Politics

John Kasich: The Woodchipper Years

One congressman's crusade

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The Hit & Run regulars may appreciate this moment in a 2014 profile of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is now running for the Republican presidential nomination. One day in 1997, the reporter recounts, the then-congressman

Good thing he didn't rent Barton Fink, amirite?
Working Title Films

ducked into his local Blockbuster back home in Columbus in search of a movie for him and Karen to watch. He settled on "Fargo," the Oscar-winning dark comedy by the Coen brothers, and—spoiler alert—was disturbed when he got the part where a dead man's body is being fed through a wood-chipper.

"It was billed as a comedy," Kasich wrote in his 2006 book, "but it wasn't funny."

Kasich launched a one-man campaign to force Blockbuster to remove "Fargo" from its shelves.

Vox has more on Kasich's crusade here, and Reason has more on woodchippers here.

[Hat tip: Tom Jackson.]