For awhile, of course, it was Chuck Hagel, but he is out of public life and it's not easy finding a substitute among the roiling mass of Obama-hating, climate-change denying, evolution-disparaging Jesus-lovers who are persuaded we are living in the end times since the Radisson's housekeepers are earning $9 per hour and signing up for health insurance. Moreover, the rules prohibit the anointment of some obscure outlier whose Republican bona fides might be disputed even by members of the reality-based community.
But John Kasich qualifies. He's a Republican, the popular governor of Ohio, and candidate for his party's nomination for president in 2016. I'm sure he hasn't a chance: the characteristics that recommend him to me lock him out of the Republican clown car. Topping the list of Kasich's apostasies is his relative friendliness toward Obamacare. Ohio, not alone but almost among states with a Republican governor, opted in to the Medicaid expansion allowed by the Affordable Care Act. One result has been that about a half million low-income Ohioans have gained access to health insurance, and Kasich hasn't been shy about defending his record:
Last year, he traveled to Southern California to appear on a panel at a conference sponsored by the Republican mega-donors Charles and David Koch. At one point, according to accounts provided by two sources present, Randy Kendrick, a major contributor and the wife of Ken Kendrick, the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, rose to say she disagreed with Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid coverage, and questioned why he’d expressed the view it was what God wanted.
The governor’s response was fiery. “I don’t know about you, lady,” he said as he pointed at Kendrick, his voice rising. “But when I get to the pearly gates, I’m going to have an answer for what I’ve done for the poor.”
The exchange left many stunned. About 20 audience members walked out of the room, and two governors also on the panel, Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, told Kasich they disagreed with him. The Ohio governor has not been invited back to a Koch seminar — opportunities for presidential aspirants to mingle with the party’s rich and powerful — in the months since.
As I say, he hasn't a chance. My favorite detail in the above exchange concerns Kasich's deployment of "lady"--"I don't know about you, lady"--to address someone who no doubt is accustomed to being groveled. It happens that Kasich's father was a mailman. I know this because he made a big deal about it when he ran for president in 2000, and I remember wondering to myself whether the son of a day laborer might then have even more to recommend himself for high office.
In a different context, however, it's quite enjoyable to contemplate a Republican from a modest background returning fire when the wife of the owner of the Diamondbacks expresses puzzlement about the efforts of someone who seems more serious about improving the lives of his constituents than toeing a line.
Comments