J.D. Prose – 8/25/12

This page was last updated on August 26, 2012.

One man’s brush with GOP greatness; J.D. Prose; Beaver County Times; August 25, 2012.

According to his Twitter page, Mr. Prose is a self-described “Surly progressive.” As you read this opinion column and his Twitter “tweets,” keep in mind Mr. Prose wears at least one other hat for the BCT. In addition to being an entertainer/pundit, Mr. Prose is a part-time reporter covering political stories. Ask yourself this. When a pundit gives his political opinions in one part of the paper, can he be trusted to report politics objectively elsewhere in the paper? After all, would a person whose opinion is 1+1 equals 3 report 1+1 really equals 2? Does he have a “Chinese wall” in his head to keep his opinions from bleeding into his reporting? (You may recall NPR claimed it fired Juan Williams for doing exactly what Mr. Prose does.) If it can get worse than that, Mr. Prose has made name-calling and personal attacks a foundation of his columns. If pushed, I’d be willing to bet Mr. Prose would try to excuse his writing by claiming he’s paid to be controversial and stir debate. The problem is, you don’t need to get into name-calling and personal attacks to accomplish those goals.

You can find the archive of my Prose column critiques here.

Below is a detailed critique of portions of this column.

“We don’t know if he still does, but the great David Letterman used to do a segment called ‘Brush with Greatness’ in which studio audience members shared their brief encounters with celebrities.”

[RWC] This column is mostly about two apparently very-confused individuals.

“This week, we’re having our own ‘Brush with Greatness’ courtesy of wayward-Democrat-turned-Republican Steve Kochanowski of Potter Township, who worked his way into the motorcade that drove GOP vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan around the area last week.”

[RWC] In 2010, I critiqued a Kochanowski letter entitled “Altmire is best for the region.”

I don’t know what’s going on with Mr. Kochanowski and his party affiliation. In August of 2011, Mr. Prose told us, “Potter Township Democratic committeeman/state committeeman Steve Kochanowski just recently got elected the executive vice president of the Pennsylvania Young Democrats, but that won’t last now that he’s become a Republican and is supporting the decaffeinated GOPer Mitt Romney for president. ‘I can no longer support a party that stands for abortion, gay marriage and gun control,’ Kochanowski tweeted last week. ‘The party has moved to (sic) far to the left and discourages young people from being involved.’ Is that ironic coming from a 26-year-old town and state committeeman?”

One month later Mr. Prose wrote, “Kochanowski sent out an e-mail announcing that he was returning to the Democratic Party because, well, he realized he disagreed with GOP stances that hurt unions, the poor and education. Imagine that.”

Until this column, I found nothing to indicate Mr. Kochanowski switched parties again.

“(On a side note, we were on vacation when Ryan came to Carnegie so we missed all the excitement ... and the sprint away from nutty GOP U.S. Rep. Todd Akin’s ‘legitimate rape’ comment that shed light on Ryan’s own reprehensible record on the right to choose. Don’t pull a hamstring, Paul! Stretch first.)”

[RWC] Mr. Prose didn’t describe his definition of “reprehensible record on the right to choose.” In the lefty lexicon, “right to choose” really means killing an unborn baby for convenience. It does not mean the right to choose your kid’s school; your medical insurance provider; what, where, and how much you eat; to own a firearm; and so on. Given the leftist definition of “right to choose,” a sane person would expect having a “reprehensible record” should mean a person supports abortion for convenience. In the world of leftyspeak, however, having a “reprehensible record on the right to choose” means you oppose killing unborn babies for convenience.

Will someone explain to me why people who want to protect unborn babies are evil while those who support killing unborn babies think of themselves as the good guys? It’s hard for me to understand how people who support killing unborn babies can be so proud of themselves.

“Anyway, Kochanowski was a volunteer driver and, in super-secret lingo, could only say he ‘drove staff around.’ Where? ‘I’m not allowed.’ How long did you drive people around? ‘I’m not allowed.’

“OK. We get it. So, how great was Ryan on a scale of 1 to 10 if 1 is super awesome and 10 is half as great as Ronald Reagan? ‘He actually took the time to talk to me,’ Kochanowski said. ‘Everything that people say about him is true.’ Uhhh, we’ll be nice and leave that one alone.

“As for being a former Democrat, Kochanowski said he shared that information with Ryan, who ‘just laughed and thanked me for everything.’

