Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Memo to SWNIDish Self: Vote for Anyone But Leis

We are late in blogging this, but we can't let it go.

Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis, once the champion of moral values in his headline-grabbing obscenity prosecution of the Robert Maplethorpe exhibit, has decided to sell his soul for a new jail.

Actually, not even a new jail, just for some of the dough to run it.

Leis stood Monday with the feckless advocates of a ballot initiative to bring a casino to Cincinnati's Broadway Commons. WXIX quotes the flip-flopping lawman:

I've been informed that commissioners will announce a funding mechanism for building a new jail within a few weeks. However, operating a large jail costs money and taxes from the casino could help offset that cost.

Or how about crack house, Si? Or a bordello? It would be too honest just to tax people for the money, or to redirect available funds from less important programs, wouldn't it?

By contrast we offer SWNIDish kudos to Phil Heimlich, whose chronic lack of cooperation with other officials makes him not always our favorite local politician, for this remark:

I remember they said if we just pass a state lottery that would take care of our education expenses once and for all. We know what happened there.

Got that right. A teacher spends a whole day teaching children basic skills, reminding them that they need to work hard all their lives using these skills so that they can have money to care for themselves and their families. Then the child goes home, turns on the TV, and is told that the key to wealth and happiness is a $2 scratch-off card sold at the convenience store for the benefit of the state coffers. No child left behind, indeed!

Our experience, sheltered as it has been, is nevertheless littered with the remains of lives destroyed by compulsive gambling. We adamantly refuse to have some spineless politicians refuse to tax us directly for what we need and instead tax the compulsions of gambling addicts and their math-challenged kin, the recreational gambler. If it's our jail, we want to pay for it.

Back to Si. He has the reputation for being Super-Sheriff. But is it deserved? For years we've seen his parade of assault vehicles, all adorned with his large-lettered name, at Cheviot's Harvest Home Fair. But it's time voters asked whether after all these years it's time to elect someone with fresh eyes. And, it would seem, some coherent moral standards.

2 comments:

steve-o said...

I enjoy hearing these politicians explain all the good casino revenue will be able to accomplish. I believe I read last week that the Learn and Earn group [which has no concessions for a Cincinnati casino] claims that slots will fully fund tuition for Ohio students by 2010.

And people are believing this?

I don't think Ohio voters are that gullible.

Jon A. Alfred E. Michael J. Wile E. SWNID said...

Per our double political standard regarding President Bush and Sheriff Leis, we assert that advocacy of legalized gambling for the partial maintenance of a jail is so abjectly stupid as to deserve the most extreme response, especially with a politician who has been in office so long that is time for retirement is certainly overdue apart from matters of present performance.

Let's hope that the Ds at least run someone for sheriff in the next election. The reason no one remembers Leis's platform is that he hasn't had opposition in anyone's memory.