Badin vs. Fredericktown
Miamisburg graduation 2012
Valley View vs. Greenville
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > June > 01
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Martin Gottlieb: Parties let go of their inhibitions in this season
If this decade or so is the era of berserk partisanship, then this season — right now, today — is the season. All across the country, levels of partisan fervor that are normal for our abnormal times are being topped, left in the dust.
That’s because now comes redistricting, the drawing of legislative districts for the next decade.
Take Illinois.
A summary from Politico, a publication that follows these things:
“The Democratic-controlled Illinois state legislature is on the verge of passing a radically redrawn congressional map that has the national party basking in the prospect of ousting as many as six GOP House members — likely to be the Democrats’ biggest redistricting gain nationwide.”
It’s a partisan bacchanalia, a celebration of release from inhibition. The drawing of the maps is, by common consent among politicians, an all-out embrace of partisanship. Pretense largely disappears.
You do what you have to do. Then you defend it, and if you can’t, well, nobody has ever lost an election for that reason. This isn’t Medicare, and it isn’t the economy. It’s the politicians’ own domain.
Illinois, which is acting early, is worth looking at. In 2011, it’s a political mirror image of Ohio. Both houses of the state legislature are controlled by Democrats, as is the governorship.
In Ohio, of course, the Republicans have everything. But there’s one other difference: The situation in Illinois is new. This is the first time in four decades the Ds have had everything. That means, it’s the first time in the computer age, when high technology has come to the aid of the partisan partiers, those who want to make the maps come out to the advantage of their own party. Now it’s so easy.
Going into the 2010 election, Democrats controlled the Illinois congressional delegation 13-6. But Republicans gained five seats, giving them an 11-8 majority. Now the Illinois Democrats want to overturn the election.
This would be accomplished by, as summarized by the Chicago Tribune, pitting “Republican incumbents against each other, (moving) them into largely unfamiliar territory or (forcing) them to face Democratic colleagues in districts drawn to favor Democrats.”
Worth noting about what the Democrats are doing: The map that prevailed in 2010 wasn’t drawn by Republicans, but through a process not fully controlled by either party. So the Democratic partisans can’t say they are just undoing the work of Republican partisans.
However, the old map was, according to the nonpartisan “Almanac of American Politics,” “a nightmare for those who believe redistricting plans should have compact and competitive districts.”
The map was what usually results when the parties compromise: an incumbent protection plan, “and the resulting district lines are grotesque,” said the Almanac.
The Democrats might make this point in their favor: At least Illinois really is a Democratic-leaning state. In a close presidential election, Illinois will go Democratic; Ohio will be up for grabs.
What the Democrats are trying to do to Illinois’ remaining 18 congressional seats is leave only two that are solidly Republican and only eight or nine that the Republicans have shots at.
Nationally, the Democrats won’t have many chances to play such games, because the Republicans took so much power in 2010. Moreover, the Democrats’ beloved California has been taken from them. Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger led a long and admirable fight to get voters to adopt a nonpartisan system, and he finally won.
But Republicans who draw Ohio’s maps are likely to be more influenced by Illinois than California.
What they come up with may not make the kinds of headlines that Illinois has made, because Ohio already has
Republican-drawn maps. There simply aren’t that many Democrats to unseat. But the Republicans will be trying to lock in what they’ve got. They now have 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats. They want to limit Democrats to only a few districts in the future, swing state or no swing state.
And if they want to, they can. Redistricting is the party without any hangovers.
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Martin Gottlieb: Parties let go of their inhibitions in this season
If this decade or so is the era of berserk partisanship, then this season — right now, today — is the season. All across the country, levels of partisan fervor that are normal for our abnormal times are being topped, left in the dust.
That’s because now comes redistricting, the drawing of legislative districts for the next decade.
Take Illinois.
A summary from Politico, a publication that follows these things:
“The Democratic-controlled Illinois state legislature is on the verge of passing a radically redrawn congressional map that has the national party basking in the prospect of ousting as many as six GOP House members — likely to be the Democrats’ biggest redistricting gain nationwide.”
It’s a partisan bacchanalia, a celebration of release from inhibition. The drawing of the maps is, by common consent among politicians, an all-out embrace of partisanship. Pretense largely disappears.
You do what you have to do. Then you defend it, and if you can’t, well, nobody has ever lost an election for that reason. This isn’t Medicare, and it isn’t the economy. It’s the politicians’ own domain.
Illinois, which is acting early, is worth looking at. In 2011, it’s a political mirror image of Ohio. Both houses of the state legislature are controlled by Democrats, as is the governorship.
In Ohio, of course, the Republicans have everything. But there’s one other difference: The situation in Illinois is new. This is the first time in four decades the Ds have had everything. That means, it’s the first time in the computer age, when high technology has come to the aid of the partisan partiers, those who want to make the maps come out to the advantage of their own party. Now it’s so easy.
