Donald Trump’s House GOP ally Jim Jordan goes completely off the deep end
We’ve all heard of politicians trying to “fail upward” by taking on increasingly and lofty and unlikely aspirations in response to failing at more basic aspirations. Donald Trump’s House GOP ally Jim Jordan is now trying to fail upward in real time. In fact, thanks to a pair of moves over the past twenty-four hours, it’s entirely fair to say that Jordan has gone completely off the deep end.
Jim Jordan stands accused of having tried to cover up the sexual abuse scandal at Ohio State University when he worked there as a wrestling coach. The two most relevant questions about Jordan are when he’ll end up resigning, and whether he’ll end up in prison. So instead of simply resigning and preparing his legal defense, he’s now trying to take over Congress in nearly laugh-out-loud fashion.
Yesterday Jordan introduced a measure to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Even though it’s guaranteed to fail, he seemed to believe that it would endear him to Trump’s bottom feeding base. The trouble: this stunt is so extreme, even the Republican Party doesn’t want to support it. Jordan only received eleven House GOP co-sponsors, out of more than two hundred, a clear sign this wasn’t going anywhere. But he introduced it anyway, forcing Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy to publicly speak out against the idea today. So now Jordan is trying to fail even further upward.
That’s right, Jim Jordan now says he wants to run for Speaker of the House and replace Paul Ryan. Again, this is a guy who’s become such a pariah, his latest measure only received the support of around five percent of the Republicans in the House, and a guy who’s trying to fend off a sex abuse scandal that could land him in prison. Even if the GOP keeps control of the House in the November elections, which is unlikely, Jordan wouldn’t have the GOP support to become Speaker. This guy is more likely to be under house arrest by that time, than to become Speaker of the House.
