CT Blue

It looks like the loathsome former wrestling coach and now Congress critter Jim Jordan’s attempts to deny knowledge of sexual abuse by a team doctor, Dr. Strauss, are falling apart, and even his attempt to use the “locker room talk” defense is probably not going to stand up. 

Jordan was an assistant coach, and the head coach recently defended him, claiming no one knew anything about the doctor’s proclivity to, for example, handle certain body parts during team weigh ins. (And why was a doctor conducting weigh ins anyway, inquiring minds want to know). But it seems the head coach, Russ Hellickson, forgot that he was already on tape admitting that everyone knew about the problem.

On the tape, Hellickson said that many of the wrestlers were “uncomfortable” with Dr. Strauss’s behavior and that he had confronted Strauss about it. There was Strauss’s lingering in the showers with wrestlers and fondling them during weigh-ins.

Jordan tried to draw a distinction between “conversations in a locker room” and formal complaints, but that dog wouldn’t hunt, even on Fox.

But Jordan probably need not worry. So far, I’ve heard not a single Republican call for his resignation. In fact, as Josh Marshal observes, it has become an occupational requirement for House Republicans to insist Jordan is not lying, even though they all know that he is:

…Along with the nine other wrestlers who’ve come forward, Russ Hellickson’s admission makes it certain to anyone who is willing to open their eyes that Rep. Jim Jordan is lying about what he knew and heard more than two decades ago. Yet just yesterday, amidst all this evidence, Paul Ryan was compelled to make what amounts to a public and unbreakable statement of confidence in Jordan’s integrity. This came after numerous other members of the House GOP caucus came forward to express Manchurian Candidate-like testimonies about Jordan’s honesty and integrity. To get a sense of the drumbeat that was created to force Ryan to make this kind of fulsome pledge of confidence in Jordan’s integrity, watch this exchange from Wednesday night with Fox Business News’ Lou Dobbs.

Good example here of the Manchurian Candidate like hold Jordan has on Fox/GOP. Dobbs: “I just cldnt believe that Ryan would persist in refusing to acknowledge the man’s integrity and a service and finally todaySpeaker Ryan steps up on his behalf to acknowledge who Jim Jordan is.” pic.twitter.com/t5hO0JVgEH

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 12, 2018

Dobbs couldn’t “believe that Ryan would persist so long in refusing to acknowledge the man’s integrity” and glad that finally “Speaker Ryan steps up in his behalf and acknowledges who Jim Jordan is.” (emphasis added)

All sorts of crazy things get said on Fox News and its sister station. But this was significant both because of the surreal expressions of disbelief that Ryan would withhold a sort of pledge of loyalty to Jordan and also because it was part of a general climate which is leading virtually every Republican in the House to state categorically that Jim Jordan cannot be lying and is somehow singular in his integrity despite the fact that everyone can see that his denials are increasingly absurd.

Nor is there much chance he’ll lose his reelection bid in his heavily gerrymandered district. Meanwhile, Al Franken languishes in retirement due to what was clearly a joke by which the “victim” was only retroactively offended, done in by another Democrat, almost surely to get him out of the way as a possible presidential contender.

Because, in the end, despite being the party of “family values” and that good old time religion, when it comes right down to it, it’s always okay if you’re a Republican.