Jordan, Obhof win Oscars for most embarrassing Ohio lawmakers

From the beginning to the end of Wednesday's all-day hearing in Washington, featuring President Donald J. Trump's former personal attorney providing "smoking-gun" evidence and hours of testimony that corroborated the corrupt and likely criminal activity Trump and loyalists, including his family members, are alleged to have engaged in during his presidency and prior to his election in 2016, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan walked away with the Oscar for most embarrassing performance by an elected official.

Ohio Statehouse in Columbus

The only member of the committee to not wear his suit jacket, Jordan, a founder of the so-called Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives, was the hatchet man who went after Trump's legal fixer for a decade. Michael Cohen eventual rose to become Trump's personal lawyer, a position he said he wanted, that flummoxed Jordan who insisted that Cohen was peeved for not landing a job in the White House.

Defending the president by attacking Cohen as a liar who cannot tell the truth and the FBI as an untrustworthy federal agency, Jordan demonstrated his abject but misplaced adoration of Trump despite Cohen's evidence and truth telling at the second of three congressional committees he will face this week.

Acting like an trained yet mad ideological attack dog, Jordan's shirt-sleeve performance brought tremendous ignominy to the Ohio congressional district that elected him and further damaged his well-established reputation as  a dedicated warrior against any policy or program that smacks of the public interest. Not recognizing truth when it reared its ugly but clearly seen head, the former wrestler who has managed to disassociate himself from being complicit in know about but doing nothing to stop sexual abuse that take place during his years as a wrestling coach tried to be Cohen's grim reaper.

Meanwhile, while Jordan was giving Ohio a political black eye in DC, back in Columbus, GOP Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof has indicated he's more than ready to keep Ohio moving backward. Obhof, a black-belt fiscal and social conservative, said that any hike in the gas tax must be off set by a similar reduction in Ohio's income tax.

Obhof was an active Republican wingman who aided former Gov and now CNN political pundit. John Kasich. Kasich's faux fiscal record is unraveling by the day amid new reports from state media no longer afraid of frozen out by Kasich's media machine that lower taxes for the rich will create more revenue and good jobs.

As Obhof delays to figure out his proposal to ransom off raising more money for transportation infrastructure, Ohio's other state leader, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, is looking downright moderate by comparison. Householder, who during his previous speakership was linked to "pay to play" statehouse schemes, got brownie points in exchange for Democratic who voted to elect him speaker instead of another Obhof-like candidate, Ryan Smith, who do what Republicans know they do without fear of consequence, run over Democrats like they were snakes on the road.

When Ohio fractures along political fault lines that make a former GOP power player like Householder look like a leader who includes instead of excludes Democrats, what was once normal hegemony practiced by Republicans against Democrats is no longer the standard. 

In a soon to be released report, Ohio maybe worse off in some key areas after two-terms of Kasich than when Gov. Strickland left it, following the pounding on jobs it took from The Great Recession of 2007, as hundreds of thousands of jobs out-right evaporated or relocated to other states or countries.

The big news from Ohio's last budget was that the shortfall of $800 million was filled by spending cuts. After years of tax cutting and special deals for a special class of business, the belief in "no news taxes" is alive and well to Buckeye Republicans.

In classic Kasich fashion, Obhof says adding 18 cents to the state's gas tax, to generate money to fix and repair transportation assets, especially roads and bridges, must be off set by lower income taxes, making it tough going forward to pay for state needs with a declining revenue base. Revenue shortfalls over the past couple of months are worrisome, but Obhof believes complicating Ohio's future seems to be a strong part of his agenda.

The Ohio Department of Transportation wonders where it goes now a $1.6 billion shortfall in its budget is hanging over the state like the Sword of Damocles. Once a model for other states to follow because taxes imposed more than paid for a system of roads and bridges critical to job development and growth, Ohio is now a model for what not to do.

With Ohio hurting from decades of Republican control, including passing dozens of bills that hurt women's health care choices or those poor enough to qualify for Medicaid who may soon have to hop new hurdles to remain eligible for their meager healthcare assistance, it's both funny and sad that Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan is calling on Amazon to reconsider Ohio for the company's next headquarters site after the company recently announced it will pull out of its first choice for the 25,000 jobs it said would come to its chosen location, New York City.

This reporter has written before that Ohio's lawmakers, the same GOP dunderheads who have set the state in reverse motion on so many fronts over many years, represent the major reason why a giant company like Amazon wouldn't consider the right-wing state no matter how good the public bribes might be.

Someday, Ohio media will wake up to the fact that there is a connection between economic development and social development. When the latter hearkens back to earlier times when race and gender were issues that divided neighbor from neighbor, 21st century companies looking for diversity, inclusiveness and openness in where they have a business presence will see Ohio as a second or even third tier state to do business in.

When high-profile members of congress like Jordan put on the display of rabid ideology he did yesterday, with Obhof eager to pursue more bone-headed tax policy that's put Ohio more behind the Eight Ball than in front of it, Ohio takes a beating among thoughtful people and business.

With Sen. Rob Portman constantly befuddled by Trump's deceptive and maybe illegal behavior, afraid to take a stand that clearly shows whether he supports or opposes the White House on a laundry list of important issues, the dignity of work, as exemplified by Ohio's senior Sen. Sherrod Brown, is indeed a fresh breeze that blows away the stench created by Jordan in Washington and Obhof in Columbus.