Romney, the CEO-candidate, talks business in Mayfield Heights

I went to see Mitt Romney’s speech at Landerhaven last night, and I think I saw why he’s having trouble connecting with voters.

We all know the story: Romney’s the Republican front-runner who can’t hold a lead. Conservative voters keep turning to other presidential candidates. Rick Santorum is now beating Romney in the polls in Ohio, in Michigan, and nationwide. The right says Romney isn’t really conservative; the left and right say he lacks core beliefs.

But last night, his problems seemed far away. Romney got an enthusiastic reception at the Cuyahoga County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner. He laid out a fiscally conservative critique of President Obama and a conservative agenda that fits who he is and what he’s done.

“This president did not cause the recession, but he made it worse,” Romney argued. “This president is not the reason the economy is showing signs of getting better. He’s the reason it’s taken so long for the economy to show signs of getting better.”

Romney charged that several of Obama’s policies had hindered businesses from hiring people, from health care reform to deficit spending to regulations of the oil, coal and natural gas industries. He promised instead to repeal the health care law, approve the Keystone pipeline to Canada, and “cut spending, eliminate programs, shrink government as a share of the economy from 25 percent to 20 percent and finally balance our budget.”

It’s a classic conservative argument, and Romney is a classic type of Republican: a CEO candidate. A former corporate executive, he thinks government doesn’t understand business and ought to get out of its way.

Obama “never worked in the private sector,” complained Romney, who ran the private investment firm Bain Capital before he was governor of Massachusetts.

“A lot of people in government, they’re never had the great fortune of working in a regular job, in a regular enterprise, and seeing what it’s like to try to make a product or sell a service. They haven’t had the experiences that many of you -- most of you probably in this room -- have had.”

Romney’s argument that he understands the economy better than Obama because of his business experience may be a powerful weapon during an economic downturn.

But his business experience is also his weakness. I noticed something strange about Romney’s speech: He talked to the audience like they were all fellow businesspeople.

“If you’re in the private sector, as most of you are in this room, you don’t have a choice about being fiscally conservative,” he said. “If you’re not fiscally conservative, you’re broke, you’re gone. [Other] businesses [will] put you out of business! You know how to be conservative!”

The tickets to last night’s Republican Party dinner were $50 to $75 -- not cheap, but affordable for a wide range of people. “Parma Republican Club,” read the sign on the table closest to me. But even when Romney tried to aim his message at employees and employers alike, it sounded like a chamber of commerce address.

“What you do is harder than what government does,” Romney said to applause. “If you mess up big time, you lose your job, you lose your investment, lose the jobs of other people. The private sector is not forgiving.”

Romney's message connected at Landerhaven, where he was among conservatives who believe in pro-business, laissez-faire politics, whether they own a business or not. But I wonder how much this message will resonate with people who’ve already lost their jobs or are underemployed.

CEO candidates can’t count on as much support today as Romney’s father did in the 1960s. It’s not just that Tea Party voters are pushing the Republican Party to the right. It’s that the working class has become more Republican.

“Reagan Democrats” aren’t Democrats anymore. They’re conservatives. They don’t like government, taxes, or liberalism. But they’re populist conservatives. They’re not eager to vote for a guy who reminds them of their boss.

Romney needs to get better at talking to people who are suffering from the economic downturn. But part of his problem goes deeper than rhetoric or style. His defense of the “unforgiving” private sector may turn double-edged on him.

The president’s campaign has already filmed attack-ad footage of steel workers who lost their jobs after Bain Capital took over their mill. Obama’s stump-speech line about not going “back to the same policies that got us into this mess” aims the poor economy back at the Republicans and financial-firm executives. In a bad economy, a campaign between a liberal-activist president and a CEO-challenger will be a clear, clarifying fight and a close call.

Russo testifies, lives it up as day of reckoning recedes

A $3,000 dinner bill at XO Prime Steaks, a $4,000 meal for 15 or more at Mallorca -- food upstaged hookers today in Frank Russo's first day of testimony at the Jimmy Dimora trial.

"Everyone knew Jimmy liked to eat and have good food," said Dimora's former pal, demonstrating a mastery of understatement.

Ah, those were the days for Jimmy and Frank, back when they dined out four nights a week, sticking Ferris Kleem or J. Kevin Kelley or some other doormat stooge with the check. That was 2008, long ago for Dimora.

But Frank Russo, enjoying his new career as a government witness, is still out on the town.

This Friday night, Russo was living it up at Fahrenheit in Tremont, a friend who saw him there tells me. The crooked ex-auditor, in a party of four, seemed altogether unvexed by his upcoming testimony. The atmosphere at their table was more festive than funereal.

Since the FBI raided his office in 2008, I've heard about Russo enjoying his remaining freedom: checking out a street festival, heavily over-tipping in Bratenahl and watching sports at the Winking Lizard in Bedford Heights.

