Taking Crites' place was U.S. Senator George Voinovich - who gave a rousing red meat speech. I have been somewhat frustrated in the past with Voinovich's moderate positions, but he totally redeemed himself recently by noting the "socialist" positions of Barack Obama....in a conservative blog, I know that Voinovich is campaigning already.
Of course, we're supposed to believe that this is the real George Voinovich. You know, the hard-core conservative who is responsible for "making the Ohio GOP" what it is today. You know, the guy who brought us Bob Bennett and Tom Noe. He blazed the trail for guys like Mike DeWine and Bob Taft.
I'm going to catch some grief for this from certain circles, but I want to trust guys like Voinovich. But I have learned that I have to verify every word that comes out of his mouth. The problem with guys like Voinovich is that they are too busy trying to be a little something for everybody instead of standing firm on conservative principles.
Let's rehash the Hannity Interview Debacle...
Everyone remembers that Voinovich screwed the Fairness Doctine bit. Now, I've been told that Voinovich didn't hear the set-up to that because Hannity hit him with it right out of the box and there were problems with the phone (all of which was Team Hannity's fault -- and I buy all of that), but I absolutely can not understand why a guy like Voinovich would not know what the Fairness Doctrine was seeing as he had -- again, according to sources -- previously co-sponsored two bills on the subject.
But the Fairness Doctrine is not why Voinovich was on the call...
If you are against Shamnesty from the beginning, you should really say so. Instead, what Voinovich did was let it out that his was a vote that might be swayed with the right "sweetner" even though -- according to sources -- he was "totally against the bill from the beginning."
That's why Voinovich was on the call...
His biggest faux pas, though, was his condescension and outright disdain for constituents who called, emailed, faxed, and wrote him letters on the subject. I could be wrong about this; but, I've not seen or heard of Voinovich doing another tough interview after that.
So now, he's back on the rubber chicken circuit with his hand out and I'll just bet he's never been asked to explain himself...
