After years of dithering and months of debate, Cincinnati City Council narrowly approved a plan Wednesday to make changes to the cash-strapped pension plan for municipal workers. But a local GOP leader is confused about who voted for what.

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By no measure can The Wall Street Journal be mistaken for a liberal newspaper, so the findings of its latest poll should greatly disturb Republicans.

A poll released late last week, done in conjunction with NBC News, found that most Americans support collective bargaining rights for workers, want to end the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy and impose a surtax on people making more than $1 million annually, and believe economic growth is a higher priority for government than deficit reduction.

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The Hamilton County Republican Party endorsed five people Thursday night in this November's elections for Cincinnati City Council.

As expected, the GOP slate includes all three of the party's incumbents: Leslie Ghiz, Charlie Winburn and recent appointee Amy Murray. Also getting the nod were Wayne Lippert and Catherine Smith Mills.

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In this week’s Porkopolis column, Kevin Osborne writes about the coordinated effort by newly elected Tea Party-backed Republican governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Ohio’s John Kasich to use the looming budget crises as a reason take away labor unions’ ability to collectively bargain, with the ultimate goal of busting unions altogether.

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(****UPDATE AT BOTTOM)

One of the most common complaints among many residents over the decades is that Big Business controls City Hall and municipal government, not citizens. Although some officials have denied it, that seems to be the case when it comes to who will be the next city councilperson.

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Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are the top choices among 10 Republicans who've expressed interest in seeking the party's presidential nomination in 2012, according to a new poll.

A Harris poll released today finds that Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, tying with Huckabee, the ex-Arkansas governor, among all voters surveyed by the poll. Each received 23 percent when totaling responses from Republican, Democratic and independent respondents.

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Less than a month after he was sworn into office as House Speaker, the long-rumored extramarital affairs of John Boehner have landed him on the cover of the National Enquirer.

Boehner is featured on the bottom-right corner of the cover of the issue that's on sale nationwide Thursday. A photo of Boehner's face is featured next to the headline, “Speaker of the House John Boehner Accused in Sex Probe! (Details inside).”

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Here's a bit of news that should spoil the day for Sarah Palin, Mike Wilson, Dusty Rhodes and their ilk: A comparison of two polls suggests  that socialism is more popular among Americans than the Tea Party movement.

A new, wide-ranging Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals that 35 percent of respondents had a favorable view of the Tea Party, compared to 36 percent that likes socialism in an earlier Gallup poll. Fifty-two percent of Americans now hold unfavorable views of the Tea Party, which is an all-time high.

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A major effort is underway today to urge Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Westwood) to buck his GOP colleagues and vote against repealing the health-care reform law.

A national group, Catholics United, is placing about 6,000 telephone calls to Catholics who live in Ohio's 1^st Congressional District, that contains a recorded message asking them to have Chabot vote “no” on repealing health-care reform. The GOP leadership is expected to bring up the repeal bill, H.R. 2, on Wednesday for a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Perhaps the perfect antidote to The Enquirer's fawning, superficial coverage of the new House Speaker is the profile of John Boehner that appears in the new issue of Rolling Stone.

West Chester's favorite son — who is now second in line to the presidency — doesn't come off well in the lengthy article by political writer Matt Taibbi, who quotes both named and anonymous sources from both sides of the political aisle who have worked with Boehner over the years.

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