Tag: Rob Portman

What’s Most Wrong in Politics: Consensus building and “getting along”

It was a national embarrassment to have Joe Biden come to Cincinnati and give a speech on bipartisan support to waste 1.4 billion dollars building a new bridge for the vital I-75/71 corridor, bringing with him a whole parade of RINOs and Democrats. That bridge should have been built long ago for a lot less money. The speech by the illegally elected Joe Biden was too late and about all the wrong subjects. I happen to know several of the characters who were with Biden that day in January 2023, well, so I have some perspective on what “bipartisanship” means when Biden says it. Essentially, Biden is in trouble politically. His son is a disaster. The Chinese who have put him in place through election fraud are struggling to put behind them the scam of Covid which they manufactured, distributed, and perpetuated to gain power in the world far more effectively than any military would have, and of course, there’s a new Congress controlled by Republicans who are going to have a chance to conduct many new investigations into Biden’s criminal family and all the sins of the past now that a “Trump Standard” has been set, which no Democrat will be able to live up to. Biden has no other choice but to show up in Ohio with a bunch of boot lickers and try to take the edge off things by showing something that needed to be done, finally getting done. And it was not impressive. To do it, Biden had to sign another 550-billion-dollar infrastructure bill with all kinds of progressive garbage in it. This project is projected to cost another 3.6 billion dollars in the end, likely more, as union cost overruns take a toll and the bureaucrats realize how much they left out of their projections. Instead of being something positive, it was a gross display of everything that was wrong in government. And everyone there looked just pathetic. 

I couldn’t help but think of the irony, and I’ve spoken about Rob Portman quite a lot this year, especially concerning the campaign of J.D. Vance who was just elected to be his replacement. I’ve been hard on Mike DeWine, who was there and I have said the only thing good about him is his wife’s cookies, who, upon meeting them earlier in 2022, she is hard to dislike. And Mitch McConnell from Kentucky has been shown to be a RINO anti-Trumper from the beginning. Sherrod Brown, the other senator from Ohio, is a joke, and another cover-up from the media regarding his messy divorce, which I became involved with while campaigning for Jim Renacci. I had a chance to meet Brown during that story at Miami University, which the media helped him get through, much like they have covered up so many stories with Joe Biden. And then there is Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, his election was so close that what we know about election fraud and the methods of his election was very similar to what happened in Arizona this year with Kari Lake. The Democrat Machine cheated to get him elected; only an eternity ago, in this very real war, we didn’t ask those kinds of questions because we didn’t know we needed to. Biden put up on that stage a collection of political misfits on the Ohio River banks across from Longworth Hall, where the popular bridge edges past, and it brought back distinct memories of my life with Rob Portman as he was starting his political career, just how far people fall in life. And knowing all the dreams of Portman from his beginnings, the only thing I could see standing with Biden were political failures using massive amounts of money to save a government that had grown too corrupt to trust. 

During the early 90s, I was very active in Ross Perot’s Reform Party, and Rob Portman was campaigning for a suddenly open congressional seat that had come up in Cincinnati. He was a little older than me at the time, but we got along well and I wanted to help him, so I set up a Sunday night debate on 700 WLW with Portman and a bunch of other candidates for people to hear, which Portman clearly won.  During that campaign, I spent a lot of time with Rob Portman talking about all the reasons he wanted to get into politics and how he wanted to emulate Ross Perot in the Republican Party. Many of our meetings and events occurred across the river from where Biden spoke at Longworth Hall. I could tell many stories about those days involving a reformed Penthouse model married to a wealthy developer and a rag-tag group of political activists who would eventually become the Tea Party 15-16 years later. Along with some of my friends, there are still people who talk about the giant American flag that we hung from the top of Longworth Hall to all who could see it traveling southbound across the Brent Spence Bridge that hung all the way to the ground from the top. Rob Portman was a part of that group of reformers, so I have had high hopes for him over the years. But to see him broken and beaten over the years was sad and pathetic. For him to end his political career essentially sucking air for Joe Biden tells you everything wrong with politics. 

