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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Repub Venality Open Thread: Crossing Jordan, A River of Accusations

Repub Venality Open Thread: Crossing Jordan, A River of Accusations

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I believe the Dispatch is Jordan’s ‘hometown’ paper, where his voters live…

… “To date, Rep. Jordan has not responded to those requests, but we understand from public statements issued on his behalf today that Rep. Jordan is willing to talk to the investigative team,” Trafford said.

Jordan, who has represented a swath of west-central Ohio since 2007, is considered one of the more-powerful conservatives in Congress and is widely credited as being a driver in former House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation. Earlier this year, Jordan said he was considering running for House speaker if Republicans keep control of the chamber in November.

Doug Andres, a spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, called the allegations “serious.”

“The university has rightfully initiated a full investigation into the matter,” Andres said. “The speaker will await the findings of that inquiry.”

Jordan has said as far back as April that he did not know anything about allegations against Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005…

All together now: “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up… “


 
Repub leadership changing its ‘relationship’ status on Facebook to “It’s complicated!”


Of course, Jordan has his defenders…


 


Nah…


 

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    donnah

    The media needs to check this thoroughly, get the facts right, and then go hammer and tongs after Jordan. He’s a psychotic bully who runs rampant over everyone who lets him get away with it. Run it as a headline, make it a banner, go after him like he went after Rosenstein. Don’t let the GOP bury it and don’t let Jordan skitter away from the microphones.

    Nail him.

  3. 3.

    Mai Naem mobile

    How does a replacement work for Jordan for the election? I believe they already had the primary so does the GOP or governor nominate somebody from the party for the general or do they have him have a write in?

  5. 5.

    debbie

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Up top, AL said, “I believe the Dispatch is Jordan’s ‘hometown’ paper, where his voters live…” I was just clarifying the geography.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    OT.

    Back to square one?

    Frustrated USS Cole case judge retiring from military service

    The military judge who ordered a Marine general to serve 21 days confinement in a Guantánamo trailer park for contempt of court — a conviction that a federal court recently overturned as illegal — is retiring after 26 years of service, the Pentagon said Thursday.

    Air Force Col. Vance Spath “has an approved retirement date of Nov. 1, 2018,” Air Force spokeswoman Brooke Brzozowske said….
    [snip]
    Spath drew national attention for his November conviction of Marine Brig. Gen. John Baker after summary contempt proceedings, making Baker the first U.S. citizen to be convicted of a crime at the war court created by President George W. Bush to try suspected foreign war criminals in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.
    [snip]
    In February, Spath declared his frustration over uncertainty of the mechanics of military commissions and halted all pretrial proceedings in the case, pending clarification of his authority from higher courts. “I am abating these proceedings indefinitely,” he declared Feb. 16 before walking off the war court bench at Guantánamo. “We’re done until a superior court tells me to keep going.”

    At the time, Spath mentioned that he was weighing retirement.

    Last month, a federal judge ruled that Spath “acted unlawfully when he unilaterally convicted” Baker “of criminal contempt and sentenced him for that contempt” at the Guantánamo war court on Nov. 1, 2017. Spath sentenced the general to 21 days confinement and to pay a $1,000 fine. Because the brig at the Guantánamo Navy base was not operating at the time, the Air Force judge instead confined him to his quarters — a trailer park behind the war court compound, called Camp Justice. Source</a.

    In a more just world,, the federal judge’s finding would have been enough to derail Spath’s active military career right then and there. Nowadays he well may be on the short list for Attorney General.

  8. 8.

    Chyron HR

    Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in Washington.

    Let’s put Jordan in a lineup with four prank-calling radio DJs and see if Trump can guess which one is the congressman.

  10. 10.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I’m just going to sit back, wait for Bernie to tell me what to think about all this, and enjoy every single moment of Jordan’s pain.

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Up top, AL said, “I believe the Dispatch is Jordan’s ‘hometown’ paper, where his voters live…” I was just clarifying the geography.

    One hopes that his new “hometown” paper will the the Canon City Daily Record.

    [Which appears to be the paper of record for Fremont County, Colorado, home of ADX Florence.]

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    oh boy, trump better watch his ass– after he mocked Poppy Bush tonight, Debbie is coming after him like Sonny looking for Carlo

    Jeb Bush @ JebBush
    Disappointing

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    No sympathy for Jim Jordan. Terrible man. I don’t know what is wrong with his constituents, that they support him.

  16. 16.

    Gelfling 545

    @donnah: Well, hopefully go after him somewhat more skillfully than he did Rosenstein but, in general, yes..

  17. 17.

    Mary G

    Wouldn’t be surprised to see more victims going forward. Like #MeToo, a crack in the dam usually turns into a flood. The things big universities are willing to ignore in favor of sports are disgusting.

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    @Citizen_X:

    It is THE Ohio State University, after all.

    I thought that OSU and PSU were just rivals on the football field. Looks like they’re trying to bring that rivalry to other venues, I guess.

  19. 19.

    SFAW

    Repub leadership changing its ‘relationship’ status on Facebook to “It’s complicated!”

    That line is wicked pissah.

  21. 21.

    Mart

    Jordan will likely walk on this. But Al Franken ran his hand over some butts and Eliot Spitzer played naughty with hookers. Good thing we ran them out.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Actually, if you recall, I indicated that the Federal court judge’s ruling was the end of his career. And that I expected that he was being counseled to put in for retirement. You don’t get very far as a colonel throwing general officers in the brig, especially when the general officer is right and you’re wrong.

  24. 24.

    burnspbesq

    I’m still not convinced that Jordan has any criminal exposure here, but I will gladly settle for seeing him hounded from office and bankrupted by civil damages and legal fees. And when it happens, I hope Rosenstein lets his guard down long enough to unleash a subtly hilarious tweet about karma.

  26. 26.

    But her emails!!

    Trollin’, trollin’, trollin’. Get those Ruskies trolin’. Ya’ll tried!

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: We just witnessed a sitting president setting the conditions to be publicly told he’s not welcome for the state funeral of a former president when President Bush 41 eventually passes.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle:

    I don’t know what is wrong with his constituents, that they support him.

    Also terrible men. And some terrible women too.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: One of the articles was estimating that there maybe upwards of 1,000 victims over the space of Dr. Strauss’s career at The OSU.

  33. 33.

    Mandalay

    The WSJ is reporting this evening that a fifth wrestler has now come forward claiming that Jordan is a lying sack of shit:

    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,” Mr. Coleman, the mixed martial arts champion, said of Mr. Jordan in an interview Wednesday. Messrs. Coleman and Jordan roomed together on several wrestling trips, Mr. Coleman said. “I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.”

    It’s all the sweeter that this accusation against Jordan is coming from a friend.

  35. 35.

    Citizen Alan

    At this point, is it reasonable to speculate as to whether a significant percentage of Republicans are pedophiles? That there’s something in the mindset of a pedophile or child abuser that draws them to the GOP?

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    more MSNBC anchors need to adopt Maddow’s policy of only showing the The Beast live when absolutely necessary, especially during his Sixty Minute Hates.

  38. 38.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Citizen Alan: It’s why my name for that party is the GrOPers. I’d guess that some percentage of them aren’t pedophiles — those are the sexual harassers and rapists. GrOPers all, tho.

  39. 39.

    SFAW

    @burnspbesq:

    Yes, but it was quite a while ago. Statute of limitation may save his bacon.

    One hopes Jordan is “smart” enough to use that as his excuse for not retiring/resigning.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @burnspbesq: does that apply to a civil suit? cause I’m thinking if Jordan’s denials, especially now that trump is pretty much calling the victims liars, only have to piss off one guy to make this really ugly for Jordan

  42. 42.

    But her emails!!

    I realize that Bush Sr. served in the Pacific theater, but I’m hoping he sticks around long enough to witness the Nazi movement being cast into the rubbish bin of history a 2nd time.

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    From what I’ve seen of Republican reaction to this type of scandal, the party will stand by Jim Jordan until the cops come for him, and maybe even for some time thereafter.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @Citizen Alan:

    At this point, is it reasonable to speculate as to whether a significant percentage of Republicans are pedophiles? That there’s something in the mindset of a pedophile or child abuser that draws them to the GOP?

    And the chorus of voices replies “It would be unreasonable NOT to “

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    Jim Jordan: “There’s no truth to the fact that I knew of any abuse.”

    Phrasing is so important, Jim.

    Or maybe it’s the monsters from the id bubbling up.

  46. 46.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @SFAW: Don’t forget Michigan State and Larry Nasser. A B1G Ten trifecta. I wonder who else is involved in buggery in college sports?

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mai Naem mobile: No. He was there from 1978 through the late 90s. Jordan was the assistant coach from 1986 to 1994. He ran body fat studies on wrestlers, including high school wrestlers, as part of his work at The OSU. One of the main accusers, DiSabato, was first molested as a subject in that study when he was in high school.

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/us/ohio-state-sexual-misconduct-investigation/index.html

    Strauss was employed from 1978 to 1998. He:
    • joined the school’s clinical faculty and medical staff as an attending physician in September 1978;
    • served as a team physician for the school’s sports teams from July 1981 to June 1995;
    • was a part-time physician for the student health services unit from July 1994 to August 1996;
    • resigned from the school’s medical staff at the end of 1994 but remained on faculty as professor emeritus until his retirement in July 1998.

  51. 51.

    efgoldman

    @Mart:

    Jordan will likely walk on this.

    Do you mean: will avoid prosecution? Or: Won’t have any effect on his political career?
    The first is possible, depending on Ohio law, the statute of limitations and whether a state prosecutor wants to take it on. The second? In this year, I think he’s toast. But I’m not in Ohio and IANAL

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    What’s her name? What color eyes does she have? What color hair? Long or short? Did you report the threat to the police? If Dersh can’t or won’t answer these questions, then it never happened.

  56. 56.

    MobileForkbeard

    @Adam L Silverman: Jesus, Tucker Carlson always has the exact same expression. What a weird dude (in addition to being a racist tool).

    And yeah, I think we can safely assume The Dersh is lying his ass off for fame and sympathy.

  61. 61.

    smintheus

    @Mai Naem mobile: No, Strauss was at Ohio State for decades, the entire time that Jordan was there.

    This was a university in which the coaches involved themselves in nearly every aspect of student athlete lives. For many years Woody Hayes was allowed to exercise a veto in the hiring of new faculty, and would sit in on some of their interviews. He wanted to make sure that professors were the right fit for his players. The idea that wrestling coaches at Ohio State would not have known that their team doctor was fondling their players is absurd on its face.

  63. 63.

    burnspbesq

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Lots to unpack here, and this isn’t my area of speciality. It’s also possible that the laws have changed since the time of the alleged acts or omissions. This a couple-of-hours research project. Couple of first approximations.

    As a “school employee”, he would have had a reporting obligation.

    However, it’s possible that reporting would only be required if the possible victim is under age 18.

    https://apps.rainn.org/policy/policy-state-laws.cfm?state=Ohio&group=4

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    I like Ali Velshi.

    ETA: But they played Trump rally footage, and discussing the Supreme Court. Out of there. Have no tolerance for either.

  66. 66.

    burnspbesq

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Some civil law statutes don’t start to run until the tort is discovered (or could have been discovered in the exercise of reasonable care). Hard to even guess w/o more facts.

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @burnspbesq: Tracking. DiSabato claims that Strauss first molested him when he was 14 or so and was a high school wrestler participating in Strauss’s body fat studies. The reporting indicates that Jordan and his brother ran, and his brother still runs, wrestling camps. If the camps were being held at OSU utilizing the wrestling teams facilities and equipment (mats), and that was how Strauss got access to the kids, then this is going to get even worse for Jordan. I don’t know the answer to that because there hasn’t been any specification in the reporting on it yet.

  69. 69.

    Barbara

    @Adam L Silverman: For minors, almost certainly a coach would have been a mandatory reporter. For other students, it is likely required by the school, but not necessarily under an actual state law.

  70. 70.

    efgoldman

    @Yarrow:

    It’s pathetic that Dershowitz supposedly not being invited to parties is news

    Second slowest news week of the year (xmas-new year is the slowest).

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    It’s a bad look to be in Moscow being pantsed by Putin’s guys on Independence Day. It’s even worse to be caught lying about being in Moscow being pantsed by Putin’s guys on Independence Day.

  72. 72.

    Mandalay

    @MobileForkbeard:

    And yeah, I think we can safely assume The Dersh is lying his ass off for fame and sympathy.

    This.

    His initial whining invited scorn and ridicule so he decided to invent some heavy shit about a hypothetical stabbing, but was very vague about who said it, and when it happened.

