And a pretty cheap rent, at that. For a mere $50,000.00, Ohio coal companies were able to wreck a man’s career and gain the ability to pollute at will. Pocket change for such a result. Yep, Kasich is a good buy as politicians go.

The back story: a competent and even-handed civil servant was enforcing the environmental laws on the fossil fuel industries. Said industries did not like that, so they bribed the Guv: Kasich then fired the man.

“The administrator who oversees the state’s efforts to protect streams, lakes and wetlands from pollution says he will resign in September, after the governor asked him to step down over disputes with the coal industry.

In an email sent to his staff yesterday and obtained by The Dispatch, George Elmaraghy, chief of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s division of surface water, wrote that the coal industry wants “permits that may have a negative impact on Ohio’s streams and wetlands and violate state and federal laws.

“Now, due to this situation, the governor’s office and the director have asked me to resign my position.”

Guess that’s how Kasich became a millionaire: fifty grand here, a hundred grand there, pretty soon you’re talking real money. Of course, if you are neither Kasich nor someone who bribes him, these “rental fees” add up to something far less attractive.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky