Roundtable: Joan Mazzolini, reporter, The Plain Dealer; Harry Boomer, reporter, 19 Action News; Patrick Shepard, president, Stonewall Democrats.
Ohio Senate and Gubernatorial races: On last Sunday's Meet the Press, Tim Russert grilled Senate candidates Mike DeWine and Sherrod Brown on national security, the war in Iraq and international trade. Later in the week, Ohio Gubernatorial candidates Ted Strickland and Ken Blackwell made an effort to explain their plans for Ohio's economy. With about a month left to go before the election, we'll look at candidates' positions on the issues and whether voters are paying attention.
Bob Woodward book critical of Bush administration: Woodward's latest book, State of Denial, is highly critical of the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq. Woodward suggests, among other things, that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is a less than competent micromanager and that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ignored intelligence that could have prevented 9-11.
Congressman Foley Resigns: Republican Congressman Mark Foley resigned this week after sexually explicit emails Foley sent to Congressional pages came to light. The timing couldn't be worse for Republicans, who are scrambling to do damage control right before mid term elections - spin efforts that some observers believe are horribly botched. And, as is often the case, the question is now less about the misbehavior itself than a matter of what did the Republican leadership know and when did they know it?
Report gives city's Building and Housing dept a thumbs down: A consultant hired by Mayor Jackson to evaluate Cleveland's Building and Housing department did not have a complimentary assessment. Among other problems, the report sites an inability to track code enforcement. Jackson is putting a new team in place in the hopes of cleaning up the housing mess.