Abusive Powers

Judge Dallas Powers sounds like a prototypical sexist, racist, egomaniacal country bastard right from central casting. Any screenwriter that invented such a character would have the script handed back, because it's been way overdone.

If Ohio's Warren County exurbs are the new paradigm for electoral politics and 21st-century convenience, it's time to upgrade the municipal software. These were rural communities in the 1970s, and some of the local leadership apparently hasn't advanced past those backwater days. (Niether, apparently, have some hair styles.)

Democrats could try to exploit stories like this, and claim certain people in these communities possess troglodyte, anti-progressive values; but taking this too far would alienate needed voters. Tricky.

UPDATE: Some history. What a vicious, crazy S.O.B. Also Red-State provides a good summary of the case, with a solid perspective on the judicial and electoral processes in play.