Lying, Hypocrite, Lawyer, Family-Values Legislator Quits

The Columbus Dispatch reports that the lying, hypocrite, lawyer, and family-values Cincinnati-area legislator Robert Mecklenborg (pic) has resigned from the Ohio General Assembly.  But not before Mecklenborg worked out the most advantageous way he could stick it to Ohio taxpayers for salary and pension. 

Here's reporter Darrel Rowland's story:

An embattled Cincinnati-area state representative quit yesterday afternoon, caught up in controversy after being arrested for drunken driving in Indiana with a stripper in his car and Viagra in his system. 

By making his resignation effective Aug. 2, Robert Mecklenborg, R-Green Township, ensured himself that he will be paid for all of July; if he had quit this month, his legislative salary would have been prorated. He also gets a bit more from the state retirement system.

"My recent actions have become a distraction to the additional important work that lies ahead for the members of the 129th General Assembly. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I resign from the Ohio House of Representatives," the married father of three said in a statement today.

"Most importantly, I want to sincerely apologize for any pain and embarrassment I have caused my family, my constituents, and my colleagues. I will be forever grateful to the many constituents and colleagues who have urged me to stay, but I believe it is in the best interests of my family and my constituents to step aside during this difficult time."

His two-sentence resignation letter to House Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, was sent electronically yesterday, although it had been in the works since Saturday, said Mike Dittoe, spokesman for House Republicans. The news was emailed to reporters near the conclusion of yesterday's women's World Cup final soccer match.

Batchelder, who called for Mecklenborg to step down last week and indicated that the resignation was only a matter of time, said in a statement, "Bob has admitted his mistakes and, while difficult, I believe he has made the appropriate decision to step down as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives."

The House's No. 2 GOP leader, Lou Blessing of Cincinnati, said in the same statement: "As a friend and fellow member from Hamilton County, I believe Bob Mecklenborg has provided valuable insight on a number of legislative issues over the years. His service will be missed, but I am pleased that he has appropriately decided to put the interests of his family and constituents first by stepping down from the Ohio House."

Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern, who had earlier called on Mecklenborg to quit, said a veteran lawmaker bears a heavier burden of accountability.   "He's not a freshman legislator who had a bad weekend," Redfern said. "It was clear he was going to put others at risk as well as his female passenger."

The chairman chided Mecklenborg for lying three times: to the arresting officer, to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and to those around him.

The latest blow against the GOP representative came last week when it was revealed that four days after he was charged with DUI, Mecklenborg signed a driver's-license application in Ohio saying that he did not have any outstanding traffic citations. Mecklenborg, 59, had an expired driver's license when he was pulled over by an Indiana state trooper on April 23.

A three-term legislator who did not attend last week's House session, he has pleaded not guilty to DUI and is scheduled to appear in court on July 26. A dashboard camera video showed him repeatedly telling the trooper that he had not had anything to drink, even as he failed three field sobriety tests.

Dittoe said Batchelder doesn't regret not calling for Mecklenborg's resignation earlier. Despite Redfern's suspicions to the contrary, Dittoe said the speaker and his staff didn't find out about the indiscretions until early on June 29, shortly before the incident was reported in the press [...]
Mecklenborg was chairman of the House State Government and Elections Committee and sponsored a controversial bill that would require Ohioans to provide a photo ID before being allowed to vote. He also belonged to the Judiciary and Ethics Committee [...]
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Ihe video of the arrest shows Mecklenborg repeatedly lying to the arresting officer and attempting to deceive the Indiana officer.  This and Mecklenborg's fraudulent license application may cause some bar disciplinary grief for Mecklenborg.  We'll see.

Drunk Driving Costs an Ohio Legislator His Job?

Idaho Sen. McGee



I read, or scan anywhere from 100-150 local news websites everyday, thus I see certain patterns in the stories and specific trends emerge.  For a while, there were tons of child porn prosecutions, child abuse and neglect stories, police misconduct, Ponzi schemes, in the spring and summer bicycle fatalities--right now there is a remarkable predominance of stories of public officials and drunk driving.  Yesterday, I featured the story of the Texas Assistant District Attorney who resigned after a drunk boating arrest.  The beleaguered Bronx assistant prosecutor, Jennifer Troiano was back in the news as the poster girl for favoritism in the NYC tabloids.  An Idaho republican senator, John McGee (pic) who stole a neighbors' Ford SUV and crashed it into a immovable object after a bizarre night of drinking got a misdemeanor plea deal and looks like he's getting a second chance at his political career with a misdemeanor plea deal and kind words from the sentencing judge.