But Friday at Fahrenheit, Russo truly had a reason to celebrate. His first day in prison had just been put off indefinitely.

Last week, prosecutors asked that Russo's reporting date of Feb. 29 be postponed until he's finished testifying in multiple corruption trials. Judge Sara Lioi granted the request.

After Dimora's trial, the feds' star witness still has to testify against his former deputy auditor, Samir Mohammad, who's set for trial in June. Russo's services will probably also be required at the trials of lawyer Anthony O. Calabrese III, set for September, and contractor Michael Forlani, which isn't even scheduled yet.

So Russo may have been granted another year of freedom.

He has an obvious reason to stall for time: He's 62 and facing 22 years in prison. He'll get years cut off his sentence in exchange for testifying, but even so, he may not live to be a free man again.

The feds say the delay isn't intended to reward Russo. It'll save the government money. Having him stay in Cleveland is easier for the feds, who don't need to bring him back from prison in Pennsylvania every time they need him. Russo isn't only testifying, he's offered to help the investigation by reviewing and explaining documents and wiretaps. Shipping all that stuff to prison would cause "insurmountable logistical and security problems." Besides, it isn't special treatment. All the corruption defendants get to stay out of prison until their cooperation is finished.

That almost sounded logical to me, until I remembered a moment from the Nate Gray trial seven years ago. A prosecutor asked Emmanuel Onunwor, the convicted former East Cleveland mayor, where he was residing. "The Lake County jail," he testified. The feds can temporarily stash important witnesses in local jails, if they really want to.

Russo keeps buying his reprieve a few months at a time. Though he turned his county fiefdom into a jobs-for-cash machine, stole $1.2 million in cash kickbacks from the taxpayers and agreed to pay $7 million in restitution, he is still dining large.

That upsets my friend, who wonders how Clevelanders can still admit Russo into polite company. Restaurants should refuse Russo a table, he says. Sure, they might get buzz from serving a notorious guest. But they'd get more buzz from throwing Russo out. If they don't, my friend says, "Someone should throw a drink in his face."

Regionalism plan leads FitzGerald’s State of the County proposals

Hoping to unify Greater Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald officially revealed his plan for the county to offer municipal services in his State of the County address today.

“For the first time, cities won’t have a monopoly on providing services,” Fitzgerald said during his speech at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, broadcast live on WCPN. “Over time, we will have the prospect of becoming a cohesive metropolitan area.”

FitzGerald sneak-previewed his proposal a month ago in my interview with him for the January-February issue of Inside Business. Today, he reiterated his argument that the plan offers a way to move beyond Cuyahoga County’s futile, century-old debate about regional unity.

“Our patchwork of individual kingdoms is powerless to execute any strategy to compete in a global economy,” FitzGerald argued. But Ohio cities’ strong home-rule powers make a full consolidation of city and suburbs into a single government nearly impossible, he added.

So FitzGerald wants the county to offer several new services to cities each year, from information technology to infrastructure maintenance. Cities would sign up voluntarily, or still provide services on their own. But FitzGerald said the effort would eventually lead to a “county-wide, metropolitan government” that could better compete with more unified metro areas across the country.

The regionalism proposal was the highlight of his speech’s 12-point agenda, which he called the Western Reserve Plan. It includes two more new initiatives he described in IB's latest issue: a “pay for success” formula for delivering human services and pledge to use the county’s casino tax revenue to improve downtown Cleveland and the lakefront.

FitzGerald also announced a pilot program to buy homes on the verge of foreclosure, a plan to help returning military veterans, a health and wellness initiative and an economic inclusion task force. With a nod to the Jimmy Dimora corruption trial in Akron, FitzGerald concluded by promising to fight any attempt to return to the county’s “old ways” of patronage and cronyism.

“I’ll do everything possible in my power to prevent that,” he said.

Opposition to city trash-to-energy plant grows

Frank Jackson calls it part of his sustainability efforts. Opponents call it a polluter. They'll have it out over the new few months.

Cleveland's plan to build a waste-to-energy facility on the West Side looks like it'll lead to a serious battle, with both sides claiming they're defending the environment.

Protesters hit City Hall last night, trying to stop the plant. (See NewsChannel 5's coverage here.) Councilman Brian Cummins predicted it'll never be built.

The Jackson Administration wants to heat trash and turn it into energy using a technology popular in Japan called gasification. The mayor traveled to Japan last year to look into it. He touts it as part of the city's plan to reach a goal of "zero waste" by 2019. He argues it'd be better for the environment and the city's budget than the current practice of dumping trash in a landfill near Canton.

"If I don’t have to pay a $7 million dumping fee and all the fuel it costs to get a garbage truck to the dump and back, not only have I dealt with being environmentally friendly, because I’m not putting something in the environment, then I’m also saving millions of dollars," he told me last month.

Opponents refer to the plant as an incinerator. They think the new technology will pollute the air as conventional trash-burning incinerators do.