And what is wrong with politics? Well, it’s consensus-building. Once people like Rob Portman accept that getting along with bad people like Joe Biden, Sharrod Brown, Andy Breshear, and China Mitch, rather than actually standing for things, is the start toward expensive political destruction. And Joe Biden, on that day, was actually supporting that flawed premise by showing off all the losers who had been politically beaten and were “working together” in wasting money that should have gone to a project twenty years earlier. The only reason they were all there on that day was that a major political storm was brewing. With all their attempts to get rid of Trump, people still loved and supported Trump, just as people loved Ross Perot many years earlier. And back then, Rob Portman at least said he understood. But once he got to congress for a few terms and then ran for the Senate, the values of Washington D.C. clearly changed Portman. He went from that bright-eyed political reformer who would hang around my rag-tag friends on many political adventures to this washed-out husk of the flesh who propped himself up to an illegal president, showing support for him because the institution of the Senate was more significant than the value of any of them, and that’s where things always go wrong. And it starts with the value of consensus building, with concessions of value where people of good value and bad value compromise with each other, and what people end up with is watered-down, expensive garbage that comes too late and not often enough. All that was on display regarding the bridge announcement in Cincinnati is how corrupt, and costly everything is that a government of criminals can provide only when people are about to throw them all out of power with pitchforks. Ironically, it all started for Rob Portman across the river from where he ended it. And in the end, he was a shell of the person he once had been, and it was very sad but revealing to see it up close, as I had. 

Rich Hoffman

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Defending J.D. Vance: Its about shelf life and winning over the other side

Defending J.D. Vance

I’ve had a few opportunities to meet J.D. Vance recently, both of which fell short on aligning schedules.  I have been traveling a lot this year, and coming out of the Covid burdens, it has been a busy time.  Vance is running for the Rob Portman Senate seat that I talk about in the video above.  So are Josh Mandel and Jane Timken, along with several others.  All of the candidates seem like they have something good to bring to the seat as Portman exits.  As I also said in the video, I knew Rob Portman when he first started in politics.  He was a kind of Ross Perot Reform Party guy back then, and over time as the glaciers of D.C. politics have worn away at him, he has become a serious RINO, essentially no better than Mitt Romney.  This doesn’t surprise me, nor do the reports that J.D. Vance was a Never Trumper in 2016.  This past week the media looking to churn up controversy in what they consider to be the front runner in the race, J.D. fresh off his successful movie, the Hillbilly Elegy, and book by the same name. Vance has good funding from Peter Theil in the vicinity of $10 million, which is a good start for an Ohio senate race.  I think a lot of the bad media is a good sign for Vance and that a proper defense of him is warranted.  But again, as I mention in the video, the purpose of a primary is not to determine the best character who can run for that seat; it’s who has the best shelf life once they win it.  Which candidate can hold their life together long enough to withstand the rigors of elected life in a powerful seat?

I will meet with Jane Timken coming up soon, which I plan not to miss.  J.D. has had events practically in my backyard as he’s from Middletown, and if I get another chance, I’ll make room for it.  I know Josh Mandel pretty well from his Tea Party activism, and if I had to pick, it would be him right now.  I personally like him, but he doesn’t have much of a reputation as a winner.  He lost a challenge to the socialist Sharrod Brown, and he’s had family trouble.  To me, that’s a shelf-life problem.   I warned Rob Portman of the shelf-life issue when he was making his first run for congress and when he did win, I maintained some relationship with him for a few years after.  His shelf life was about seven years.  Some people like Rand Paul and his father have lasted a lot longer.  Some don’t last much beyond their freshman years intact with their Mr. Smith Goes to Washington intentions. It’s a cutthroat business that a lot of politicians don’t understand until they get there.  A primary election is an excellent way to give them a taste and let voters figure out what that political shelf life might look like.

