Re-upping this one. Let’s try to hit 1K>
What is it with Republicans and sex abuse scandals involving wrestling coaches?
Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students.
The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s
Reader LJ writes:
Jim Jordan (OH-4) is a world class Freedumb Caucus asshole who just tried (and failed) to pants Rod Rosenstein in the House Intelligence Committee meeting late last week.
He has an opponent, Janet Garrett, who has run in 2014 and in 2016. This will be her third try to unseat him. She’s trying to run a “country-before-party” kind of race in a very Republican and gerrymandered district that actually looks like a duck. Lots and lots of miles to cover, and she’s trying to cover them all. Here’s her website.
Mostly I would adore seeing Jordan lose his seat, since he in no way represents me or most of my community– and have I mentioned he’s an asshole? Now Janet has a campaign video focusing on opioids, which should be a very salient issue in this district in the fall.
You know what to do.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Jim Jordan is one of the few Republicans I think I loathe more than I loathe Donald Tяump. Everything about him is 67 kinds of awful.
The other thing I don’t get here is why this shitstain ever thought he could climb his way up to being speaker of the House—which it seems he does—with something like this lurking in the background of his life.
He’s such a creep. One thing that has always inordinately pissed me off about him is his “I’m too much of a hard working go-getter to shave! Look at me! Look how my coat is off and my sleeves are rolled up” thing he has going. Anybody who works harder at looking like he’s working hard than he does at his job is guaranteed to be a raging asswipe.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I mean at least Donald Tяump doesn’t do that. I guess it’s one of the few benefits of his obsession with appearances. At least he shaves.
feebog
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I agree with everything you said and want to add that even though this jerk has a law degree he has obviously never litigated anything in his life. His questioning of Rosenstein last week was laughable. He can’t be gone too soon.
Dev Null
Boehner on Jordan last year.
nonynony
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Because he didn’t think he did anything wrong. Probably until the investigation started in April and he started getting asked about it, it probably never entered his mind that he should have been doing something to stop it instead of cover it up.
You don’t get to be someone like Jim Jordan without both a total lack of self-awareness and no conscience.
Ladyraxterinok
His opponent is not a polished speaker. She is rather soft spoken and listens instead of trying to dominate the conversation. She doesn’t fit the modern style of politician who talks over opponents.
If she can make it through the horrific minefield of today’s campaign situation, she will most likely be a good advocate for the people she’s workingt o represent.
Baud
“We won’t molest your children” might be a good slogan for the Dems this year.
Corner Stone
@Dev Null: Is no one doing phrasing! anymore?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
(that “click here to solve the mystery of the missing naughty letters!” cracks me up– we are a weird country. Happy Fourth. That said:)
Fuck Boehner for getting honest about his own caucus after he let them drive him out. If he really had wanted to fuck Jordan and Chaffetz and all the rest, he could have brought the Senate immigration reform bill to the House floor before he broke into the opening notes of Zippity-Doo-Dah. That was as adorable as Chuck and Cokie said it was, but I think we would have been spared a lot of the current ugliness if he had been willing to make like difficult for the people he claims to have hated. And he was by all accounts from the Chamber-of-Commerce pro-immigration wing.
WereBear
This is who they are.
We are hiding from the heat and binge-watching Deadwood with the kitties. Ian McShane is all “I’m surrounded by incompetence” but that is how it is with minions, is it not? If you can bribe someone to do heinous things, they are fools and/or knaves and also unreliable.
When Republicans decided to team up with the Toxic Fundamentalist Christians and the Russian agents, what did they expect to scoop up in that net?
mainmata
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Trying to become Speaker with the wrestling thing in his background? Remember, it worked just fine for fellow Gooper, Denny Hastert (until it didn’t). The GOP just doesn’t care about sex scandals unless it’s Democrats involved.
dmsilev
He’s currently going with The ‘I know nothing’ defense, but I imagine that given the scope and numbers involved with the abuse, there will be more victims coming forward to say that he turned a blind eye towards their attempts to report what was going on.
L85NJGT
I remember reading a post on a sports site a while back, stating that most top tier athletes\all-pros had been raped (by someone abusing a position of authority) along the way, and thinking it was a bit hyperbolic, but anymore…..idk. It’s all too depressingly familiar; like the Penn State morons STILL defending JoPa.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“Dan, loan E.B. your knife!”, after he looks from his newspaper with barely restrained contempt at Farnum’s ranting, is a line that stays with me. McShane is so fucking good. You can really see how, and why, they reshaped the show around him.
You may have just altered my non-plans for this, my least favorite holiday.
debbie
@Baud:
Widen to include immigration: “Your children are safe with us.”
Dev Null
@Corner Stone: er, wut?!?
lollipopguild
@Baud: Another good slogan for Dems this year is “We are not insane”.
