Again, John Kasich shows he's no Scott Walker

WI GOP Governor Walker is a waterway pollution enabler, but his GOP Ohio counterpart John Kasich has a different plan.

*  The first time we saw the difference in these GOP Great Lakes governors was in 2014, when Kasich slammed Walker for using poor people as his personal football.

Remember the other day when there was discussion on the conservative-leaning "Morning Joe" MSNBC program that Scott Walker was too immature to be President?

Sounds like that meme played out again when a reporter saw Walker shoot his mouth off at a GOP Governors meeting a few hours ago, only to have a more seasoned competitor, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, put Walker down:

BOCA RATON, Fla. — It was almost as if John Kasich wanted to reach out and pat Scott Walker on the head...

Kasich had suckered Walker into a discussion of a piece of political history in which the Wisconsin governor was not an expert by issuing a somewhat subtle reproach to Walker and perhaps Jindal — the two most provocative rhetorical bomb throwers on the stage — and pointing to his own role in the 1996 budget deal. 

“You gotta be careful with the rhetoric,” he said, “because you get too far out on that and people don’t want to deal.”

Ohio media took note of Kasich's more thoughtful moderation compared to Walker's right-wing talking points...

*  The second time was just a few days ago, when Kasich took strong executive action to combat ag runoff that is polluting Ohio waterways - - something Walker has enabled in Wisconsin through multiple favors to big ag, eased expansions of CAFOs, kid-gloves inspections and rolled back phosphorous dumping rules - - all of which has led to big lake dead zones, blue-green algae contamination, brown water at rural taps and an explosion in state waterway impairment.

*  Which is why different parts of the state could be labeled The Next Flint if government inaction in the face of known water contamination is the measuring stick. 

The Kasich action, opposed to Walker's practice:

COLUMBUS — Frustrated by lawmakers’ refusal to consider a bill to get tougher on sources of agricultural pollution feeding Lake Erie’s chronic toxic algae problem, Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday took matters into his own hands with an executive order...

Under the order, his administration will ask the Ohio Soil and Water Conservation Commission at its July 19 meeting to designate eight watersheds or portions of watersheds with high phosphorous levels within the Maumee River Basin as “distressed.”

That would trigger the writing of rules affecting all agricultural nutrient sources, including such things as storage, handling, and application of manure; erosion and sediment control from the land; and other agricultural practices. Civil penalties could apply for violations. 

Consider just this August, 2016 story when comparing Walker to Kasich:

After Walker's office alerts farm lobby, clean water regulations scaled back

Or this 2015 story:

Walker budget cuts $5.7 million from runoff pollution remedies

As worries grow about water pollution caused by runoff from streets, yards and farm fields, Gov. Scott Walker's next budget calls for nearly 16% in spending cuts in programs that attack the problem.