I wasn’t very excited about J.D. Vance, I’ll admit, when I had those two invites to meet him over the last few months.  I am skeptical of anyone who works for any period with the very liberal film director Ron Howard.  Ron did a great job on the movie Hillbilly Elegy, and he couldn’t have done that good of a job without working closely and getting to know J.D. Vance.  The film and the book are essentially about the life story of Vance and how Middletown, Ohio fell from grace and produced problems for a displaced Appalachia family.  The Vance story is one I know well.  I could tell the same story for thousands of people I know in Hamilton and Middletown, Ohio, who came from Kentucky and West Virginia to get jobs at Fisher Body in Hamilton and Armco in Middletown.  Vance was a darling to liberals, which he played to his advantage while it lasted.  The movie was Academy Award level material, and the book was a New York Times Best Seller. As I’ve said many times, you don’t get those accolades unless you give progressivism a sacrifice on Kong’s Skull Island.   Much like the book The Deer Hunter did, capitalism was painted as the cause of Middletown’s failure, of the small town of Appalachia culture that failed the people of those communities.  But in reality, it’s tampering by government with the markets that ruined those jobs.  It was union activism that made the supply chain unreliable in many cases, and it is that behavior that causes economic downturns anywhere. 

But I saw more than that in Hillbilly Elegy, not just in J.D. Vance himself. He prevailed in the story despite the massive setbacks from his drug-addicted mom and the seemingly dysfunctional antics of his grandmother.  Again, I know lots and lots of these kinds of people, and I know the real story of their lives better than Hollywood, looking to make a statement about the failures of capitalism.  I saw a person in Vance who understood personal responsibility and overcoming barriers, which was a metaphor for his life and the town of Middletown as a whole.   And since 2016, and especially once he was done with the movie, I was not surprised to see a kind of Trumpian candidate that fits well in the American First platform of President Trump.  Vance gets the philosophy and knows how to hit the cable news stations and sell it.  The question everyone has is what kind of shelf life does J.D. Vance have, and does he genuinely believe what he’s saying now. 

Oh, I remember 2016 when Vance was posting on Twitter disparaging things about Trump.  I knew a lot of Republicans who were right along with him.  They were Never Trumpers, just like Glenn Beck was.  Glenn Beck and I shared a mutual friend in Doc Thompson, and there were always talks of doing work on The Blaze, which often put Doc in a tough spot.  I was so mad at Glenn Beck that I swore him off forever. I’m happy to see he has since found his mind now that it’s obvious how good the Trump presidency was.  But if I refused to deal with people who were Never Trumpers, who has since seen the light, I wouldn’t be able to talk to anybody.  There weren’t many of us who were pro-Trump in 2016 who were willing to admit it publicly.  I was a Trump supporter from the beginning and have watched many people change their minds, so it isn’t surprising that Vance has now seen the light.  To my mind, it’s all about building teams, of winning over people’s minds.  So I welcome Vance and people like him who have learned and evolved.  Welcome to the winning team!

Yet when the primary election is held, and whoever wins among these candidates for the Portman Senate seat, we must keep in mind shelf life.  We want a person who will be just as good ten years from now as they are during their freshman year.  We want someone who will be able to still talk about America First after they’ve had a line of lobbyists outside their office trying to buy them off with easy money and cheap wine that will be all too tempting to consume.  And for J.D. Vance’s enduring love for a self-destructive mother hell-bent on drug abuse, I think the young man knows something about overcoming adversity.  He might be the kind of person who can withstand the rigors and maintain a long shelf life in a powerful seat in public office. I’d be more than willing to give him an honest look.

Rich Hoffman

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Voters have a lot to be angry about with Kathy Wyenandt: Remembering Todd Portune and his “people over politics” theatrics

Of course George Lang still needs to win the Republican primary in March before looking ahead to the Democrat challenger for the 4th District Seat for Senate in Ohio Kathy Wyenandt, but there are a few things about her campaign already that is disturbing, and they’ve come up before. One of the reasons Lang had to raise so much money for that 4th District Seat is because he needs to beat two Republican primary challengers then a very likeable Democrat in Kathy in a county that liberals would love to turn more purple than the hard red that it has been. Liberals hope to do that with women candidates who can cross over invisible political boundaries for voters earned and unearned and Kathy will be there with some money left from her previous attempt at the 52nd District House seat which she lost to Lang and a check from the now deceased Todd Portune that was sizable for the task of purple rain in Southern Ohio. Since he just died and its not fashionable to disparage the dead, I’ll save many harsh comments I have for Commissioner Portune for some other day but I do find it interesting that he thought enough of Kathy to give her a $2,500 check. Portune and I go back a long way and it was not pleasant. He was better late in life, but vicious political theater in the days of Dwight Tillery as the Mayor and Foxy Roxy as the Vice Mayor are stories I could tell that could dwarf the Bible many times over, but to put it mildly, I do not share with Rob Portman and many other conservatives any kind words. Yet it was the passing of Portune and of learning of his contribution connection to Kathy Wyenandt that reminded me of her campaign and the message she has for politics in general that I am very much opposed to.

