Extreme Mortman recently put the spotlight on the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s political blog reading habits, and its own wonderful blog Openers.  We checked out the site today and saw this fascinating item, quoted here in its entirety:

Looming over Tuesday’s long series of Ohio House and Senate hearings on sex-offender legislation was the huge shadow of Fox News Rottweiler Bill O’Reilly.

For the better part of the month, O’Reilly has whipped legislators and politicians pandering for votes into a froth by crusading for the impeachment of Franklin County Common Pleas Judge John Connor, who sentenced a child molester to probation.

One of Connor’s colleagues, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Dan Hogan, was repeatedly asked about O’Reilly during his testimony in opposition to the mandatory-sentencing provisions in some of the bills. It was a topic Hogan addressed against his will.

Asked in a Senate committee what he would say to O’Reilly if he went on his show, Hogan hissed, “I wouldn’t do it.” When Rep. Danny Bubp, a former Adams County judge, again asked Hogan the what-would-you-say-to-Bill question during a hearing in the House, Hogan deadpanned: “First, I’d ask him not to interrupt me — which he wouldn’t do.”

Wow.  Bill O’Reilly dominates conversation in both chambers of the Ohio legislature.  Now that’s clout.  And a great pickup by the Plain Dealer.