Tom Brinkman is an American politician and a fiercely conservative Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Cincinnati known as "Dr. No" for his opposition to higher taxes and public spending. Before his election to the Ohio General Assembly, he was active in Cincinnati politics and has been popular among rank-and-file conservatives for his strong pro-life and anti-tax stances. However, Brinkman's reputation is of a principled but iconoclastic man who is ineffective because he is unwilling to compromise and is unpopular among party officials—the state chairman once told the press "Brinkman, in my opinion, is not a very intelligent human being"—because he has frequently challenged the Republican leadership and even endorsed the Democratic candidate for governor in 2002. Brinkman was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress to replace Rob Portman in the Second District of Ohio in the special primary held June 14, 2005, but finished third with one-fifth the vote, losing to Jean Schmidt who ultimately won the seat.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brinkman

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1660: Christopher Wren and other leading scientists met at Gresham College in London, England and founded a learned society now known as the Royal Society. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society)

1905: Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith first presented his "Sinn Féin Policy". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Griffith)

1925: The country music radio program Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast on WSM radio in Nashville, USA. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ole_Opry)

1943: World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met at the Tehran Conference. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran_Conference)

1990: After being elected as leader of the British Conservative Party, John Major succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees." -- William Blake (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Blake)