Wyenandt and I have talked about this several times, her belief that politics has become so toxic that her campaign slogan is “people over politics,” as if to say, she is not a partisan and will listen to people over any other influence. Well, ironically Todd Portune told me something almost exactly to the same effect almost 30 years ago while I was in his office and we were discussing a solution to a nighclub incident where a bunch of drunk kids had died in a car crash coming home from the Cooters night club after the place had closed. I was proposing to him to solicit help from the city to get approval through the CBC a non-alcoholic nightclub that would operate in Coryville right next to the freshman dorms on the University of Cincinnati’s campus and give kids somewhere else to go once all the bars closed for the night and poured a bunch of drunk kids into the world as dangerous toxins. I was weary of the Democrat Portune who had pictures of prominent politicians in his office and I wasn’t sure if I could trust him with the intentions of the group I was representing. But he said to me much of what Kathy has said recently about the common good and people over politics, so I trusted Todd Portune with my idea.

Well, and there is much political theater that fills the book ends as mentioned but the gist of it was that I found myself in a lot of political trouble every which way you can imagine and as it turned out Todd Portune, as a member of Cincinnati City Council at the time was also the attorney for the nightclub Cooters and he had ratted out all my plans to all the wrong people which killed the financial aspects of the deal and left me hanging in a very bad way. I was young, so it was a good learning experience and it only took me 10 years to dig out from that mess, but to say the least, I learned what it means when politicians tell you that they put people over politics. What they really mean is quite the opposite. When it comes to Todd Portune, I figure fate sort of played out for him. While Rob Portman, whom I knew pretty well in those days of my dealings with Portune has lots of nice things to say about Todd, I’ll just state that I’ll leave the dead to rest and let whatever version of God the readers hear have sort out the details. The lessons of those experiences are more valuable than any other element and it reminds me a lot of Kathy Wyenandt’s campaign.

Each time I’ve spoke to Kathy she is always quick to tell me that she doesn’t read this blog site, yet she knows an awful lot about it, and she always pulls the conversation around to how divisive politics is and how she thinks we can all agree to taking some of the toxic relationship out of it. She is a nice approachable person so it would take a while to dig into the details so usually those types of conversations never get into the weeds too far, but as I’ve thought about it over time, and have learned that she has even enough of a relationship with an old political rival of mine, Todd Portune, I have much more severe opinions about Kathy’s “people over politics” platform. As a school levy supporter for Lakota on the last attempt, a political point she has choosen to capitalize on, it is clear what she represents and that makes the premise revolting of what she is asking people to accept. The toxic relationship people now have in politics is because they have learned too much about the bad dealings of people like Todd Portune and the double dealing that often goes on especially among Democrats when they say to your face, “people over politics.” What that usually means is “see you in court while you spend a fortune defending yourself from some political incursion.” Democrats for years have tried to put us to sleep while they’ve literally tried to screw our eyeballs out and the toxicity of modern politics is that enough people have woken up to the fact and people like Kathy want to ease people back to sleep to that reality.

It is OK to be angry that Lakota has wasted all the money Kathy helped spend through that last levy passage and is now looking to tax homeowners even more. Of course she doesn’t want people to fight or be angry, she wants to put them back to sleep—to the good ol’ days where Democrats could talk out of both sides of their mouth and get away with it. Of course the Democrats which Wyenandt is a member want everyone to suddenly get along now that the many evils that we have discovered from politics gone wrong in the past are clear to us now. If people are thinking of those things, no Democrat will get elected for anything ever. So Kathy’s only real strategy is to try to kill everyone with kindness and put everyone back to sleep so she can have a chance at a higher office. But to answer the question that she asked me, which I know she’ll read about here on my blog, and we’ll talk about the next time we see each other out and about, is that its good to be pissed off and angry at politics and that it is people who elect representatives that can recover their interests who are waking up and that they should be angry at how they have been treated. And because of the Lakota levy of 2013 voters have a lot of reason to be angry with Kathy—and then some.

