Lehman: The Gift that keeps on giving

Just to show I’m a fair media watchdog and not just a crazed blue Weimaraner, let me give credit to the Dispatch and the Wolfe clan for two stories two days in a row. They help Dems make their Lehman Brothers point about John Kasich.

Last weekend, we noted how the Dispatch unfairly ripped the skin off Ted Strickland for appointing new Chief Justice Eric Brown, but yesterday it published an article headlined: “Kasich ad lands on militia site.” In it, Hallett/Riskind disclosed that “Kasich says he helped take Google public (on the Wall Street stock exchange) as a former managing director of Lehman Brothers.” The Dispatch line was an almost offhand disclosure that undercuts Kasich’s defense that he was a mere midwestern pawn in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy of 2008 that led to a global meltdown that massively impacted Ohio’s recovery efforts.

Then today, the Dispatch published an AP story that began this way:

“State records show that Ohio's public pension funds took a $480 million hit in investments managed by Lehman Brothers as the banking giant collapsed.” Deep in the article, it also repeated the recent news that Kasich admitted he got an Lehman bonus and comp of more than a half million during 2008. AP reporter Carr-Smythe noted that all of this could impact the 2010 election.

Now, add this gem to the Dem playbook for 2010: A Gallup Poll yesterday showed increasing national support for Obama’s banking reform effort when the term “Wall Street Banks” is mentioned to poll respondents instead of just the simple term “banking reform.” That’s message measuring research that the Strickland and ODP makers of 30-second spots should be studying carefully.

Republicans will scream class warfare, of course. But Lehman Brothers and the emerging Goldman Sachs scandal is going to be driving GOP congressional types toward Obama’s Wall Street banking reform and driving Ohio voters away from Wall Street.
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