Dev Null
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Boehner is a coward. All of them are cowards.
Teddys Person
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is my favorite bit of Swearengen advice and how I feel about our current RWA problem.
Dev Null
@Baud@debbie: :
I endorse this slogan. It has a simple directness and clarity that “Your children are safe with us” doesn’t.
Baud2020!
@lollipopguild: Vote Democratic!
(Fixed the spelling error)
MobileForkbeard
@Dev Null: Sounds about right. Wow, Boehner.
Mai naem mobile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think Boehner said Jordans district was his original district before his district was redistricted.
Roger Moore
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
He thought he could get away with it because he had been getting away with it. This is something that happened 20+ years ago. If the scandal hadn’t come out in 20 years, it wasn’t that unreasonable to think it would stay buried for long enough for him to become Speaker.
J R in WV
In the article quoted about this horrible situation:
Fixed that for ya! Why do these articles not mention the suicide of the Dr. Strauss pervert who molested these athletes? Isn’t that information highly relevant to this discussion?
How many trainers/coaches/sports docs/hangers-on are out there because they’re totally hooked on perving on their patients/students/athletes???
More than just a few, fer shure.
In all my life I never showered with a teacher/coach/ older leader of any sort. Never! Who were those other adults who showered with the wrestling team back then? Who allowed that kind of behavior at OSU for dawg’s sake???!
sdhays
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Considering old Denny, he probably thought it was his ace qualification.
Dev Null
@Baud: @debbie:
Come to think of it, why not pull out all the stops?
Rude Pundit posted a bracing essay a few days ago calling for a take-no-prisoners burn-to-the-ground war on the GOP leveraging Republican proclivities towards sex crimes and sexual hypocrisies.
Yeah, there’d be gasps and tutt-tutting from Our Failed Press Corpse, but srsly, the evidence of the 2016 election is that they’re no longer information outlets, they’re infotainment outlets.
sdhays
@J R in WV: He definitely knew about the dirty old pervert professors and administrators who would “just happen” to show up when the team went to the showers.
Dev Null
Adam made the point in comments elsewhere that his schools separated student showers from faculty / other showers.
Surprising that so many major unis don’t employ fail-safe mechanisms of this sort … avoiding single points of failure is a fundamental well-known principle for safe workplaces.
Roger Moore
@J R in WV:
That might be something they could get away with because of the way athletic facilities were set up. At my alma mater (admittedly not an athletic powerhouse) the teams used the same facilities, including locker rooms, as everyone else. If a faculty member had wanted to ogle the athletes in the shower, they would only have had to come to the athletic center at the same time practice ended.
cynthia ackerman
WWJGD?*
*What would Jesus’s General do?
Why, challenge the Mook to wrestle in the manner of the Spartans, of course.
I know someone is tweeting in the name of patriotboy, but jeez I miss the guy’s blog.
Dev Null
@Roger Moore:
An expensive kinda way to avoid the cost of setting up a separate locker room, no?
Even for a non-powerhouse school. And for a powerhouse school which rakes in revenue and alumni donations during winning seasons …
Haroldo
@Dev Null: Vererate Woody’s woody, but perish the thought of a bushy-bushy blond hair-do and (particularly) the huarachi sandals. Surfin’ OSU.
Dev Null
@Baud: @debbie:
From here.
Make them deny that they molest kids … and then haul out the long sorry list of kid molesters in GOP ranks.
It’ll horrify the high-minded, but as Adlai Stevenson (is supposed to have) said in response to:
Dev Null
@Haroldo:
In the immortal words of Alexander Hergensheimer,
Haroldo
@Dev Null: Given your seeming age and love of the absurd, I thought this would be crystal clear. Alas.
Heinlein was never my cup o’ tea. (I had to use Google to find out who the immortal worder was/is.)
P.S. The LBJ pig fucking story is one of my favorites.
Miss Bianca
@WereBear: Deadwood is my favorite, bar none. Enjoy!
Dev Null
@Haroldo: Well, “love of the absurd”, yes … but sadly, I am not 19, I am at an age when the bits are rotten.
Let’s see…
– assume you meant venerate not vererate; “Woody” is presumably Woody Hayes; and “woody” is, uh, clear from the context of the post.
I have no fsckin’ idea. I’m a nerd personality type, which might explain my ignorance.
… not a clue. The Google hits (eg, eg) aren’t especially enlightening.
Here’s the full quote from Job: A Comedy of Justice” (courtesy archive.org):
“Make up your mind” is stereotypical Heinlein. ~amused~
I enjoyed Heinlein more when I was young. And his last novel or two were incomprehensible. He needed an editor. Or a better editor.