Rich Hoffman

“Holy Cow–is SHE GORGEOUS”: What the media misses about Trump, his supporters, and a return to greatness that defines America

I always enjoy being invited to these exclusive political events because it gives me a chance to spend time with good people who generally want the same things I do, a good life for everyone in America intent on a philosophy to take us all there. I didn’t know it at the time but learned later that the guy behind me was the prosecutor for Butler County, a well-known hard nose no-nonsense guy named Michael Gmoser. It was 25 degrees at the Lunken Airport and security was heavy as they checked us through the reception area of a hanger awaiting the arrival of President Trump on a visit to Cincinnati, Ohio. Michael and I spoke like a couple of guys who had a million of other things to do than to stand in the cold to await watching a plane land and to shake hands with the occupant. We both agreed that we’d only do such a thing for Donald Trump because history was literally being made every day of his presidency and he was worth the extra effort. After I learned that he was the prosecutor for my county, I understood his temperament. Most of the people in the crowed of invited guests were a little star struck of having the opportunity to meet a sitting president, but Michael Gmoser was a practical man who had a lot of people demanding time of him—but for just a few hours out of a Monday afternoon on a cold February in Ohio we took a moment to let history wash over us. Here is my video footage from the vantage point of an insider at the event—a side that most people would never get from the media. I think you’ll find it very interesting dear reader.

As I watched media coverage of this Trump occurrence later the same day they all missed the point, from the local news to the national news. As Trump stepped out of Air Force One to an enthusiastic crowd who had been awaiting him in the bone cracking cold the media rushed to position themselves for coverage, yet they all missed the mark. It’s not just because I was better positioned for the coverage, but because my vantage point of a long time Trump supporter made my footage better for the inquiring mind wondering why this president was so loved by his supporters. I was right at the edge of the fencing immediately next to the press platform, so I knew there would be media interviews from reporters working the line. Ironically, they all wanted to talk to my wife for a change—and she did a nice job. But no reporter really understood what was happening and thus had no clear way to present their material to an editor, or to the general public.
I can honestly say that every Trump event I’ve been to has been a very unique experience—he brings out in people the best and most enthusiastic hopes they might have at any given moment—it’s a rock star quality that isn’t typically associated with political figures. I remember how enthusiastic everything was way back in the Ross Perot days. I remember as well helping with the Bob Dole campaign in 96. I remember when George W. Bush came to town to turn the Museum Center into the Hall of Justice from the Justice League. I remember Barack Obama. I remember when Al Gore came to Cincinnati and stood in the flooding waters of the Ohio River as if to make climate change more of an issue of his visit—while he was still vice president under Clinton. Everything with Trump is different. I was happy to see that many of the young Republicans from Miami University were all around me. We let the girls up to the fence because they were shorter and I could easily film over their heads. Some of them had life changing moments that day, you could hear it in their voices. They had an opportunity to shake the hand of the president and they couldn’t contain their excitement.

On the video you can hear the voice of a long time Republican operative say, “Holy cow, is she gorgeous” when Melania was stepping down the steps of Air Force One. Then you could hear the young lady next to her who couldn’t have been more than 20 years old declare, “He’s gorgeous,” referring to the almost 72-year-old President Trump. Here were women from opposite ends of femininity commenting on their enthusiasm for seeing the President and First Lady in person and the energy that came from the exchange. I don’t blame the media for not understanding, even though they were virtually five feet from my position. But to really understand Trump you have to really talk to the people who were invited to this event—people who had worked hard to get him elected president and were proud of their hard work manifested before their eyes.
To Trump’s credit he could have easily have come out of Air Force One and entered into the car waiting for him in the harsh cold. The car could have driven over to where the crowd had gathered, and he could have waved and many people would have been happy to just see that. But, as was clear in the video, which wasn’t covered by any news outlet that I saw, Trump and his team complete with Melania Trump, Rob Portman and Jim Renacci elected to walk over 100 yards from Air Force One to the crowd I was in to greet him. He really didn’t have to do it, but he did it anyway and in live time it was something to see. The enthusiasm was obvious.

