The Vindy's Todd Franko has been a real case study in Media Bias and today's offering is a classic.It's completely silly to think that money Driehaus earned six months ago when Dann spoke at a fund-raiser is "tainted" money. Driehaus is no more tainted by Dann's visit than the caterer who fed the dinner and the band that played tunes at the event. I'd hate to think the caterer and the band should fork over their profits from that event because of what's now known about Dann.Imagine, if you will, that we replaced the name "Driehaus" with any Republican from the 2006 cycle who reaped a benefit from any Tom Noe fundraiser and ponder whether or not Todd Franko would have been a-okay with that.
The answer, of course, is that Todd's feelings on the subject are tainted by the party affiliation of the politicians involved. And if that ain't media bias, I don't know what is...
Honestly, let's take another look at a quote from the press release that Franko is excoriating:
"Steve Driehaus can't have it both ways. Marc Dann's mismanagement and cronyism proved him unfit for office. If Driehaus truly believes Dann should go, he would reject Dann's financial support and return the tainted funds. Condemning Marc Dann while lining your campaign coffers with money he raised is just pure hypocrisy," said Ohio Republican Party Spokesman John McClelland.Again, replace "Driehaus" with any Republican from the '06 cycle and put those words into whichever of Chris Redfern's cronies you feel appropriate and suddenly Todd Franko would be alright with it.
A note of caution to our friends in Columbus though... If your strategy is to play this the same way as the Democrats did in 2006 by playing the hypocrisy card, be prepared to lose. Democrats have no sense of shame and when it is their dollars on the line, it just doesn't matter who the money came from...and the press, as Todd Franko clearly demonstrates, isn't willing to play along for the GOP like they were for the Dems.
