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Peter Vertes's avatar

Enjoyed the hell out of this one, Erin. I had to learn about JT from my Boardman-raised husband, who used Traficant to explain to me what Youngstown is/was all about. He (my husband) said he used to sell suits to JT at Strouss department store. So I guess that's two degrees of separation.

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Shaggy Snodgrass's avatar

You wrote a better "trailer" than anybody else I've seen. Traficant, for all his small performative oddities, was a figure worthy of someone's great political book; the way Earl Long was for AJ Liebling. I know a couple of folks have tried, but I don't think they captured him and his times the way they could have.

These times now make it more complicated, somehow; it's hard to be amused by Traficant's antics when so many malignant weirdos stalk the halls of power today.

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