Spectators of all this might say that it was a friendly crowd to Trump, and that Trump is a charismatic character who loves the spotlight—but I’d say its far more complicated than that. For me the event of the day was watching Air Force One land at Lunken knowing that the people around me—all who contributed mightily to Trump’s election in Ohio helped make that reality possible. I’d attribute it to giving birth—the Trump presidency was like giving birth to a new age in politics and we were all the proud parents. It was pride I felt in watching the plane taxi to its resting place knowing what transpired in the trenches to make that happen—and that was something the media there just couldn’t get their minds around. It wasn’t just the rock star status of a president and his wife there before us, it was the pride of playing a part in making something very special happen and that everyone seemed to appreciate the gravitas of that moment—including the president.

The guy next to me was very cool, he was the official pilot of Jim Renacci and had told me while we waited for Trump that he had been to over 20 Trump rallies during the campaign. He was proud as could be to attend this little gathering of over 200 supporters, and to get a fist bump from Trump himself. Here was a grown man who had literally seen it all—he had globetrotted all over the world, and he was reduced to a kid happy to get a simple handshake by Trump. As was clear in the video, Trump took his time shaking hands with everyone who wanted to. Even though the Secret Service indicated no selfies, Trump did give some out. It was an amazing performance. And Melania Trump was gorgeous, stunning really. Not just physically, but she is a person who has emerged into her role with the poise of a genuinely sincere person who was using her position for the best possible good. That was the first time I’ve seen her in person and she was quite a stunning figure to say the least. She and my wife are the same age and Melania made eye contact with her with a nice little smile and a wave to see a kindred spirit looking back at her from the other side of the fence. It was a very strange moment of humanity that had the tapestries of magnificence—but instead of being seduced by the pomp—the temperament was mutual appreciation. Neither my wife and I are autograph or handshake types. I just like good quality people and it was nice to have such a collection of high quality people present and to be entirely honest, as I did have a million and one other things I needed to do that day—I was glad to go to this event just to see two good people in the President and his wife at the eye of a massive global storm handling everything the kind of poise that is excessively respectable and encouraging. All the hard work over the last few years was certainly worth it, and the cold and sacrifice of that day was the exclamation point at the end of a long declarative sentence. The Trumps are people just like the rest of us, made of the same flesh and bone that comes and goes with the ages. What makes them and us different is that the spirit of our ambitions together and apart has lit the world ablaze with ambition once again that time will not soon forget, and that was a wonderful enchantment.

Even if I didn’t get to meet the president and finally see in person Jim Renacci whom I am very excited for to become the next United States Senator representing Ohio, it was great to be around so many normal people collected in one place. I have no problem functioning in the world at large, but I am most happy with people who have passions that drive them in the world, people like Michael Gmoser, Renacci’s pilot (I wished I had gotten his name), the many great young Republicans from Miami University, the young kids dressed respectfully in suits for the occasion and the hundreds of other people I’ve come to know from various liberty minded events all over Ohio during the last decade. There were no millennials covered in body piercings, or other liberal lunatics present—no slack jawed hippies or anti-capitalist drug addicts, only the good people of solid conservatism that has emerged in the age of Trump. Most of all, it was a lot of good work by Ann Becker to be at the middle of so many roads that she juggles better than any circus act which brought so many paths together. I’m not sure even she understands her role in all this, but without her—I doubt that plane would have ever landed at Lunken airport carrying those fine people aforementioned above. We all play our part in the grand fortissimo of this epic journey, but I give her a lot of credit for navigating the ship through some of the roughest waters. If Odysseus had the benefit of Ann Becker as his navigator in the great literary Odyssey during the ancient year of 8th century B.C., the book would have been about one-page long.

Rich Hoffman
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