James Comey calls out Rob Portman in the WaPo [View all]

Source--https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/06/oath-office-faces-true-test-during-impeachment-hearings/

snip--Normally thoughtful people, such as Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), appear to be searching for a way to sound principled without voting to convict the president. “I thought it was inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign government to investigate a political opponent,” he said recently, adding, “I also do not think it’s an impeachable offense.” But the oath makes that hard to pull off.

On Jan. 3, 2017, Portman most recently raised his right hand while standing in the well of the Senate. His left hand was on the Bible his wife held; then-Vice President Joe Biden presided. The senator promised to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, which includes the requirement that the president faithfully execute his office.


Twenty-one years ago, Portman — then a congressman — could see his obligations clearly, when he voted to impeach Bill Clinton. He said then that “these acts are fundamentally inconsistent with the oath the President — as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer — took to ‘faithfully execute’ the laws of the United States.”

And now? The commitment has not changed; it is as old as this nation. If oaths and promises, the bedrock of the rule of law, are to mean anything, the senator and his colleagues will need to explain how they square their solemn promises with Trump’s actions. All Americans will be listening, but especially the young, who may someday have the privilege of taking that oath, with its “solemn obligation upon the minds of all reflecting” people.


I dislike Comey for his actions, but I loathe Portman for being a weasel