'Bootlicker' Jim Jordan scorched by veteran Ohio journalist: 'His life’s work is to besmirch everything America stands for'

A veteran Cleveland newsman scalded Rep. Jim Jordan and the Ohio lawmakers who inflicted him on Congress with a partisan gerrymandering scheme.

Brent Larkin, editorial director of The Plain Dealer from 1991 until he retired in 2009, called his congressman the "second most contemptible human being in the entire U.S. government," and said Ohio Democrats were as much to blame for him as GOP legislators.

"When Ohio’s political and legislative leaders were drawing new congressional boundaries prior to the 2012 election, Democrats wanted a district that would protect U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge," Larkin wrote. "Republicans wanted districts that would elect the maximum number of GOP congressmen. And some people from both parties wanted a district that would likely lead to the defeat of longtime Cleveland Rep. Dennis Kucinich."

"They all got what they wanted," he added.

The tradeoff in that scheme was the "hideously gerrymandered district ... that meanders some 200 miles from near Dayton north into Lorain County near Cleveland," Larkin wrote -- where voters have sent Jordan to Congress seven times, despite credible allegations that he helped cover up sex abuse of Ohio State wrestlers by a team doctor.

"When Jordan slithers out from under his rock each morning, dons a shirt and tie - sans the jacket, lest he be mistaken for Joe McCarthy - his life’s work is to besmirch everything America stands for in service of Donald Trump," Larkin wrote.

Larkin guessed that Jordan was willing to shred what was left of his reputation in hopes of inheriting Trump's base for a presidential run in 2024, but he doubts whether that moment will come for him.

"Jordan is the ideal bootlicker," he wrote. "Trump’s support is all that seems to matter to the man former House Speaker John Boehner regularly referred to as 'a legislative terrorist' – along with a whole bunch of other descriptions unfit for print."