Mary Lazich's Ohio Water Ally Has Slurred African-American Colleague

State Sen. Mary Lazich has touted the views of Ohio State Senator Tim Grendell that oppose the adoption of the Great Lakes Compact.

She even forwarded his opinions to the state legislative study committee, where staffers from Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources labeled Grendell's views irrelevant to Wisconsin law.

Lazich should check more carefully into the company she keeps: Grendell had to make a public apology for a racially-tinged barb he aimed at an African-American colleague and leader in the Ohio legislature.

The story with the details from the Cincinnati Enquirer is here, and thanks to Adam Young who left this information in the comment box on this earlier posting of mine.

Here are the key paragraphs from the Enquirer story:

"Grendell, of Geauga County, directed his comments last week toward state Sen. Mark Mallory of Cincinnati, who was a co-sponsor of a resolution asking the General Assembly to ratify the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

"Grendell, who is white, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer for a story published Thursday that Mallory is "the only reason I might support the OhioReads program," referring to the state's volunteer tutoring program for schoolchildren.

"Grendell also said he doubted that Mallory, who is black, would understand the U.S. Supreme Court's historic 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that allowed legal racial separation.

"Grendell took the House floor Tuesday and apologized to Mallory, members of both the House and Senate and the citizens of Ohio."

Sen. Lazich: heckuva pal you got there, and thanks for running around the Capitol suggesting that Grendell is something of an oracle.

I wonder if Grendell knows that the Plessy decision is considered something of a stain on the history of the US Supreme Court, and that its "separate but equal" ruling that legalized racial segregation in the schools was overturned in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954?