Kasich Given Speeding Ticket: Cited For Running His Mouth Too Fast

Our new Guv is quite the extemporaneous speaker, isn't he? Whether he's talking about exploiting our natural resources or telling state workers they're lucky to have a job, King John has so far been a steady source of "interesting" comments.

His latest just popped on YouTube. In a January speech to Ohio EPA employees, John-Boy jumped the tracks and went off on a tangent about the police. (What this had to do with the EPA, no one knows.)

Out of nowhere, John-Boy asked, "Have you ever been stopped by a policeman who's an idiot? I had this idiot pull me over on Rt. 315."

Kasich was stopped because there was an emergency vehicle on the berm and he didn't slow down or move left. Evidently, John-Boy couldn't sweet-talk his way out of a ticket, which made him angry. So the cop told him he could pay the fine or show up in court to contest it, and if he did neither, an arrest warrant would be issued.

Kasich briefly described the stop to his audience then said, again, "He's an IDIOT!" (If you saw the video, he's literally screaming at this point.) "You just can't act that way!"

A couple quick observations:

In the space of roughly one minute, Kasich used the word "idiot" three times. It's a fine word, Johnny, but don't wear it out.

His EPA speech was three years after he got the ticket, and he was obviously still seething mad about it. Looks like our little Johnny is prone to temper tantrums.

His timing on this is right out of the Sarah Palin playbook. Kasich's already done away with one state agency, has made very clear his desire to gut labor laws applicable to public employees, and now he calls a public safety employee an idiot. Who's the idiot?

Any fool knows that if you're pulled over in a traffic stop, you don't argue or get surly with the cop. Never. It's an $85 moving violation, Guv. Shut up and pay it.

At a press conference yesterday, the Governor's spin-meister said that the point of Kasich's EPA speech was "that all public employees must provide better, more responsive service." In attendance, Kasich chimed in, adding, "Yeah, that's right, and I think a great way to be better and more responsive would be to make sure I don't get any more goddam traffic tickets! All you out there in the donut brigade -- you got that? Ten-four!"