Ken Blackwell: A too-typical story of today's GOP

I'm late in getting this post from OD1 up, but it's pretty timeless. And shows once again that this fall is going to be a referendum on GOP corruption-- DeLay might be gone, but his eager successors are all over the electoral map. And they stink.

It was recently announced that Blackwell held Diebold stock while he was encouraging state officials to purchase their voting machines. And all it took to show just how morally bankrupt the guy is was another peek at his financial dealings.

Although he opposes potential November ballot initiatives to permit slot machines at Ohio’s horse-racing tracks, Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell holds stock in the world’s leading maker of slot machines. (. . .)

Blackwell, who opposes abortion rights, also holds stock in Barr Pharmaceuticals, maker of the controversial Plan B, or the morning-after pill, to prevent pregnancy.

The Nation recently ran a story suggesting that fundamentalists are starting to wake up to Republicans who pander to their religion while violating their most cherished beliefs. It can't happen soon enough. Actually, that story is well worth reading. It's on the rapid decline of Ralph Reed, the career Republican operative who has made a living on the corporatist/fundamentalist alliance.