Jennifer Troiano

But Ohio Rep. Robert Mecklenborg (pic, below right), a right wing and right to life zealot is being kicked to the curb for a DUI according to an article at the Columbus Dispatch.  As a commentator said yesterday, in each case there is more.  There is always more.  Let's see if we can figure out why Mecklenborg is losing his seat.  This is an excerpt from the Columbus Dispatch article:

The House speaker says a Cincinnati Republican who went through an embarrassing drunken-driving arrest and did not tell leadership about the incident until it became public should resign from his seat soon.

Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, has said he holds Rep. Robert Mecklenborg in high regard for his legislative work, but he added yesterday: "I don't think he'll come back to the capitol building."

Mecklenborg, 59, was arrested in April in Indiana on a DUI charge by an Indiana state trooper. The three-term lawmaker refused to blow into an alcohol-detection machine, and a dashboard camera video shows him repeatedly telling the trooper that he had not had anything to drink, even as he failed three sobriety tests.  A blood test later registered his blood-alcohol content at 0.097 percent, above the 0.08 percent level at which a driver in Indiana is considered to be drunk - the same as in Ohio. Mecklenborg, who is married, also had a younger female passenger [ a stripper that he took to a local Burger King] in the car, and his blood contained Viagra.



Rep. Robert Mecklenborg

Mike Dittoe, spokesman for Batchelder, said the speaker will continue to work with Mecklenborg on a timeline for his resignation [. . . ] Batchelder said Mecklenborg is getting treatment, but he didn't specify for what purpose.

Earlier yesterday, Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern called on Mecklenborg to resign, saying he endangered the lives of his female passenger and the public when he drove intoxicated.

"I believe Rep. Mecklenborg showed a disregard for his family and the constituents he is supposed to represent. He failed them. It is time for him to go," Redfern said in a statement.
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Robert Mecklenborg, a trial lawyer (which he tells the arresting officer in the video at the link) in addition to being a legislator, climbed out on that whole family values limb.  He was an outspoken advocate of recent (probably unconstitutional) restrictive Ohio abortion legislation.  It's hypocrisy, not alcoholism or drunk driving claiming Mecklenborg's public service career.  One local blogger titles a recent post about Mecklenborg abortion posturing and DUI arrest, "If Fetuses Were Able to Take Strippers to Burger King..." Politically, all sorts of shenanigans can be survived.  Hell, in Louisiana, the 4-term ex-governor and felon, Edwin Edwards is being feted all over Louisiana media.  But you politically can't survive hypocrisy.

Nancy Grace, Media -@#%$&

The harpy to the left is Nancy Grace, a former prosecutor and OJ groupie/lawyer commentator.  She's built a low-rated Cable channel program on what was formerly called Headline News, by appealing to the lowest common denominator and exploiting crime victims for sensationalism.  Her interview of Elizabeth Smart, is one of the most skin-crawling moments in "real crime" television history (see video at YouTube.) 

Grace is a defendant in a wrognful death lawsuit brought by survivors of a very troubled 21 year old mother of Trenton Duckett--who Nancy Grace insinuated murdered her then missing two-year old son.   The mother killed herself a couple of hours prior to the airing of the telephone interview in which the mother was berated by Grace for not submitting to a lie detector test Duckett's attorney told her not to undergo.  This is Dahlia Lithwick's article from 2006  which nicely summarizes the Duckett controversy and Nancy Grace's role in it. 

Which brings me to the hypocrisy that prompts today's post, courtesy of The Smoking Gun  Miss Grace is about to have her deposition taken by videotape--you know:  lawyers are going to ask this former prosecutor questions and this media-lawyer is going to answer the questions under oath in front of a camera.  Guess what she and Cable News, Inc. have filed a motion with the court seeking to "seal" the footage so we the people won't see it.  Seems, Nancy Grace is afraid that the deposition footage will be sliced and diced out of context.  No kidding!

There is a role for legal commentary, that's what I do here.  There is ample reason for expressing outrage on behalf of victims of crime;  we do that here, all the time.  But this hypocrite, sensationalist exploiter of crime victims can't take what she readily dishes, and we should all take notice.