Gym Jordan Has Been Plotting To Be Speaker For Years-- Will The OSU Wrestling Scandal Prevent That?

What wrestling is all about, by Chip Proser

On Monday, the Punchbowl crew reported that McCarthy and his allies are looking at an opportunity— GOP dysfunction + the mess in Israel— for McCarthy to slither back into the Speaker’s office. It doesn’t look like either Scalise or Jordan can get to 217 so all McCarthy has to do is persuade Gaetz and his 7 crazy pals (or 6 if you don’t count Mace, who’ll be easy to persuade and who’s made a career of changing her mind). They reported that “It’s not quite a three-way race… but McCarthy left his supporters plenty of room to hold off on backing Scalise or Jordan and hope for the California Republican’s return… Part of this McCarthy boomlet— spurred on by McCarthy himself and some of his dissatisfied and angry allies— is due to discontent from House GOP lawmakers over the choice of Scalise and Jordan. Moderates don’t like their options.”

Sunday, on Face the Nation, Margaret Brennan asked Mace if the very credible and very well-publicized past allegations of Jordan turning a blind eye to wrestling team sexual abuse gave her reservations about his bid for the speaker's gavel. She said she knew nothing about it. Watch how a duplicitous politician spins:

Jordan, a co-founder of the extremist “Freedom” Caucus represents a deep red rural Ohio district. In the last gerrymander it went from a partisan lean of R+39 to R+40. The Ohio Supreme Court found the district’s boundaries unconstitutional, but the U.S. Supreme Court said they could use it anyway. Jordan beat Democrat Tamie Wilson 200,773 (69.2%) to 89,383 (30.8%). What kind of man are the people in these 13 Ohio counties electing to Congress? (He won all 13 of them.)

Unless you're an absolute DWT fanatic, I don't expect you to remember right-wing hypocrite Wes Goodman, closet case by night, anti-gay super-fascist by day-- and the heir apparent to Jim Jordan, his mentor, day and night. Jordan's boy was caught having consensual sex with another adult male in his district office, but that was no one-time faux pas— it never is. Goodman led a secret gay life and was somewhat notorious for making unwelcome advances to younger men. Jackie Borchardt reporting: “In public, Wesley Goodman was an up-and-coming conservative who championed pro-family and anti-LGBT causes and aspired to someday run for Congress. In private, he exchanged salacious texts and emails with gay men he met on Capitol Hill, and sent sexually suggestive messages to young men he met through conservative circles who were too intimidated to publicly complain, according to three people who knew him when he worked in Washington.” It wasn't just the “inappropriate behavior” he was just outed for. And, yes, he worked for Jim Jordan while he was engaging in predatory behavior towards young men— usually Republican college students— in DC and back in Ohio.

A friend of mine who served in the state legislature with Jordan told me it was no secret that Jordan protected Goodman. No one, however, knew about the wrestling coach episodes that were revealed in July, 2018 by NBC News and the Columbus Dispatch. According to the Dispatch, Ian Fury, a Jordan spokesman, sent them a written statement that Jordan “never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State.” No one believes it since it was widely known that Jordan knew all about the Goodman scandal before it broke, endorsed Goodman, based on his “character, experience and passion” to serve, for the legislature, and studiously ignored it while young conservative boys were being molested.

Can you Trust Gym Jordan by Chip Proser

First just 3 and then a dozen former student wrestlers testified that when Jordan was their coach he knew about abuse— since some of them personally reported it to him— perpetrated by the team doctor two decades ago and did not report it. Former Ohio State wrestler Mike DiSabato, one of the first victims to report Dr. Richard Strauss’ misconduct to Ohio State: “He knew, did know, and it’s very disappointing that he has now denied knowledge, not once, but twice,” DiSabato said. “I’ve never known Jim Jordan to be a coward, frankly, but this shows that his own interest in seeking higher office is more important than the health, safety and well being of his friends and athletes who competed for him and with him… I considered Jim Jordan a friend. But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.” He reached out to Jordan first before going public and Jordan asked him not to. In the end, it was discovered that at least 177 male OSU students were abused. OSU eventually paid out $40.9 million in settlements to the abuse survivors. Jordan claims he knew nothing and described his former students as “pawns in a political plot.” The suit is still ongoing and Jordan may be forced to testify and either contradict his previous lies or commit perjury.

