“You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
I was a small child during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings when Joseph N. Welch, Counsel for the U.S. Army, effectively punched out Senator Joe McCarthy with those legendary words. McCarthy, the reckless, fear-mongering fabricator of the Red Scare had it coming to him. So does Jim Jordan. So here it is: “Congressman Jim Jordan, have you no sense of decency, sir?”
Like Joe McCarthy, Jordan plays the role of a classic bully. This persona served him well to a point. In college, he twice won the NCAA Division I wrestling championship—using superior strength to grapple his opponents to the mat—no small feat. Unfortunately, after he left the wrestling scene, he forgot to turn off the bully switch; instead, he ramped up the amps and went to Congress. There, with his little Freedom Caucus (an oxymoron, if there ever was one) he finds new ways to create chaos, conflict and dissention.
But now Jordan has stepped beyond the mayhem of the Freedom Caucus into the darkness, tossing away any remnants of his own morality. Jordan has become entangled in the sexual scandal involving Dr. Richard Strauss and Ohio State’s wrestling program, when Jordan was an assistant coach, from the mid 1980’s to 1994.
For those unfamiliar with the scandal, Dr. Strauss allegedly abused hundreds of students. At least seven of Jordan’s wrestlers said Jordan either knew or should have known of the abuse, but failed to report it.
Jordan, however, denied knowing anything about the abuse. Then, the details came out. One wrestler reported in the July 3rd edition of the Dayton Daily News the following: “Every day at 3:30 the showers would fill up with deviant, lewd male predators who wanted to come in and shower with elite male wrestlers…Deviant acts in front of us…all kinds of deviant behavior.” The article goes on to say that Strauss was a serial groper, who gave unnecessary groin exams and took half a dozen showers a day with the athletes. Strauss’s locker was right next to Jordan’s.
Mark Coleman, the Olympic Wrestler and UFC tournament champ, is a hero from my hometown of Fremont. Coleman reportedly stated that Jordan would have to have “dementia” to have forgotten what happened.
Whether you believe Jordan or not is really irrelevant to what happens next. Jordan goes after his former student-athletes, who were the victims of Strauss’s abuse! He claims, without any evidence or proof whatsoever, that this is likely a deep state conspiracy, probably the result of his recent questioning of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein during a House hearing.
Really? Jordan made a laughing stock of himself at that hearing, as Rosenstein tried to explain to Jordan that he could not comply with a subpoena to turn over phone calls—once phone calls are over, they’re over. Does Jordan really think his idiotic performance at the hearing so threatened the “deep state” that it recruited his former students, Dr. Strauss’s abuse victims, to go after Jordan?
It gets even worse. Ohio State launched a massive investigation into the scandal. In the midst of this massive investigation, NBC news reported that the wrestling coach Russ Hellickson texted two of the wrestlers to take back their stories and defend Jordan. Both refused. One of the wrestlers reported that Hellickson said, “I will defend Jimmy until I have to put my hand on the Bible and be asked to tell the truth, then Jimmy will be on his own.”
Well, Jimmy. These students admired you; they left it all on the mat for you; they thought you were their friend. Now, they’ve been twice victimized.
Finally, Jordan’s gall is infinite. Most politicians would face the music and resign. Jordan now wants to be second in line to the Presidency by being elected Speaker of the House.
No. Jordan needs to be retired now! Janet Garrett is the Democratic Candidate in this race. Janet Garrett needs everyone’s help to stop Jordan’s tainted and unbridled ambition.