That’s what an article in this week’s edition of The Other Paper, an alternative newsweekly in central Ohio, calls him. Click. Read. Discuss. (Excerpt below the fold.)
For a man in the crosshairs of a multifaceted political assault, Ken Blackwell was awfully cheerful Tuesday morning. As he competes with two well-funded fellow Republicans for his party’s gubernatorial nomination, the Ohio secretary of state, in the words of a recent fundraising e-mail, “is now the target of the liberal Democratic machine.”
And he’s loving every minute of it.
Comedian Al Franken has said unkind things about Blackwell on his radio show. Billionaire George Soros, who spent millions last year in an unsuccessful effort to defeat President Bush, has reportedly decided to spend his money trying to prevent Blackwell from becoming Ohio’s governor in 2006.
“It’s a formidable group of opponents, I tell you,” Blackwell said with a laugh Tuesday. “If only Barbra Streisand would come out against me, I’d be doing fine.”
On the state level, the Ohio Democratic Party is now invoking the fear of a Blackwell Statehouse to raise money for itself. Just as the notion of Sen. Hillary Clinton running for president has Republicans around the country reaching for their wallets, the specter of a Governor Blackwell–not to mention Vice President Blackwell–has become a motivating tool for Democrats.
“Absolutely,” said Dan Trevas, a former Democratic Party official who’s now working on Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman’s campaign for governor. Trevas said Blackwell is indeed rising to the level of a Hillary as a unifying enemy for the American left.
Mark Weaver, adviser to Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery, one of Blackwell’s GOP rivals, agreed.
“I think that’s a good comparison,” Weaver said.
“He’s such an easy target. Ken Blackwell attracts controversy the way a flame attracts a moth.”
Apparently. Atop the Ohio Democratic Party’s website are the words, “Help Ohio Democrats STOP KEN BLACKWELL!” In case you missed it, up against the right border of the page is a picture of the secretary underneath the instructions: “Click here to learn how you can STOP Ken Blackwell.”
If you’re so inclined, you’ll be directed to “The J. Kenneth Blackwell File” page, which features three radio ads, all blaming Blackwell for problems at polling places last Nov. 2, including long lines and uncounted ballots. If elected governor, the ads say, Blackwell will impose his “radical right-wing agenda on Ohio.”
Read the rest here.
So, are we raising his status with the kind of focus we’ve put on Blackwell? Maybe. But do we have any choice? He really is that bad, and after we were unable to stop a second term of Bush, as bad as he was, I’ll be danged if we’re going to sit idly by thinking about Ken Blackwell–“Nah! He’s so awful there’s no way he can get elected governor. Don’t worry about him.”
Hmm. How to–legally, nonviolently–solve a problem like Ken Blackwell, without unintentionally “raising his stock”?