The following year, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece after more former students came forward to accuse Jordan. “Five former wrestlers, including former UFC world champion Mark Coleman, said this week that Rep. Jim Jordan was aware of, but didn’t respond to, allegations of sexual misconduct by an Ohio State University team doctor when the lawmaker was an assistant wrestling coach there in the 1990s. ‘There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State,’ Coleman, the mixed martial arts champion, said of Jordan in an interview Wednesday. Coleman and Jordan roomed together on several wrestling trips, Coleman said. ‘I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.’ Jordan has denied that he was aware of any sexual misconduct by Dr. Richard Strauss. The doctor [committed suicide] in 2005. If he had seen abuse at the time, ‘I would have done something about it,’ the Ohio Republican said in an interview this week. ‘If there was abuse, we want justice done. There’s no room for this kind of behavior.’ The focus on Jordan intensified in recent days when NBC News reported that three former wrestlers said Dr. Strauss’s inappropriate conduct was common knowledge. Eight people involved in Ohio State athletics in the 1990s spoke to the Wall Street Journal this week… Trump told reporters Thursday he didn’t believe the allegations against Jordan. “I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man,” Trump said Thursday evening. The two always work to protect each other and Trump endorsed his bid to become speaker.

The last time, the GOP elected a wrestling coach, they adamantly refused to listen to reports that the candidate was molesting boys. So they elected him— Denny Hastert and he eventually went to prison, not for raping underage boys, but for buying silence from one of the guys with campaign money. Of course, Jordan’s wrestling problem is far from his-- and the GOP's-- only problem.

Michael Tomasky wrote that there are 6 reasons why liberals should salivate at the idea of a Speaker Jordan. First of all, he’s the worst possible candidate. Tomasky wrote that he’d “be a disaster as speaker. He’d be a disaster for the country, which is bad, but actually I don’t think he could really do that much damage, with Democrats holding the Senate and a Democrat in the White House. No—the real disaster would be for the Republican Party. So while I’m not—let me be clear—exactly cheering on this outcome, I certainly see some big, bright silver linings.”

First, speakers traditionally work their way up, slowly building relationships, doing favors, raising money. Jordan has surely done some of that, but it’s not his real calling card. His real calling card is that he’s a right-wing media star who has made himself memorable and notable with his obnoxious sneer, his wild rhetoric and charges, his sportscoat-less swagger at committee hearings, and the like. I’m obviously not a GOP House caucus insider, but I’d be shocked if he’s bothered to build relationships beyond those that have been useful to him.

Second, he has zero, and I mean zero, relationships with Democrats. Kevin McCarthy didn’t have many either, but that just proves my point, because look what happened to him: If he’d bothered to build some relationships across the aisle, a handful of Democrats would have voted “present” this week, and he’d still be speaker. The House minority is pretty powerless, but it isn’t completely powerless. There are times when the speaker has to cut a deal with the minority leader. Do you see Jim Jordan doing that?

Third, does he have any kind of relationship with Mitch McConnell? Jordan said this week it’s “fine” and “good.” Um … sure. McConnell has done his share to burn down the Senate, Lord knows, but compared to people like Jordan, he’s Arthur Vandenberg. Cynical and slippery though he is, McConnell at least believes in a kind of old-school decorum that Jordan has utterly rejected. They’re stylistically polar opposites. And then there’s Ukraine aid, which McConnell backs and Jordan staunchly opposes.

Fourth, he’s going to make promises about cutting spending that he won’t be able to keep. This in no small part is what brought down the last three Republican speakers— they talked a big game about shrinking government, but they didn’t deliver because they were fundamentally lying. When Republicans say, “We’re going to cut government,” they mean domestic discretionary spending, which is less than 15 percent of the budget. Drastic cuts to those programs are unpopular, so there just isn’t that much to cut. Speaker Jordan will bump up against this reality just as Speakers Boehner, Ryan, and McCarthy did.

Fifth, what did Jordan know about January 6? Liz Cheney just said that Jordan “knew more” about Trump’s January 6 plans “than any other” member of Congress. “Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election,” she said in a speech in Minnesota. If he becomes speaker and Democrats are doing their job, they’ll say “Jim Jordan” and “January 6” with the frequency that Rudy Giuliani used to say “9/11.” The only coup against the United States ever led by one of its major political parties will hang like stink on the GOP.

Sixth… ah, the sixth one! This is the best. Back in June, the Supreme Court ruled that a lawsuit against Ohio State University, brought by former athletes in the wrestling program who accused a university doctor of serial sexual abuse, could move forward. The plaintiffs are pressing ahead to depose everyone who might have knowledge of the situation. That would include former assistant coach Jim Jordan.

He of course denies knowledge of any abuse. Well, a lawsuit in which he is compelled to answer questions under oath might finally settle things. If he’s telling the truth, he’s telling the truth. If he’s not … he coached there so many years ago that the statute of limitations probably prevents him from being criminally charged. But if— if— it is revealed that he knew something and said nothing, is that the man the Republicans really want leading them?

That’s a bit speculative, but the first five reasons are not. Jordan has shown none of the skills that being a good speaker normally requires. Of course, today’s GOP is not a normal political party. He will “succeed” in the sense that he will adequately represent all the extreme and unhinged things the party stands for. But eventually, a speaker confronts reality in the form of process: the need to pass spending bills and cut deals with the Senate and the White House. Everything about Jordan’s career suggests that he will fail operatically at this.

The GOP Conference... very, very soon: