Republican Rob Portman will likely have no opposition in a bid for his party’s US Senate nomination in 2010. A big reason for that is his access to the deep pockets that made one Cincinnati area the second-most-fertile zip code for George W. Bush’s presidential coffers. Portman’s longtime connection with both of the Bushes and their contributors has apparently frightened off any other Republicans who might have considered seeking what will be an open seat next year.
But, while Portman will exploit the financial advantages of his connection to the younger Bush, he evidently isn’t going to talk about that connection too much publicly. It’s interesting to note the different ways in which he handles his connections to the two Bushes in his campaign web site bio. Of the elder Bush, the profile says, plainly enough, that he “was on the White House staff of the first Bush Administration.”
By contrast, he says of his two Cabinet-level positions in the administration of George W. Bush:
In 2005, Rob left Congress when he was asked to serve as U.S. Trade Representative, the Cabinet-level official responsible for implementing and enforcing trade policy.
Asked by whom? It doesn’t say.
Then, we’re told:
Following his accomplishments as Trade Representative, Rob was called on in 2006 to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, another Cabinet-level post.
Who “called on” Rob to go to OMB?
Of course, were you to ask the Portman campaign if it’s trying to distance its candidate from George W. Bush, they’d find a polite way of denying it. They might even remind the questioner that the people of Ohio are smart enough to know who was president when Portman served in two Cabinet-level positions.
That would be a fair enough response. But of course, it fails to acknowledge that the decision not to mention who “asked” and “called on” Rob Portman is deliberate. For the foreseeable future, George W. Bush will get more pub from Democrats condemning his presidential legacy than from Republicans wanting to identify with him.
If someone like Portman, arguably a closer Bush ally than any other member of the Bush 43-era Congress or administration finds it impolitic to use W’s name, you know that he is a certifiable GOP albatross. George W. Bush’s name is political poison.
[This isn’t being cross-posted at my personal blog, where you’ll find vastly more interesting posts than this one.]