Douchebag of the month: Josh Mandel

“If there were a dictionary entry for political mendacity, it could carry the picture of Josh Mandel." -Youngstown Vindicator

You knew this was coming folks.

I’m sure when he puts his PJ’s on at night and his wife tucks him in, Josh Mandel dreams of being President someday. He’s impatient, he’s in a hurry, and he won’t take no for an answer. City councilman, State Representative, Ohio Treasurer – Senator…President? Joshie has never actually finished any job he started in while climbing to the next level.

Joshie grew up in Lyndhurst. But not in the part of Lyndhurst most people are familiar with, the land of bugalows and Brush High School students. No Joshie grew up in the tonier area of Lyndhurst that runs along the borders of Acacia Club. An area better described as Beachwood North. All the more fitting that Joshie went to Beachwood High where he was quarterback of the football team and from what I’ve heard, a bully. His political career began at Ohio State where he was president of the undergraduate Student government.

Then he was elected to Lyndhurst city council where his first act was to send a letter to citizens where he lied about the city’s finances and tried to buy their support by promising a $400 check. Mandel then tried to starve the beast by proposing a 2 mil tax rollback, which got knocked down to a 1.5 mill rollback. Hey, has anyone heard about Lyndhurst going broke because of the Acacia purchase? That wouldn’t be the case if that rollback hadn’t passed. But Joshie doesn’t care, he got married in Jerusalem and moved to Beachwood. He took two leaves of absence during which he was still paid, to serve in Iraq. More on that later.

Joshie is a restless kid who can’t stay put for a second. Capitalizing on his “war record” he managed to get himself elected to the Ohio State House in 2006. Then in 2009 he decided to run for State Treasurer and won by smearing opponent Kevin Boyce as a Muslim – which Boyce is not. Once in office, Joshie hired his college buddies and hardly ever showed up for work as he began scheming for higher office. Now he’s running for Senate and despite all the Super-Pac money being pumped into Ohio by his buddies Karl Rove and Sheldon Adelson, it looks like Joshie’s gonna lose. Maybe defeat would be good for his character.

One look at this punk and you can see he’s a weasel. Notice how whenever he lies one side of his mouth pulls upward and he blinks one eye? His voice also jumps up an octave. He’s done a lot of both lately.

Joshie looked so idiotic in that first ad of his. When I saw him tying his boots, I thought: He ties them the same way my son did when he was 6. The boots thing was his attempt to portray himself as a war hero. Joshie ain’t no hero. Sure, he went to Iraq. He pushed paper there. He’s not a hero any more than George W. Bush is a hero for delivering Turkey to the troops on Thanksgiving. Bush’s father, George Herbert Walker Bush, there’s a real war hero. I’ve never quite been able to forgive him for fathering that waste of flesh W though.

Joshie has something in common with Romney besides his obsequiousness. He’s a political chameleon who changes his position to appeal to whichever block of voters he’s trying to attract. He started up the ranks as a moderate Republican but by 2010 he was a full-fledged Tea-Partier and kowtower to the Christian Right. This is a real irony since Joshie himself is Jewish.

I know, some of you are going to say “this guy is an anti-Semite.” I am nothing of the sort and I support Israel. And I know many Jews who just can’t stand Mandel. They call him a pipsqueak and a pisher and they are right.

Joshie has boasted about what a great Treasurer he is. I say, let’s let him stay at that job and prove himself.

Happy Columbus Day

Columbus Day celebrates a guy who wasn't looking for the New World, thought he'd arrived in India, wasn't the first European here, and whose happenstance "discovery" led to the near genocide of the first people here. Yeah, let's celebrate that.

It's time to ditch Columbus Day and declare a new holiday to celebrate a true Amercan tradition - Election Day should be a National Holiday.