In Cincinnati, the Reddest city in Ohio, the red hot campaign for an open Congressional seat has just gotten a lot hotter – and the chance that the seat might flip from Red t0 Blue has been ratcheted up a notch or two.
Jean Schmidt, a Republican political hack, has been nabbed telling a bald face lie while speaking into a camera. Her opponent is Paul Hackett, a Marine who recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. It’s been 20 years since a Democrat won the seat in this district.
More about this in a moment but to appreciate how bad Jean Scmidt is you really should watch a bit of this clip from an interview she did with NBC’s David Gregory on “Hardball” last week: Crooks & Liars – Schmidt Interview
Now here’s how Swingstate Project describes Schmidt’s, er, gaffe:
Jean Schmidt is well known for never forgetting a face or a name. Conventional wisdom recognizes her renowned memory to the point where the Cincinnati Enquirer noted (July 31, 2005):
Schmidt knows the district very well, having almost a “file-card” memory to recall details about people, places and issues she’s had experience with on the local level.
Yet on this morning’s CBS 12 “Newsmakers” program, Jean Schmidt lied to the voters on – only two days before the election. In an effort to cover up Jean Schmidt’s involvement in the scandalous culture of corruption, Schmidt said she didn’t know Tom Noe. Schmidt said she’d never met Tom Noe. Schmidt said she had never even heard of Tom Noe. The woman with the “file-card memory” lied.
You see, Jean Schmidt was Vice Chair of the Higher Education Subcommittee of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee. During the same period, Tom Noe was a member of the Board of Regents.
In fact, on March 21, 2002, official state documents prove Jean Schmidt testified before Tom Noe’s committee. Tom Noe seconded and approved the minutes for this meeting, which read:
There are a number of areas where we are totally lined up with [Jean Schmidt’s] thinking. In any event, the conclusion is that we need more contact, more often.
And , additional official state documents establish that Tom Noe testified before Jean Schmidt’s committee on March 18, 2003.
These official State of Ohio documents confirm ties between Jean Schmidt and Tom Noe.