Dennis Kucinich came out against the plant this month (and three days later, claimed he was leading the opposition to it). Jonathon Sawyer of Greenhouse Tavern, touting his sustainable-restaurant credentials, just wrote a letter to Jackson opposing the plant. It's an interesting moment -- a Cleveland chef trying to leverage his growing celebrity into influence.

"The process will greatly increase the amount of soot, carbon monoxide, and mercury that our community ingests daily," Sawyer argues.

Jackson still has to convince a skeptical city council. I wouldn't be surprised if opposition lines up much as it did against Jackson's failed LED lighting plan.

Both ideas were originally promoted by businessman Peter Tien. Scene ran a good story last month that poked holes in Tien's plans and credentials. Now, after giving him a $1.5 million contract to design a gasification plant, the city is seeking informational bids from other plant designers instead.

Dimora trial a nationwide hit, thanks to CNN and Ch. 19's Puppet's Court

At first, the Jimmy Dimora trial was our tawdry local affair. The opening day got a quick mention on NPR, and that's about it for national coverage. Chicago and Detroit scandals become nationwide stories, but Cleveland's not a big city anymore, so news directors on the coasts think our scandals are strictly small-town.

Well, that's sure changed. Thank 19 Action News and its puppets.



Yes, in a mere week and a half, Channel 19 has taken Dimora's Vegas romp and sexual appetite nationwide.

Last Tuesday, it debuted "The Puppet's Court," a daily reenactment of the trial's most salacious testimony and wiretaps. The Associated Press put out a story, and pretty much everyone with a web site has joined in on the fun. Eight days later, a Google search of "Dimora" and "puppets" generates 174,000 hits.

Monday night, Dimora and his cronies really broke out. Anderson Cooper featured 19's puppets on his "Ridiculist" segment, feigning shock that a TV news station would resort to felt to get around a courthouse camera ban.

19's stunt is borrowed -- MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was doing courthouse puppets nine years ago. But within the genre, the folks at 19 are innovating.



Their puppets, provided by Natural Bridges Puppets of Parma Heights, improve on Olbermann's pix on a stick. They talk, shake, sleep. They're more muppety. The dunt-dunt-dunt theme song, borrowed from the '80s courtroom show The People's Court, amps up the kitschy drama. The backdrop of an actual photo of Delmonico's Steak House behind the J. Kevin Kelley puppet in the Day 4 video adds some nice local atmosphere.

In the end, Cooper, like most of us, got lured in by the hooker hook. How could he not? "Is there room for a lady of the evening in the court of puppet opinion?" he asked. His answer: A resounding yes.

Every other media outlet in Cleveland is shaking their heads, saying they'd never resort to such shenanigans. But when the daily paper's front-page story reads like this, and a web site called clevelandescortsnews.com is tenaciously aggregating the daily's coverage -- well, as Hunter S. Thompson once said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." I say, let Action News be Action News!

Update, 1/26: From the Plain Dealer this morning: "Judge Sara Lioi individually questioned six jurors about whether they had heard media reports about the trial. Despite the judge speaking in a low voice to the jurors, she could be heard mentioning the word 'puppet.' "

Take the Dimora scandal tour with me & Ch. 3

Scandal tourism used to be an overlooked niche in Cleveland's visitor economy, but not anymore.

Not after Channel 3 reporter Amanda Barren interviewed me about the hot spots featured in the "Map of the Fallen Stars," my guide to the Jimmy Dimora trial and the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal.

Check out the video from yesterday's morning show. Then read the "Map of the Fallen Stars" in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine, or online here, for my advice on how you can live it up like Dimora and Frank Russo on your next extravagant, yet discreet, staycation.

Also, follow the link to Channel 3's page about my appearance and let me know if you see what I see: an ad for the Mirage in Las Vegas. ("Stay 2 nights and receive a $65 dining credit!") I guess AdChoices has been following the Dimora trial too.

No more mirrors: My profile of Nailah Byrd, Cuyahoga County's new inspector general

Down at the Dimora trial in Akron, it's Day 3 of Cleveland's tawdry, FBI-filmed reality show, "Jimmy and Frank Do the Mirage."

But up in Cleveland, things have changed.

Frank Russo's giant wall-length mirror is gone from his old office. So are Russo's black lacquer credenza and leather couches and chairs. And in Russo's old office sits Nailah Byrd, Cuyahoga County's first inspector general, whose job is to bring sunlight and transparency to the government.

Byrd is the taxpayer’s watchdog at the county building, the enforcer of a new ethics ordinance and an independent investigator of alleged wrongdoing in the government. She's one of Cleveland Magazine's 30 Most Interesting People for 2012. And if you think she looks familiar -- yes, she's the daughter of former Cleveland schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

“When I first started, you hear the whispering as you walk down the hallway,” she told me. “Is she the inspector general? What is she going to do? Why is she here?”

You can read my profile of Byrd here and in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine.