Rob Portman’s Exit Interview – WSJ

Prior to being elected to the Senate in 2010 (with 18 points) and 2016 (with 21), Mr. Portman served six terms in the House and roles as Director of the Office of Management and Budget and as U.S. Trade Representative, both under president George W. Bush. He has deftly made his way through the party’s Trumpian minefields. Over the years when national events have become particularly obscure, I’ve asked him to read things, and what always struck me is his stubborn sense of reality: he doesn’t let his wishes get in the way of what he sees. In the geography of the Republican Party, he would be placed with such figures as Mitch Daniels – the We Actually Know Things Caucus.

When he made his announcement on Monday, he said the senate is too polarized, that there is no common ground left. He is moved by the response: “It’s a crazy world right now, and this decision I made I thought was normal, but the response was abnormal. I think people really long for renewed duality and collaboration. “Potential candidates for his seat have called to say they want to be like him.” It’s been crazy, “he laughs,” dying like a good death. ”

He is 65 and means it when he says he wants more time with his family: “I never expected to be a career politician.” He plans to make progress “from the outside” on things he cares about – drug addiction, sex trafficking, a compulsory federal spending committee.

It’s really something we live in at a time when ambitious people are leaving the US Senate to get things done.

As for his party’s outlook, he is somewhere between optimistic and serene. Everyone talks about the inevitability of the breakup, but he doesn’t see it that way. The 2020 election, he argues, showed Republican strength – gains in the state legislature and the US House. He thinks upcoming elections could bring forward traditional Republicans and call for new ones. “There is a mixture of the traditional GOP agenda – lower taxes, strong military – with more populist approaches to immigration, trade, for example. In the real world, you have to have a fair trading system, and it’s not un-Republican to think that. ”

A different tone would help. “This requires leaders who have the ability to deliver these messages without the rudeness and division we’ve seen over the past four or five years.”

He sees his state as a microcosm of the land. In 2020, “many of the setbacks in the suburbs were style and personality. The higher educated suburban people of Ohio who are independent voters today – you can win these areas if you are focused on the right policies and are more welcoming and embracing. Donald Trump did well among minorities: “That was about issues – the economy, small businesses, lower taxes.”

Despite the smallness and anger now showing by several of the state GOP committees, we agree in this area with Mr Portman’s sense that in the long run it is the issues that count. The potential health and sustainability of the GOP will be based on an integration of old and still usable stands with new and still urgent stands. But that process is not going to be easy with Mr. Trump as a dominant force. When he’s on site, it’s back to the old battle lines, and everyone dove in.

On the forthcoming impeachment trial: “I have said that I will listen to both sides, and I will. I am a jury member. But he believes trying a former president is likely to set a bad precedent.

I asked about his former campaign manager Corry Bliss’s comment, published Tuesday in National Journal, about Portman’s decision not to run: “ If you want to spend all your time on Fox and be an ah- there’s never been a better time to to serve. But if you want to spend your time being thoughtful and getting things done, there has never been a worse time to serve. “Mr. Portman roared with laughter.” Did he say that? “He roared again.” Yes, I will not comment. ”

Here I am switching away from Mr. Portman to squeeze in something that is being overlooked in the upcoming impeachment debate.

I started talking the New Year with an ambassador to the US of a European nation, who spoke about Mr. Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the election. Do Americans understand the damage this is doing to American allies, the ambassador asked. We look to you for an example of how to practice democracy – you are the oldest in the world! We are sad to see the beacon of democracy defiled in this way.

Those words came to my ears five days later as I watched the Capitol being under siege.

On “Axios on HBO” Sunday we hear from President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. He plays a tough hand. Russia is breathing down his neck, Republicans don’t want to hear about him because they are ashamed of the Trump phone call that triggered the initial impeachment, and Democrats are ashamed of Hunter Biden and Burisma. Mr. Zelensky seems to be standing on his own, on top of one of the world’s trouble spots. China has contacted lovingly.

Reporter Jonathan Swan asked the president how he felt when he saw the Capitol storming. “Shocked,” said Mr. Zelensky. “I couldn’t even imagine that such a thing was possible in the United States of America. . . . We are used to think that the US has ideal democratic institutions where power is passed on calmly, without war, without revolutions. “Things like that happen somewhere else; they happened in Ukraine.” Nobody expected that it could happen in the United States … After something like this I think it would be very difficult for the world to get the United States. as a symbol of democracy in the world. “

For more than a century, we have claimed the mantle of world power, basking in the warm glow of our exceptional character, and setting ourselves forward as an example. When you do that, you have responsibilities; you are something in return. What you owe is the kind of admirable behavior that gives the world something to strive for. On 1/6 they saw the storm and the siege and thought: Ah, no stability in that place. We cannot learn how to do it there and replicate it here.

This is a loss to emerging democracies and to us, to our reputation and reputation. The Senate’s condemnation is the chance to show the world: no, we won’t have this; those who have done it will pay the greatest penalty.

It is important that all the evidence is presented that everyone sees that we can come down like a hammer to ensure that 1/6 was a regrettable incident, not a trend to come.

It is important for the world to see this. Which we seeing it.