Going into the 2010 election, Democrats controlled the Illinois congressional delegation 13-6. But Republicans gained five seats, giving them an 11-8 majority. Now the Illinois Democrats want to overturn the election.
This would be accomplished by, as summarized by the Chicago Tribune, pitting “Republican incumbents against each other, (moving) them into largely unfamiliar territory or (forcing) them to face Democratic colleagues in districts drawn to favor Democrats.”
Worth noting about what the Democrats are doing: The map that prevailed in 2010 wasn’t drawn by Republicans, but through a process not fully controlled by either party. So the Democratic partisans can’t say they are just undoing the work of Republican partisans.
However, the old map was, according to the nonpartisan “Almanac of American Politics,” “a nightmare for those who believe redistricting plans should have compact and competitive districts.”
The map was what usually results when the parties compromise: an incumbent protection plan, “and the resulting district lines are grotesque,” said the Almanac.
The Democrats might make this point in their favor: At least Illinois really is a Democratic-leaning state. In a close presidential election, Illinois will go Democratic; Ohio will be up for grabs.
What the Democrats are trying to do to Illinois’ remaining 18 congressional seats is leave only two that are solidly Republican and only eight or nine that the Republicans have shots at.
Nationally, the Democrats won’t have many chances to play such games, because the Republicans took so much power in 2010. Moreover, the Democrats’ beloved California has been taken from them. Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger led a long and admirable fight to get voters to adopt a nonpartisan system, and he finally won.
But Republicans who draw Ohio’s maps are likely to be more influenced by Illinois than California.
What they come up with may not make the kinds of headlines that Illinois has made, because Ohio already has
Republican-drawn maps. There simply aren’t that many Democrats to unseat. But the Republicans will be trying to lock in what they’ve got. They now have 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats. They want to limit Democrats to only a few districts in the future, swing state or no swing state.
And if they want to, they can. Redistricting is the party without any hangovers.
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Editorial: OSU’s mistake was moving too slowly
One reason Jim Tressel is special (and was treated accordingly) is that sports attract a lot of talented people who aren’t so likable or impressive. You know their names, their offenses and their phenomenal arrogance.
Ohio State University’s Tressel cut a different image and, in very many ways, lived up to that reputation. He genuinely cared for his players; he was sincerely interested in giving back; he showed class and humility.
None of these qualities, though, excused his failure to turn in his players and go immediately to authorities when he was alerted that they were violating NCAA rules by selling or trading OSU football memorabilia for cash and tattoos. That decision led to another fateful decision, lying to the NCAA on a form in which he attested that, to his knowledge, his players were clean.
With the NCAA investigating media reports that there is a culture among players of accepting discounts and being treated to favors, the accumulation of mistakes became too damning. What Coach Tressel knew and didn’t address amounted to an indictment of his leadership; and what he didn’t know — or turned a blind eye to — was piling up.
Given the public scrutiny that players are under and given the hand holding that colleges impose on athletes in order to keep them and their schools out of trouble, it’s pretty hard to believe that somebody didn’t know, for instance, that star quarterback Terrelle Pryor was driving cars that he deserved to be questioned about.
A lot of critics of Ohio State — and there are many — have good points when they say that the scandal has been handled badly by persons above Mr. Tressel. After all, it was not he who initially meted out just a two-game suspension when his players got busted and several were going to have to sit out five games. It was not just Mr. Tressel who was charged with keeping an eye on the players and their off-the-field behavior.
Moreover, both Athletic Director Gene Smith and OSU President Gordon Gee have been exceedingly deferential to Mr. Tressel, with President Gee going so far as to say early on that he stood behind Mr. Tressel and hoped that Mr. Tressel wouldn’t fire him. In April, Mr. Smith said that, as part of his punishment, Mr. Tressel was supposed to apologize publicly for his actions at a press conference and that he only did so after he was pressed to do so.
Over the course of events, the impression OSU officials have left is that they have been afraid of losing their spectacularly winning coach, that holding him accountable for his dubious decisions was a secondary consideration. (Mr. Tressel said that one reason he didn’t tell his bosses about the players’ infractions is that he was worried for their safety. The tattoo parlor owner was being investigated by the feds.)
The alternative theory put forward by critics is that Mr. Tressel didn’t want to jeopardize his winning record by having players ruled ineligible.
What’s unmistakably clear is that the pressure Ohio State came under to sack Coach Tressel has come from outside the college and the state. The national sports media have been totally unforgiving and have fairly noted that in other instances where a coach has lied or been this tainted, he’s almost always been fired. And then there was the NCAA’s investigation, which has been informed by impressive reporting by The Columbus Dispatch.
The take-away from the truly sad embarrassment is that, at some point, a spiral happened. It took too long to pull out of it.
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