'It's like taking a shotgun and blowing a piece of your body out'

Gov. John Kasich seems to be driving a political wedge right into the heart of Ohio.

I caught most of Kasich's state of the state speech the other day and my perception that he is a my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy was further affirmed.

I'm not sure what it is -- he's not a bad speaker. But his delivery seems to lack the warmth and compassion of the greater orators.

Here's an excerpt:

"The state of Texas grew faster in five and a half months than Ohio did in the last 10 years. And as a result, we’ve lost two congressional seats. Two congressional seats. Texas gains four or five. It’s like taking a shotgun and blowing a piece of your body out. You lose those congressional seats, you lose your influence, you lose your experience, you lose your voice in a faraway city where they need to hear the voice of Ohio, the voice of the heartland.

"I’m here to tell you that this trend must be stopped and we’re going to do it. We’re going to stop this trend with Republicans and Democrats if I have to pull the Democrats across the aisle myself personally. We are going to get this done, Jason."

It's like taking a shotgun and blowing a piece of your body out?

Really?

Kasich also was singling out State Sen. Jason Wilson, D-St. Clairsville, who, no doubt, would like to discuss Kasich's hard line on Senate Bill 5.

Instead of calling for some tweaks to the collective bargaining law which might appease Democratic legislators (and thousands of public workers), Kasich's Senate Bill 5 basically does away with it.

(It does allow public employees to "collectively bargain" for wages, not benefits, and it affords them no leverage, i.e. strikes. In other words, it does away with collective bargaining. It's semantics.)

In recent years, the two political parties have largely been defined by whether their members lean left or right

In the "old" days, Democrats were the party of the "working man." My father-in-law used to remind me of that fact as often as he could. Republicans, he said, worried only about rich, white guys.

(I argued that Democrats were for more government and Republicans were for less government. But that fell on deaf ears.)

Is Kasich unknowingly pushing us to those old definitions again?

Well, yes, I think he is, although I think there are plenty of private sector workers, who believe the GOP does a better job representing them.

And there's that wedge -- the move to kill public employee collective bargaining -- that has set off a war between the two sets of working Americans. There's not much love on either side given the comments that have been hurled by each side so far.

Look out, pols -- 2012 will be here sooner rather than later.

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It was sad to read that Atwood Golf Course won't open for the season this year, but I am not surprised. Golf is a victim of the recession and the isolated Atwood course's days were numbered especially in the wake of the lodge shuttering.

I have fond memories of the Atwood course. Two of my three holes-in-one occurred there (not bragging, just reminiscing) and the views of the lake the course afforded were spectacular.

In fact, few places on the planet are as beautiful as a well-manicured golf course -- ask any golfer -- and it is disconcerting that now Atwood will be left for nature to do whatever it wants to it. No doubt the weeds will win now. What a shame.

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Dover City Councilman Greg Bair's public meeting on the worth of the Tuscarawas County Port Authority and East Central Ohio Building Authority has been scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Memorial Hall.

I'm not sure who is planning to attend or what kind of arguments or opinions will be offered, but it does promise to be interesting. I think.

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Good luck to Twin City Hospital and its employees. I hope the purchase of the facility by the Franciscan Services Corp. works out in the long term.

The corporation owns five hospitals and seven long-term care facilities. According to the Times-Reporter, FSC plans to continue to operate Twin City as a primary care hospital.

There are tremendous financial pressures on hospitals today and some of those pressures prevented area health care facilities from purchasing Twin City. Obviously FSC has a plan. And maybe some cash stashed somewhere.

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Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel screwed up by sitting on information that implicated a handful of his best players in a memorabilia-for-tattoos scandal.

How's that for summing up a ridiculous situation? It's amazing some of the things we worry about in this country.

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