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The Cincinnati Beacon
Todd Portune’s Politics of Headlines
Friday, September 21, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
 Photo courtesy of here.
In today’s Enquirer, Todd Portune gets the final word in a story about Simon Leis getting sued for allegedly using public dollars to engage in political campaigning. According to the story, “It’s all politics,” Portune said. “The politics gets the headlines. Do we really need to tie this up in court?” Give me a break, Todd. Are you really trying to play politics by pretending to make some kind of righteous commentary on politics? Todd, you know as well I as do, that if Phil Heimlich had done the same thing last year, you would have been right there with me, and probably David Pepper, too, complaining about his illegal campaigning. How dense do you think we are?
To answer your question, Todd, yes, we do need to tie this up in court. If we don’t, then politicians like you will get the wrong message. You’ll think we either don’t care or are too stupid to recognize when you break the law. But we are watching. And you need to understand that, Todd. We are watching, and it is even easier for us now to share information and get the word out.
Things have changed since the days you turned back the clock at City Hall, and read into the record in 1998 your concerns about the Bengals being involved in an anti-trust game—which effectively set the stopwatch to put a four-year statue of limitations on any lawsuit against them, which you did not bother to mount until two years too late. Did you really need to tie up the courts with that one?
Or, is this instead about what is politically convenient for your position at the time? I bet if getting Heimlich out of office and David Pepper into office involved a lawsuit, you would have loved it. But now that the tables are turned, you have decided that you are going to complain, like a sniveling child.
All of your supporters wanted to use innuendo to suggest that the NAACP is filled with ignorant people being used by groups like COAST to advance an anti-black agenda. Why are you exempt from these sins of association? Why are you so bent on supporting and advancing the agenda of Sheriff Leis? Why do you wish to bolster the image of someone who has become the icon of a Republican stronghold in Hamilton County? Do you really wonder why an increasing number of progressives are turning away from the Democrats?
And David, don’t think you’re free-and-clear on this one, either. You’re in that Enquirer article, too, saying “While we desperately need to do something to reduce crime, the groups that oppose (the sales tax) are more interested in filing suits and complaints than making our community safer.”
I have never met anyone who actually supports danger. I know nobody who wants to have more crime. Who are these mysterious people you are talking about? They don’t exist, because you are playing the exact kind of political games that Portune pretends that both of you are avoiding. This is gross hypocrisy.
We want an open and transparent and comprehensive safety plan to examine. Not a billion dollar outline of obscurity. We do not trust politicians just because they say we should. And we don’t trust you because you carry one party label as opposed to another.
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