What Makes Jimmy Run

Ohio has its fair share of unusual characters. From Edison to the Wright Brothers, U.S. Grant and all the lesser known Americans who have shaken things up, good or bad, Ohioans have tried to make a difference. John Brown staged his anti-slavery rebellion less than two miles from where I sit, only to have it brought down at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The Underground Railroad had several stops here in Ohio, some with passage to Canada and some with final stops that populated Ohio towns with freed people who added to the greatness of the Western Reserve.

Conversely the Ku Klux Klan had hefty political power here in its heyday. According to the Ohio Historical Society the Klan found strong support during the 1910s and 1920s. Here in Summit County, the Klan claimed some fifty-thousand members, the largest local chapter in the United States, and that included almost all civic leaders.

Some might say Ohio is the real home of rogues, rebels, and people who go against the grain of culture and politics. A perfect example of that is former congressman James Traficant. An iconoclast in almost every sense, Jim Traficant is an unapologetic fly in the ointment of the status quo.

On September 2nd of last year, Traficant was released from prison with three years left on probation. He was convicted on several counts of racketeering and tax violations. After serving time in "art class," as he characterizes his imprisonment, Traficant has picked up where he left off. In a recent interview with WAKR's Ray Horner, he lambasted the tax laws and decried the unconstitutionality of the IRS and the indexed tax code. "I'm the son of a truck driver and I'm not playing with anyone." He claimed he was not only outside of the process, but he "raped" the process in order to get federally funded projects to the Mahoning Valley, his home base of Youngstown, Ohio.

Mr. Traficant is still a star in Ohio and around the country. He has a weekend talk show on local radio and has been interviewed on numerous national media. On one such show, The Sean Hannity Show on Fox News Channel, he berated the support of Israel and claimed that was at the center of most of America's troubles. This did not make him any friends, but Jim has never been concerned with popularity, except in the voting booth.

Traficant told Ray Horner that the country will implode if nothing is done about the "communistic tax scheme" under which we live today. He also said he will run again in spite of the 480-1 vote to expel him from congress on ethics charges in 2002.

When Jim Traficant was released from prison, I put up a fan page on Facebook just for fun. I opened it and walked away. In two weeks there were more than ten-thousand fans of this site with absolutely no promotion. Once I heard the comments about Israel I took the site down for fear of being associated with that position.

Jim Traficant has announced that he will run for congress as an independent in one of the two districts close to Youngstown, either the 6th or 17th. Don't be surprised if the one-minute speeches aren't the new most-viewed videos on YouTube, something that wasn't around during his first reign as the "regular guy" in congress. In case you just beamed down from who knows where, there's nothing regular about Jim.