Anyway, “he seemed to be talking English” is one of my fave quotes. Thank you for the opportunity to deploy it. ~snark~
PS: pig story: one of mine too.
Dev Null
@Haroldo: response caught up in moderation. I have no earthly idea why.
Not even an unearthly idea.
JCJ
@Dev Null: In honor of raven: Fuck LBJ!
I do like that story.
Haroldo
@Dev Null: You are welcome for the opportunity – it is a wonderful quote.
Well, anyway, a woody could also get you to the beach, and then….
If everybody had an ocean
Across the U. S. A.
Then everybody’d be surfin’
Like Californi-a
You’d seem ’em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
Surfin’ U. S. A.
And, for Merle Haggard (of that period, since we’re there):
We don’t let our hair grow long and shaggy,
Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;
Beads and Roman sandals won’t be seen.
Football’s still the roughest thing on campus,
However, Merle grew out of that antiquated world view; Woody, OSU, and Jordan did not.
cmorenc
@LJ
Yeah, I think you forgot to mention what a colossal asshole he is.
:=)
Dev Null
@JCJ:
Heh. Do tell. :-)
Or perhaps raven will drop in.
I was persuaded maybe 5 years ago that LBJ wasn’t as bad as I thought. Sadly, I remember neither the book nor the author that persuaded me, so I can’t pimp either. Bit rot, I’m afraid.
The pig story, you mean? Or Heinlein’s novel …
Dev Null
@Haroldo: Ah, The Beach Boys. I thought I knew “Surfin’ USA”, but I don’t recognize any of the lyrics. Found it at YouTube, and yeah, I know the tune and I recognize “surfin’ USA”, but the rest?
It’s all gone, if I ever knew any of it. :-)
Chances are I didn’t. I was one of those nerdy guys who listened to classical music; what pop I picked up was strictly by osmosis. :-)
Sounds like “woody” doesn’t mean what I thought it meant. What’s the meaning?
And thanks for the trip down Memory Lane!
rekoob
@Dev Null:
There are those of us car fans who would make an important distinction between a “woodie”, a station wagon with wood-paneled/wood-formed structures, and a “woody”, which reminds us of a certain bird’s/cartoon character’s final syllable. The Beach Boys were singing about the former.
Haroldo
@Dev Null: It is both an erection and a wood-sided station wagon much loved by ’60s surfers.
To once again visit Brian Wilson and the lads:
Let’s go surfin’ now
Everybody’s learning how
Come on and safari with me
(Come on and safari with)
Early in the morning we’ll be startin’ out
Some honeys will be coming along
We’re loading up our woody
With our boards inside
And headin’ out singing our song
I’m afraid the culture gradient/membrane went the other way for me. Pretty much classical via osmosis; pop, blues, and jazz the full immersion route.
Dev Null
@Haroldo@rekoob: : Ah, thought that might be it. Never heard woodie/woody used that way, though.
My parents had a wood-sided station wagon way back when. A long-deceased auto company… Kaiser is the name that comes to mind, but who knows?
That would have been early 50s.
Music: yeah, I was a snooty asshole back then.
Admittedly, most people would say “so, and what’s changed?”
(To repurpose a scene from Blazing Saddles, “I call myself an asshole, but most people call me … an asshole”.)
To all those haters and losers, well … my tastes in music have broadened considerably since then to include folk, Celtic, and jazz. And I’m a lot older.
Other than that, not much has changed.
Haroldo
@rekoob: Ha ha ha Hah ha. Ha ha ha Hah ha. Hahahahahahahahahahahah (etc.)
Dev Null
@rekoob:
Excellent. I’d never appreciated the point. Tx to Haroldo for ‘splainin’.
Mike J
@Dev Null:
This is the entire point of the Q anon conspiracy theory. Accusing Democrats of what Republicans are guilty of.
B.B.A.
Jordan needs to apologize, resign, and kill himself. Preferably in the course of a single press conference, a la Budd Dwyer.
Sorry to be uncivil.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: People here have gone doolally. The past couple of threads have been nuts.
frosty
@J R in WV:
Absolutely right. Thinking back on it, as a cross-country runner, the worst would have been showering at the same time as football team. Assholes, some of them, but just normal high school assholes.
James E Powell
@WereBear:
They did it for the tax cuts. All the rest is to keep the RW rabble fired up.
Dev Null
@Mike J: It’s always about projection with these guys.
Or put differently, “projection” is the easiest way to understand their pathologies.
Dev Null
@B.B.A.:
Let’s not get carried away: if Трамп says that Jordan is innocent, and the wrestlers on the team are lying – and indeed, he says that – is it not our duty to believe?
After all, who knows more about sexual abuse than Donald Трамп?!?
Eh? EH?!?
P0wn3d, lib-tards!
(er, ~snark~, for anyone reading this who might be wondering.)