  73. 73.

    burnspbesq

    Make no mistake: the optics of skating based on the statute of limitation would be brutal. And mothers of high school and college athletes get to vote. If he isn’t toast yet, it’s because nobody has plugged in the toaster.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Why is he insisting on going to parties where he isn’t wanted? My God, she doesn’t want him there.

    Now they have a “right” to go to people’s parties? Their homes? What next? We all have to be their friends?

  76. 76.

    efgoldman

    @Kay:

    Why is he insisting on going to parties where he isn’t wanted?

    Knew a guy like that in middle school. Haven’t seen or heard of him since HS graduation.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: Every Dem with a Facebook account in Montana should be posting that. Troll that fucker

    @Elizabelle: ETA: But they played Trump rally footage,
    I noticed, while muting his rantings, that 1) they’re not even trying to “diversify” the people who stand behind him any more and 2) there seemed to be a lot of empty seats up in the balcony, and he was ranting about “thousands” of people who couldn’t get in.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: He thought he was part of the elite. He has learned that he was not part of the elite.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @efgoldman:

    Is there some kind of standing invitation to parties he’s entitled to get? I think it’s sad that she had to threaten to stab him in the heart or else, what, he was coming?

    Let’s start with the basics. Was he invited? If not he can’t go. Shouldn’t take them three days to figure this out.

  82. 82.

    lgerard

    Why is Dersh assuming people hate him over his trump involvement. It could just as easily be because of his defense of Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.

    There is so much to dislike

  83. 83.

    efgoldman

    @lgerard:

    It could just as easily be because of his defense of Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein.

    And torture apologist for Darth Cheney and W

  84. 84.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Maybe she doesn’t like him. I know- unimaginable, right? I want to hear the host’s side, since we’re going to litigate this thing for a week. What does he say then? “I didn’t want him there because he;s an asshole” That should wrap up the controversy, I would think.

  85. 85.

    debbie

    @Mandalay:

    A fourth former Ohio State University wrestler came forward Thursday to contradict Rep. Jim Jordan’s claim that he had no idea the wrestling team doctor was molesting athletes.

    The wrestler, Shawn Dailey, said he was groped half a dozen times by Dr. Richard Strauss in the mid-1990s, when Jordan was the assistant wrestling coach. Dailey said he was too embarrassed to report the abuse directly to Jordan at the time, but he said Jordan took part in conversations where Strauss’ abuse of many other team members came up.

    “I participated with Jimmy and the other wrestlers in locker-room talk about Strauss. We all did,” Dailey, 43, told NBC News, referring to Jordan. “It was very common knowledge in the locker room that if you went to Dr. Strauss for anything, you would have to pull your pants down.”

    Case closed, I say.

  87. 87.

    Mandalay

    Jordan’s spokesman has already gone on the record with this statement:

    Congressman 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.

    IANAL but it seems imprudent to needlessly box yourself in like that so early in the game.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    I just love the silliness of it all.

    He kisses the ass of one of the most powerful people in the world and he’s pretending he’s sticking up for someone on death row or something. Give me a fucking break. Donald Trump is not a goddamnned victim and either are his loyal underlings.

    Now this congressman is a “victim” of the abused athletes. This thing is all backward. These people don’t get to wield all this power and pretend they’re the little guy.

    Can’t they just enjoy the trappings of power without us also LIKING them? It’s such an imposition. There’s no “right” to be loved by other people! That doesn’t exist! They cannot demand we like them. It’s a bridge too far.

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    That’s why the DVR is my friend. I let the program start and get a good buffer built up, then I start watching. I can fast-forward through any unwanted bits or particularly obnoxious talking heads.

  91. 91.

    Mandalay

    @debbie:

    I participated with Jimmy and the other wrestlers in locker-room talk about Strauss. We all did

    Heh….I just posted that Jordan has gone on the record stating that he “never heard about any abuse”. I don’t know about his legal predicament or his re-election chances, but he can definitely forget about ever becoming Speaker.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Where does it end? Does she have to invite us to her party, you and I, or she’s somehow intolerant?

    Maybe she always loathed him and now she has an excuse. He’ll just have to ponder that like anyone else would when someone dumps them. It’s the human condition. It’s not a violation of his rights.

    She was probably thinking “one more asshole move from this guy and that’s it! OFF the invite list”.

    The awful Trump kids are like this too. Demanding affection. I don’t have to like them, which is good, because I DON’T.

    It’s really the height of entitlement.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @Mandalay:

    It’s amazing he doesn’t get it. They just wanted him to back them up. They didn’t consider his exposure. They wanted him to say it happened.

