2022 starts now.
Ohio’s U.S. Senator Rob Portman, who is up for reelection that year, must go.
It’s a standing joke among constituents who comment in his social media that, when all hell is breaking loose, Portman always finds something innocuous and trivial to post. While Ohioans are confronting a ravaged economy, a surging pandemic and exposure of the extent of our racial fault lines, Portman is posing in a city park with a marker honoring the 100th anniversary of the Lebanon (Ohio) Rotary Club.
On Wednesday January 6, riots incited by the president, who spoke in person to the mob, broke out in D.C. Violent seditionists and insurrectionists, brandishing confederate flags, stormed the Capitol. One even replaced the American flag with a Trump flag, a clear sign that this isn’t a movement of American patriots but a cult of personality.
While this was happening — as the mob was moving toward the Capitol — here is what Portman was posting in his Twitter feed:
“Youngstown veterans affairs clinic named after Carl Nunziato. Carl Nunziato is a true son of Ohio, a patriot and a decorated war hero … this is a fitting tribute to his lifetime of impactful service.”
“Pleased that President Trump has signed my bipartisan legislation with Senator Sheehan into law ensuring the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation can finish its project to honor Americans who have donated their time & talents.”
These are great causes, to be sure, and worthy of attention — some other day. Both of these were posted as angry, armed enemies of democracy, the Constitution and rule of law were about to descend on Senator Portman’s workplace and threaten the lives and safety of everyone there.
This is what cowardice looks like.
When Portman finally got around to addressing the rioting at the Capitol and its impetus — attempts to block the certification of the presidential election on baseless, fabricated grounds — he shamed himself again by injecting a phony “both sides” narrative.
He digressed to falsely claim that when the late Cleveland congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones stood to challenge the certification of the 2004 election, she hoped to “hand the election to John Kerry.” She did not. She recognized that the result was not going to change. Rather, she wanted to call attention to the voter suppression deliberately engineered by then Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, which disproportionately impacted black voters in the inner cities and students on liberal college campuses such as Oberlin and Kenyon, creating lines of up to 12 hours.
That was in no way similar to seditious senators such as Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz demanding that entire slates of electors be overturned and entire states’ votes be nullified based on claims of “fraud” for which they had no proof and which both Ivy League law school graduates surely knew were false.
Portman has also been trying to look “noble” and above the fray by calling for a “bipartisan blue-ribbon panel” to “restore transparency” and “trust” to our elections: in other words, to lend credence to the lies being spread by individuals such as Hawley and Cruz and give them another forum to do so. Such a panel is superfluous. The mechanics of running an election in the U.S. are regulated, bipartisan & transparent. More than 60 court cases brought by Trump lawyers claiming otherwise were thrown out by judges of various ideological persuasions. Portman is now calling to restore the credibility of these discredited charges.
Portman has too long enjoyed a false reputation as a nice, friendly “moderate,” a label assigned to Republicans who appear polite in public but unfailingly votes for a radical rightwing agenda. He speaks in a pleasant, low-key manner and avoids exaggerated language and insults. But his detachment from issues impacting Ohioans is clear. When the going gets tough for Ohioans, Rob Portman is praising our national parks or posing for photo ops in his trusty hard hat. It’s time Ohio found another Sherrod Brown, someone who listens, hears and acts on what he hears from his constituents. We’re looking forward to seeing who steps up.
4 Responses to “COMMENTARY: Looking Ahead to 2022, Rob Portman Must Go”
Chuck Miller
I agree. This man is so wishy-washy he stands for nothing. He’s a follower, not a leader. Say good-bye to Rob Portman.
Effie Tsengas
I will be watching to see if Senator Portman votes against the absolutely necessary impeachment of the historically worst president this country has ever experienced. If he does not support the impeachment, I will make it my personal duty to ensure he DOES NOT get reelected in 2022. That definitely goes for Jim Jordan for sure.
Diane Millett
Thank you for this article. I was thinking he was finally being reasonable by supporting Trump’s removal. Now I see it’s all about being evasive and all about him. Yes, we need more Sherrods to help this red state — and the country.
Donna M. Shimko
What a wonderful article! Should be posted on billboards all over Ohio!! Port-a-potty is nothing but a cowardly, duplicitous right-wing forced birther opportunist who cares nothing about his constituents’ health, well-being or even their survival. Vote him out, indeed! My Labrador would make a better Senator.