Just Go Away 

Just Go Away

Now our governor, Robert Taft, is a convict. The thumbnail sketch is that he was found to have accepted gifts, mostly golf outings, from people or companies and failed to disclose them on annual reports, not once but rather four consecutive years. This wasn’t an oversight but instead an intentional fudging of the reports. He pleaded no contest to a few misdemeanors and insists he won’t resign. His term is up in a year and half anyway and his political career in Ohio was done even before this. He was term limited out as governor so his only other alternative would be to run for the US Senate and since he was extremely unpopular because of tax increases as well as a bloated state government and probably wouldn’t win a statewide race for dogcatcher he was in all likelihood through. In a way it is kind of sad. He held a number of offices prior to this and has been thought of as an honest if somewhat dull and unremarkable man. The Taft family has had quite a political legacy in Ohio and he has certainly smeared it. When he came into office he proclaimed a 0 tolerance policy for ethics violations. Over the years he has fired or forced to resign a few that have violated the state ethics laws. He should stop being a hypocrite and follow the standards he expected others to live up to. He should say that he failed to live up to those standards and he is going to hold himself to the same standard of accountability that he held others to. He should apologize on statewide TV and resign effective immediately. The state will not fall apart if he steps down. He would be doing his party a favor as well especially considering that 8 years ago the state republican party pretty much cleared the field for him to run by making promises and putting pressure on other potential republican candidates not to run. The biggest reason he should step down is that it is simply the right thing to do.