“Actually, Kochanowski said Ryan spoke with him for about 15 minutes. ‘He’s very sincere. He’s very, very sincere,’ Kochanowski said.

“No offense, Steve, but that’s what we’re afraid of.

“EPIPHANY

“Canceling out Kochanowski’s vote for Romney/Ryan this time around will be, shockingly, Monaca resident/former Aliquippa GOP political gadfly/longtime conservative rabblerouser John Mukanos, who told us he’s endorsing the Democratic ticket this fall.”

[RWC] Over the years Mr. Prose has referred to Mr. Mukanos as a “longtime conservative,” a “diehard conservative,” and an “ultra-conservative.”

“Is this the same Mukanos who has railed against the Democrats and spanked Republicans when they got too moderate? Yep, but Mukanos said he was once a Jerry Brown Democrat who actually brought Brown to Aliquippa.

“His decision, Mukanos said, ‘is going to surprise people who’ve only known me for the last 12 years.’ Mukanos got disenchanted and left the GOP several years ago.”

[RWC] “Shockingly” and Mr. Mukanos’ “decision … is going to surprise people who’ve only known me for the last 12 years?” Sure. In 2010, Mr. Prose himself wrote (“Campaign funds separate haves from have-nots,” 6/26/10), “Monaca resident John Mukanos, a diehard conservative, says he’s launching Republicans for Onorato to rally GOPers behind Democratic Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato’s gubernatorial bid.”

“Referring to ‘Romney/Ryan/Corbett,’ Mukanos said, ‘They’re the worst Republicans I’ve ever seen in my life ... People need to vote Democrat in this election and you know how hard that is for me to say.’ Yes, we do.”

[RWC] If Mr. Mukanos were really a “longtime conservative,” a “diehard conservative,” and an “ultra-conservative,” never in a million years would he vote for Messrs. Obama, Biden, Casey, and Critz.

“What’s turned him off? Mukanos attributed some of it to ‘hateful, obnoxious, rotten talk-show hosts’ such as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. But, he also said he’s tired of the GOP fantasy of trickle-down economics, in which giving the rich tax breaks is somehow supposed to help everyone else ... yet it never does.”

[RWC] Maybe it’s just me, but does it make any sense for a responsible voter to let his opinion of talk-show hosts help determine how he votes? As for “hateful, obnoxious,” does Mr. Mukanos read Mr. Prose’s column and/or listen to other leftist pundits?

The old “rich tax breaks” fantasy again. I’m sure Messrs. Prose and Mukanos would like us to believe the Bush-era tax RATES were for the “rich.” Several years back the Tax Foundation reported, “Despite the charges of critics that the tax cuts enacted in 2001, 2003 and 2004 favored the ‘rich,’ these cuts actually reduced the tax burden of low- and middle-income taxpayers and shifted the tax burden onto wealthier taxpayers.” In 2010, Democrats finally had to admit the “tax cuts for the rich” BS was a lie. On December 6, 2010, President Obama said the following about the Bush income tax RATES: “Make no mistake: Allowing taxes to go up on all Americans would have raised taxes by $3,000 for a typical American family. And that could cost our economy well over a million jobs.”

Back in April 2011 I wrote: “Based on 2009 federal income tax data, the top 1% (AGI greater than $344,000) of filers paid 37% of the total and the top 5% (AGI greater than $155,000) paid 59%. The bottom 50% (AGI less than $33,000) paid 2.3% of the total. For tax year 2009, 58,603,938 filers (41.7%) had zero or negative tax liability. If you think that’s bad, it gets worse. The Tax Foundation continues, ‘In 2008, 25 million tax filers received $51.6 billion in EITC [Earned Income Tax Credit] benefits. Of this amount, $50.5 billion was refundable in excess of their income tax liability. Also in 2008, some 25.3 million filers received $30.7 billion in child tax credit benefits, with more than 18 million of these filers getting $20.5 billion in refundable checks. Many families are eligible for both the EITC and the child credit. These are not refunds of overpaid tax; they are payments to people who have already gotten back everything that was withheld from their paychecks during the year.’”

“‘I’m tired of being trickled on,’ said Mukanos, who still insisted that local Republicans need to challenge the Democratic stronghold at the municipal level.

“We welcomed Mukanos to the fold and told him we expect to see an ‘Obama/Biden’ sign in his front yard, which drew a heavy sigh. No hurry, John. All in due time.”