure. His loyalty is not to the citizenry, nor to his conscience. He does what his masters want. He will do what the moneyed interests, the Republican party and George Bush wants him to do.

Concerning the greatest crisis in the last few years, the Second Persian Gulf War and american occupation of Iraq, he has voted with Bush's interest. Voinovich has prided himself as being fiscally responsible. He had been county auditor, prior to becoming mayor. He has shown no evidence of being fiscally responsible with bush and bush's war. His tears could flow copiously for the hundreds of thousand dead and the millions destroyed because of this great immorality. He has, I believe, in every vote supported bush's war and continuing occupation.

He and his admirers claim his humanity and righteousness when speaking of his consistent votes against abortion. None of those positions and votes, when he was chief political executive officer in the Republican controlled state of Ohio ended abortion, nor did they in the republican controlled country and national government when he was senator. His voting garnered some votes in his many campaigns, but did nothing in accomplishment.

He did not break with the criminally, immoral and anti-Constitutional Bush over the war, the economy or much of anything. He could have, perhaps, effected positive moral change and saved many lives; he did not. The one moment he hesitated on Bolton, he had the nation's political attention, he could have been responsible to the republic. Bush's propaganda machine was aghast and worried ― opposition within the ranks and opposition from a non exuberant or flamboyant quarter. He retreated into the pudding that he had always been, and did not stand up to another George. A moral stand would have been a profile of a pro-life man of courage. He could have said, “No”, to Bush about the ravages of death and war on many occasions. One moment of not being a pudding would have been an achievement.. He could have followed Camus and said, “No”, and showed he followed Jesus; instead he said, “Yes”, to george ― again and again and again.

Voinovich should bow out, but he has not done the honorable thing in the past. His seat in Congress is not contested this cycle. Ohio's Republican coterie in Congress, Ney, Schmidt, Boehner has brought no honor to the state, Voinovich blandly blends in. He should retire, and not seek another term in 2010. He has had a very successful career, the curtain is calling.