    They feel betrayed. He now let them down twice. He didn’t protect them then and he’s betraying them again.

    You do wonder about Republicans as judges of character, though. They all say they “loved” or “liked” him, that he was or is a “friend”. Some friend. They need better friends.

  95. 95.

    lgerard

    What was it Jordan said the other day during the Congressional hearing

    “We have caught you hiding information.”

    yeah, that

  97. 97.

    Mandalay

    @Kay:

    Now this congressman is a “victim” of the abused athletes. This thing is all backward.

    You are right, but not in Trump’s world. Jordan is a victim of the lying wrestlers in exactly the same way that Trump is a victim of the twenty two “lying” women who have accused him of sexual assault.

    For Trump followers the Jordan story will just become further evidence that the crooked media and the radical left are out to destroy them.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    It reminds me a little of those men who say they can’t form relationships with women because women are bad.

    Myyyy goodness. Not a lot of self examination going on there!

    Whatever those people are called- the angry men who think they’re a political movement when really women just don’t like them.

  99. 99.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    He’s the original Incel!

    Dersch was probably tolerated before on MV because he was famous and who doesn’t like their parties sprinkled with celebs (like fairy dust). Except that even famous people can go too far.

  100. 100.

    Mary G

    Honestly, no editor would buy this even as fiction:

    Korean media: Trump asked Kim Jong Un, whom he had called Rocket Man, if he knows the Elton John song Rocket Man, and Kim said no, so Pompeo is bringing Kim the CD, which Trump has autographed. https://t.co/Z1EAg4ZaAM— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 6, 2018

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Also we’d have to look at a map but I think Jordan’s district does stretch to suburbs of Columbus. They gerrymandered the hell out of them. Marcy Kapturs goes across the whole top of the state. That’s how she ended up in a primary for Cleveland while she still reps Toledo. His could go from Lima to northern suburbs.

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is a topic of some controversy on Twitter, still being argued, I think. The last I saw was that a Daines spokesman said that Daines came back early from the Moscow meeting, so he was in Washington. Others are skeptical that the timing could possibly work. Let me see if I can find a link.

    . . . Okay, this is from Thursday afternoon:

    If you read my thread, I asked if that was the case. If he came back early, Daines created confusion by signing on for a trip that was scheduled until July 5th, then coming back early and having a Twitter feed that seemed to purposely ignore the trip entirely. https://t.co/b31BQgx69i

    — Schooley (@Rschooley) July 5, 2018

  103. 103.

    frosty

    @Mary G: OMG, that just takes tone deafness to a new level. Autograph a CD of a song you used to insult someone? Wow.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    @Mary G

    Dibs on betting that

    a) They didn’t buy a legitimate copy, it’s a CD they burned themselves.

    b) It’s the William Shatner rendition.

  106. 106.

    Platonailedit

    @Kay: Wish you were a pundit on teevee. Telling-like-it-is will have a real meaning then.

  107. 107.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @frosty:

    Rocket Man is to Trump whatever he needs it to be.

    Once it was a childish insult, now it’s an affectionate nickname.

    All to no effect, Kim just thinks Trump is an useful idiot.

  110. 110.

    cwmoss

    @burnspbesq: Failure to report abuse when you’re a mandatory reporter is a crime in many jurisdictions. Statute of limitations has probably run, though. But looking the other way while the good doctor molested 2000 kids is definitely gonna leave a mark.

  111. 111.

    James E Powell

    It was once my privilege, as we lawyers sometimes say, to represent some clients who were being sued for the kind of sexual assaults described in this Dr. Strauss Ohio State horror show. I was just a dumbass insurance defense attorney, coming into the situation long after the alleged acts & omissions that formed the basis of the lawsuits allegedly occurred. In each and every case, I can’t recall a single exception, two things were true: 1) there were ample red flags and causes for alarm, often for years, that were ignored and 2) when confronted with credible complaints the organizations invariably adopted a defend & deny posture.

  112. 112.

    Calouste

    @cwmoss: Voters aren’t bound by the statute of limitations, proof of guilt, or whether the behavior is illegal or technically legal but just immoral. Just ask Roy Moore.

