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Joe Hallett commentary: Snooping on
journalist's family is new low for Democrats
BY JOE HALLETT
The Columbus Dispatch
Jan. 16, 2011 - A general rule of politics is that families are off
limits.
Criticize a political opponent, go after a public official but leave
spouses and kids alone, unless there are special circumstances that
expose them to scrutiny.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern broke that code on Nov.
11, nine days after Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland lost re-election.
Redfern personally signed a public-records request with the city of
Cleveland for the payroll records of a city employee, Mary Ann Consolo
Larkin.
Here is what Redfern might have learned from his request: Larkin has
worked as a part-time graphic artist in the city planning department
for more than 29 years. She is paid about $35,000 a year. She is a
classified employee.
Redfern probably already knew that Larkin is a registered Democrat. He
also knew this about her: She is married to Brent Larkin, one of Ohio's
most respected and influential journalists.
For 41 years, Larkin has chronicled government and politics in
Cleveland and Ohio, first with the defunct Cleveland Press and for the
past 30 years with The Plain Dealer. From 1991 to 2009 when he retired,
Larkin was the newspaper's editorial page director, and since retiring
he has continued to write his must-read Sunday column.
Larkin has a reputation as a bipartisan critic. He doles out praise and
disapproval to politicians and parties on an earned basis. Over the
past couple of years, regular readers of Larkin's column easily
discerned that he didn't think much of Strickland's performance as
governor.
In a Sept. 27, 2009, column, Larkin wrote, "With breathtaking
ineptitude, this governor has almost single-handedly created one of the
worst budget crises in the state's 206-year history." Larkin concluded
the column by writing that Strickland "is well on his way to being
forever regarded as a colossal failure."
That column and others earned Larkin the enmity of Strickland and his
Democratic allies, who otherwise smiled approvingly at the frequent
swipes Larkin took at Strickland's GOP rival, now-Gov. John Kasich.
Strickland was known to complain bitterly about Larkin.
But Redfern took it a step further. His request for Mary Ann Larkin's
payroll records could be viewed as an attempt to send an unmistakable
message to Larkin: Criticize one of ours, and we'll come after your
family.
Redfern told me last week that wasn't his intent, saying he was
following up on a tip that he declined to publicly reveal.
"I don't want to make it seem like I'm intimidating anybody, because
I'm not," Redfern said. "There was no intent there."
Larkin believes otherwise. From vacation last week, he e-mailed a
comment about Redfern's records request.
"The Ohio Democratic Party has an unquestioned right to any and all of
my wife's payroll records. That said, the party's rank and file might
be better served if its leaders spent more time trying to elect
Democrats, rather than engaging in a comical and pathetic witch-hunt
aimed at the spouse of a columnist who dared to be critical of the
party's sitting governor."
We have been reminded since the Jan. 8 shooting of Arizona Democratic
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that the conduct of our politics has devolved
into hatred and fear. All involved - politicians, political parties,
the media, interest groups and everyday citizens - are culpable in the
demonization and destruction of those who espouse opposite viewpoints.
By going after a journalist's wife, Redfern descended to a new low. I
can't remember a party leader doing such a thing in nearly three
decades of covering Ohio politics.
I harkened to the famously vengeful tactics of President Richard M.
Nixon and suggested to Redfern that what he did was Nixonian.
"Really?" he responded. "Those are your words, Joe. You going to put
that in a column?"
Thankfully, my wife works in a furniture store.
Joe Hallett is senior
editor at The Dispatch.
The Columbus Dispatch
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