Ken Blackwell: The Irrelevant Candidate?

Ken Blackwell has repeatedly said he will not back away from his TEL amendment to the Ohio Constitution. Last Saturday, he did just that as now pretty much everyone opposes this poorly constructed constitutional amendment.

Now, republicans are scurrying in the legislature to come up with a replacement that will cap state spending. Of course, the Ohio Constitution already grants the governor a line item veto to limit spending in Article II, Section 16 which reads:

The governor may disapprove any item or items in any bill making an appropriation of money and the item or items, so disapproved, shall be void, unless repassed in the manner prescribed by this section for the repassage of a bill.

Are republicans worried that Ken Blackwell might lose? Is Blackwell concerned that he isn't competent enough to use the line item veto to limit state spending? There certainly won't be an overriding majority to push aside any vetoes he would enact.

More importantly, will the passage of this cap being proposed by the republicans in the State Senate make Blackwell an irrelevant candidate to fiscal conservatives who want to see state spending reduced, but have no stomach for his social policy? I think it does. It frees up moderate republicans to cross party lines to vote for Ted Strickland. With a cap in place, who needs Ken Blackwell and his band of religious zealots?

The TEL is disastrous, and Blackwell has to run from it, but I think he's stuck between a TEL and a cap place.