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Tuesday, May 27, 2008 "When news breaks, we fix it" Serving West Virginia since 2005
RUSS WEEKS: Not your average Joe
MOJO & MIKE: Standing by his man
Having Fun With Mojo
How is any of this my fault?
Hey kids! Mojo here! Have you heard about the scandal at West Virginia University? Probably not. Well, there are some people trying to blame me for the whole mess! How can that be? Geesh! Did I have anything to do with Mike Garrison getting hired there?Well, uh, actually...OK, but do I have any power or control over the WVU Board of Governors?Well, truth is....Never mind! Try this one -- is there any connection between me and the former student who got a degree she didn't earn?Uh, well....So what? It's all just a bunch of coincidences! I'll tell you one thing -- what's really making me mad is that some people are trying to make this whole thing political! Politics has nothing to do with it! Like I said Monday, the Board of Governors can do anything it wants! And I'll support whatever it does!After all, haven't I been fully supportive of everything it's done so far? 
Weeks filing per diem suit at High Court this afternoon
RUSS WEEKS
Will WV voters accept gov's role at WVU as just more business as usual?
JOE MANCHIN
Russ Weeks will today file his lawsuit against Gov. Joe Manchin, the State Legislature and others challenging the legality of the retroactive per diem payments included earlier this year in the pay raise package lawmakers approved for themselves.Weeks, accompanied by attorney Richie Robb, will file the suit this afternoon directly with the West Virginia Supreme Court. A tale of two governors: What if Manchin had been guilty of what Ohio's Taft was accused of just a few years ago?
Over the weekend, The Associated Press distributed a story, carried by most papers on Monday, examining whether the scandal at West Virginia University is having, or will have, any effect on Gov. Joe Manchin's reelection chances.The story focused heavily on the fact that Manchin's Republican challenger, former State Senator Russ Weeks, is making the scandal an issue in the campaign. But overall, the story largely concluded that at this time Manchin seems relatively unscathed. That seems contrary to a flood of callers to radio talk shows and hundreds of blog responses that can be found on various internet sites, including this one from WSAZ-TV, which carried a truncated version of the AP story. One of the AP's main sources for expertise was Prof. Robert Rupp of West Virginia Wesleyan, who said, "I don't think it is translatable as a political issue. I don't think Weeks is going to get 10 percent more of the vote, given the situation as it is now.''Professor Rupp is a nice guy, and no doubt a good teacher, but no one should ever make any bets in Vegas based on his predictions, if his forecasts. in recent years are any indication. In West Virginia, the issue is not whether the WVU scandal should hurt Manchin. Of course it should, and in just about any other state in the nation, it would be a killer. But West Virginia is so numb to political scandal, it greets most of them with a shrugIn the neighboring state of Ohio, former Governor Bob Taft was once as popular with constituents as Manchin was early on. But when he left office, Taft's approval rating was at an all-time low -- only 6 percent in one poll. What was it that brought Taft down? Primarily, two things:* Taft was charged in 2005 with four criminal misdemeanors stemming from his failure to disclose golf outings paid for by lobbyists, as well as some undisclosed gifts. The gifts were each valued at less than $200. If this happened to Manchin, it would be greeted with a collective yawn, and a "so what?"* Taft was the victim of the actions of Tom Noe, who was at the center of the Ohio "Coingate" scandal. In 2006, Noe was found guilty of theft, money laundering, forgery and corrupt activity, mainly for engaging in a pattern of corruption in his management of Ohio's $50 million rare-coin fund investments. If this happened in West Virginia, Manchin would express his disappointment and walk away untouched. In Ohio, Taft was blamed by Ohioans and the media.One can only imagine what would have happened in Ohio had it been discovered that Bob Taft's daughter was awarded an unearned degree from Ohio State University -- with grades that WV still fighting tag of 'racist' after Hil's win
were invented out of thin air -- and from a Board of Governors he had largely appointed, and under the nose of a close family friend recently handed the office of the OSU presidency.
Based on public and media reaction to the golf outings and "Coingate," Taft, or any other governor, probably would have been publicly drawn and quartered if what has happened at WVU had happened in almost any other state.So what's the difference? Well, it doesn't hurt that Ohio politicians are doggedly watched by major daily newspapers including the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Dayton Daily News, Toledo Blade and the Akron Beacon-Journal, all of which have full-time statehouse reporters stationed in Columbus, each competing with the other every day.West Virginia's largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette, is not as big, circulation or staff-wise, as the smallest paper in the above list. It's not that newspapers in West Virginia don't try. Some of them do. But they simply don't have the resources or manpower to be the watchdogs the state needs, or -- let's face it -- the motivation that competition naturally brings. One of the most telling statements that Gov. Manchin made during the unfolding of this scandal was to criticize the fact that the issue was being driven by a newspaper from Pittsburgh. Mojo likes it better when West Virginia news is left to West Virginia newspapers. Of course he does, because it generally results in a free ride, compared to the spotlight his colleagues in other states have to endure.There are some excellent -- excellent -- political and investigative reporters in West Virginia, and they do the best they can with limited resources and time. It is likely that a lot of reporters in West Virginia are just as upset that they did not break the Heather Bresch story as Manchin is that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke it at all.Neither Russ Weeks nor the Republican Party should bear the responsibility of holding Gov. Manchin accountable for the scandal at West Virginia University. As the chief executive who appointed most of the WVU Board of Governors, the guy who whole-heartedly supported Mike Garrison's appointment as president at WVU, and the father whose daughter improperly benefitted from that set of circumstances, Manchin's accountability should not even be a question in need of asking. But, it apparently is. And so, Russ Weeks' starting point is to make an argument he should not have to make -- that the governor is culpable in this scandal. His level of success in making the electorate understand the obvious will determine whether he ends up tilting at windmills or fighting for victory in November.Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts has added his voice to pundits and comics who have stereotyped West Virginia as racist following Hillary Clinton's blow-out of Barack Obama in the May 13 primary election.West Virginia Democrats did not vote against Obama because he is black. They voted against him because of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and because of Obama's comments about small-town people turning to their religion and their guns in times of turmoil. Comments like those would doom any candidate in states like West Virginia, regardless of the candidate's color.