George Voinovich, former Cleveland mayor, Ohio governor and U.S. senator, dies

[HughBeaumont]

Source: Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - George Voinovich, an earnest-looking Collinwood boy who grew up to be an Ohio legislator, Cleveland mayor, Ohio governor, U.S. senator and one of the most popular Buckeye State politicians of his generation, died early Sunday.

He was 79.

His son, George, said his father died peacefully in his sleep.

snip

"I think he'll always be remembered for his compassionate leadership, his bipartisan approach and his ongoing stubborn commitment to fiscal responsibility," Curt Steiner, who was among Voinovich's top political advisers, said Sunday. "He lived in a fiscally responsible manner and he led in a fiscally responsible manner. I can't think of anybody who can match the record."

Voinovich, a lawyer and one-time assistant state attorney general who spent more than four decades in politics, was credited with restoring financial health to Cleveland after the city went into default under his mayoral predecessor. A plainspoken man with a disarming grin and support from the city's business establishment, he helped ignite the downtown building boom of the 1980s that would give Cleveland the moniker "Comeback City."



Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/06/george_voinovich.html#incart_2box

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Good things for the city, bad that he was a Bewsh rubberstamp as a Senator.

[Marthe48]

1. I never forgot

within months of becoming governor, he allowed cutting food stamps to healthy adults and then gave all of the state of Ohio department heads raises. Such compassion, such attention to fiscal responsibility.

[FarPoint]

2. He adopted outsourcing State Services

He handed out privatization like giving candy away at Halloween. I won't forget....

[Marthe48]

3. and every town, city, county and region

continues to pay -- use taxes, city income taxes up, infrastructure in ruins, job markets gone. But keep electing the ravening corporate tools.

[FarPoint]

4. Lots of Fox Noise followers...

Not sure how to fix that.

[karynnj]

5. In one big vote, he was not a Bush rubber stamp -- he voted against confirming John Bolton

More significantly, he refused to vote to recommend him in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Many of here - in the GD and in the JK group watched and commented in real time on that horrible hearing. It was already clear that Bolton was a completely disgusting person and he was a horrible candidate to be the US UN ambassador. More information was coming out daily -- but it was clear that the Bush administration had doubled down in demanding the Republican controlled 109th Congress give him this confirmation.

Even the usually reasonable and gentlemanly Lugar was on board for this effort - though I wonder if he will ever say why. Unlike the normal diplomatic way he ran the committee - even giving some Democrats, especially John Kerry, extra time if their questioning was succeeding in getting more information, here he was calling every Democrat out of order - including Kerry, Biden, Sarbanes etc. Pictures spread through the internet of an atypically angry Biden and other Democrats.

We all thought, as the Democrats on the committee likely thought, that his nomination would be successfully voted out and then his confirmation in the Senate similarly railroaded through ....... then Voinivich spoke.

Voinvich had been quiet through most of the hearings. This time he, suddenly said that he could not vote for Bolton. He stood against his party and said no. This likely helped the Democrats to successfully filibuster Bolton ... who Bush then put in by a recess appointment.

[Night Watchman]

6. Wasn't he called the "Boy Mayor" at some point?

Or am I confusing him with someone else?

[David__77]

7. That was Kucinich.

...

[wisteria]

8. He was a reasonable and decent Republican. Sorry that he only lived to be 79. May he rest in peace.