  113. 113.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: “Alan, if you don’t get out of my face, I’m gonna stab you with my cocktail skewer!… I am NOT kidding with you, Alan, stop trying to corner me!…”

  114. 114.

    hitchhiker

    All the legal exposure aside, it’s getting bizarre that he’s so flatly denying any knowledge ever. If these 4 guys all heard this stuff and/or discussed it with Jordan, there will be plenty of others.

    At some point it’s going to be just him insisting that a dozen dudes (who also claim to be his friends!) are all on the record shaking their heads and wondering what their buddy is smoking. I hope it takes the rest of the summer and half the fall for every last one of them to be asked about Jim. We can keep talking about his dishonesty and cowardice forever.

  115. 115.

    sukabi

    @Kay: There are consequences for defending the indefensible. He needs to get used to being a pariah.

  116. 116.

    Nelle

    @Adam L Silverman: I was a visiting prof one year in Montana. A freshman came into the classroom and said, “Wow, this is soon diverse.” I was puzzled, looking at 30 white faces.” The response? “I’m from a ranch. I’ve mostly gone to school with cousins and I don’t know anyone in here.”

  117. 117.

    sukabi

    @Mary G: JFC Drumpf really is an emotionally stunted moron. Jackass is acting like a needy 12 year old girl. How long before Kim tries to shake his stalker?

  118. 118.

    donnah

    I’m discontinuing our local paper after a thirty-five year subscription. It’s paired with a local news station, so not only is the “news” usually two days late, it’s a regrind of what the TV reporters said yesterday.

    Also, front page articles like today’s: “Jordan questions the timing of OSU sex abuse allegations”. Hey, newsfolk, let’s not tell a story from the perp’s point of view, planting doubt in the public’s minds. Just state the facts. And quit trying to make DiSabato, an accuser, a villain while you’re at it. It’s going to be a tough fight to get Jordan convicted, though. Ohio State is a multibillion dollar business and they won’t stand idly by to let one of their people be accused of such behavior.

    Pairing OSU with Republican resistance, I imagine a very protracted battle that gets dragged along until people lose interest.

  119. 119.

    Shalimar

    I don’t have anything to say about Jordan, other than that lying to protect himself and getting Trump and millions of others to believe him just compounds and deepens the pain from abuse that he has already turned away from. He is a disgusting, evil man.

  120. 120.

    Mary in Ohio

    @donnah: I disagree with you to an extent. If The Ohio State University can throw a few coaches under the bus by claiming the coaches knew there was a problem but didn’t say anything I absolutely believe they would do it.

  121. 121.

    Shalimar

    @Adam L Silverman: I”m sure it happened in some form, but it says a lot about Dershowitz that he thinks this story will gain him sympathy because people won’t understand how a woman could hate him that much.

  122. 122.

    nonynony

    @Mary in Ohio:

    I disagree with you to an extent. If The Ohio State University can throw a few coaches under the bus by claiming the coaches knew there was a problem but didn’t say anything I absolutely believe they would do it.

    Here’s the problem – with Jordan being a bigtime Republican, things just got a whole lot sticker for Ohio State.

    The state is essentially a one party state and that party is Republican. The administrators at Ohio State go out of their way to not irritate the Republicans in the legislature (and the governor, for that matter) because the Republicans in the legislature basically have the admins’ reproductive organs in a vice that they can tighten anytime they want to.

    Unless the GOP decide to throw Jordan under the bus, Ohio State is going to be in crisis mode over this. And they won’t throw him under the bus because…

    @debbie:

    Wikipedia has a good picture of his district:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio%27s_4th_congressional_district#/media/File:Ohio_US_Congressional_District_4_(since_2013).tif

    You can see why people in Ohio keep poking at finding a solution for fair redistricting. His district stretches from Lorain up against Lake Erie to Marysville in the center of the state and over to Lima in the western part of the state. It’s ridiculous – but it’s there to ensure a safe Republican seat. That’s not a district that is gerrymandered to win with a 10% differential in the vote – he won the district in 2014 with almost 68% of the vote, and in 2016 with about the same. It’s designed to be a solid Republican win every time – even if his opponent gets 15% more of the vote this time he’d still win – she needs almost a 20% shift in order to win that seat.

    And that’s why he’s going to dig in, and why the state GOP will continue to back him. He’ll get away with it – he can deny, deny, deny and he can afford to lose thousands of votes over it and still win the seat. And the sad thing is, he probably won’t lose that many votes given the way the district is drawn.

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