Will County Reform be Spelled: R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N?

Could the pathetic condition of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party give us a Republican for the first County executive? Is the Pee Dee already pushing a Republican, the out-of-county son of Cleveland Indians’ owner Larry Dolan for the top spot?

Ohio Rep. Matthew Dolan, it has been reported, who will have move into Cuyahoga County from Geauga County to run would enjoy at least a $1 million campaign fund to bring new leadership to us corrupt Cuyahoga County people. Read the News Herald story on Dolan’s power grab: http://news herald.com/articles/2009/11/07/news/nh1664674.txt

He sounds just the right ticket for Cleveland’s corporate elite who will not leave the city even more to its decay – except for downtown, of course.

The Pee Dee, playing out its role in trying to Republicanize Democratic Cuyahoga County, ran photos of 10 Democratic present and former officeholders plus a labor leader, asking in a headline: “What do these Democrats HAVE IN COMMON?” Easy question to answer: They’re not Republicans.

It continues the Pee Dee’s war on Democrats. I don’t believe for purposes of better government but “different” government. After all, much of this corruption took place with Pee Dee complicity. The paper has been supportive or compliant with so much of what the city and county have done in the last – what – 50 years, or more.

Here’s how these bandwagons get started:

Brent Larkin in the Pee Dee Sunday writes: “Look for State Rep. Matthew Dolan, a moderate Republican from Geauga County, to quit his House seat, move to Chagrin Falls (me: does Chagrin Falls suggest Cuyahoga County to you?) and become the Republican nominee for county administrator. Dolan is a first-rate public official who could raise upward of $1 million, but that GOP label remains a huge liability in a countywide election.”

Dolan is a conservative Republican. The “moderate” label comes from a likely self-serving vote to back Gov. Ted Strickland’s move to rescind tax breaks to help meet the state’s financial problems. Dolan’s vote, I’d say, was made with the knowledge that he likely would run in Cuyahoga County with its large Democratic vote.

Please, give a little thought to obvious political maneuvering.

He’s a “moderate Republican,” writes Larkin. No, he’s not. He is a member of the billionaire Dolan family and the son of Larry Dolan.

How is he “moderate?”

Larkin and the Pee Dee have been speculating on who can change County government now that the paper has helped succeed in pushing Issue 6. The issue passed last week. So far, I’ve seen only male names proposed for the top job. Aren’t there any women in Cuyahoga County?

Larkin skipped the fact that Matthew Dolan is a member of the BILLIONAIRE family and at least part owner of our miserable baseball team.

The Pee Dee was crowing all over the paper on Sunday about its Issue 6 victory.

The Pee Dee ran a full-page ad proclaiming that it still matters. It even played atop the ad the famous quote from Thomas Jefferson about newspapers – that it would be better to have newspapers without government than the opposite. Of course, Jefferson spoke when newspapers took sides and you knew it. Even represented downtrodden people sometimes.

The Pee Dee plays fast and loose with its intentions and self-interests, heavy propaganda for the power elite in town. That’s not exactly what Jefferson had in mind when he spoke.

In addition, Publisher Terry Egger was allocating another self-serving dish with a rare column headlined, “Paper thrives on rush of news.”

“What an amazing, historic week for this community and this newspaper,” Egger opens his piece.

“In my 25-plus years as a newspaper executive, I cannot recall a single week that produced as many events of great local interest on so many fronts,” he tells us.

Actually, it was one of the saddest weeks one could imagine for a city.

Not a week for crowing with the death count from the house on Imperial Avenue. Egger does mention “the horror of worst serial killing in Cleveland history,” but in the same sentence with the “upheaval in the Browns’ front office.” Not bookend tragedies by my measurement. But it is revealing of the thought process of the Pee Dee publisher.

“Newspaper sales have been especially strong in the last couple of weeks, and Tuesday and Wednesday shattered records for the number of people viewing our work on Cleveland.com,” writes Egger.

Well, a gruesome story will do that, Terry. Hardly a credit to the newspaper. People slow down their cars to watch a car accident, too.

The essence of the ease with which the murders of 11 women happened over a period of time despite warnings of crimes screams out for an explanation of why this took place. What ingredients of neglect allowed a community to allow this with little notice? And even when noticed, why such little focus by those whose attention it demanded?

The murders on Imperial Avenue could be chalked up to the nature of the serial killer by some. The killer operates in such a fashion that it escapes notice, sometimes for a long time.

However, there’s a strong hint that Cleveland’s long record of not paying attention to its real problems made it easy for this tragedy to go on.

Egger’s bragging and the full-page Pee Dee ad trying to take advantage of the community’s dysfunction for its commercial purposes strikes me as a bit gross, especially this week.