Rob Portman plays whining Romney attack dog

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Hey Rob, ever been to the Caymans?

Reports have Ohio Sen. Rob Portman on Romney's short list for veep, and he's certainly acting like he wants it:

GOP Sen. Rob Portman defended his party's presumptive presidential nominee Monday from President Barack Obama's "personal" attacks, saying the Democrat was focusing on Mitt Romney because his record falls short.

*****

"The president said back in 2008 when he was running for office complaining about the Republican campaign, he said, 'When you're out of fresh ideas you turn to stale tactics, to attack your opponent because you don't want to talk about your record.' He said that makes big elections about small things. That's exactly what he's doing right now," Portman, who represents Ohio in the Senate, said Monday.

Translation: Mr. President, don't say anything more about Bain or the outsourcing or the tax shelters and foreign bank accounts or those tax returns not being made public or really anything else that goes to Mitt's business record, personal finances, and character because, well, he's vulnerable. There's a lot there, more than most people know, and we're afraid it could all bring him down. Afraid? Really we're shitting-our-pants terrified. The Obama campaign is successfully defining Mitt based on the truth, and it's totally controlling the narrative. We're fucked. So, please, lay off. Please!

Otherwise, Portman, Romney at Bain is fair game, and so are his personal finances. It all speaks to his experience, the experience he himself has been touting as his main qualification to be president, and to get the economy going again, as well as to his character. How he made his money (and what Bain did), what he's done with it, and whether he's been lying to the American people for personal political gain -- all this deserves close scrutiny. Just because he's rich and privileged, and has been that way his whole life, doesn't mean he can get away with being secretive. He may think he deseves to be president and shouldn't really have to go through this whole messy democracy thing, but thankfully America doesn't work that way.

And, Portman, the president has been talking ideas and policy -- throughout his entire presidency thus far -- whether it's been economic stimulus or the rescue of the auto industry or health-care reform or deficit reduction and entitlement reform or immigration or the Iraq and Afghan wars or the war against al Qaeda or Libya and Egpyt or... it goes on and on. Just because Republicans have decided to wage a war of obstructionism against everything he proposes doesn't mean he isn't trying to get things done. And if Mitt wants to talk ideas and policy, and not just the sort of ad hominem attacks and superficial, propagandistic statements he usually traffics in, then, yes, by all means, tell him to go for it. I'm sure the president would welcome that debate and benefit from the clear contrast. But I suspect Mitt won't go there, because he knows he'd lose. All he can really do is talk selectively about his experience, call Obama an un-American interloper (which is the gist of his attacks), and make silly claims about what incredible things he'd do as president.

The point is, if Romney isn't going to tell us about himself in an open, honest, and meaningful way -- and he clearly isn't -- then he's vacated the space for others to fill. Americans deserve to know what sort of a person he is, to know something of his real character, and that means, among other things, going back and looking at what he did at Bain and what he's done with the wealth he made as a vulture capitalist.

You may not like it, Portman, what with all your whining, but if anyone's to blame here, it's Mitt. He may want to spin a nice little mythology about himself, like selling snake oil to the masses, but it's all self-aggrandizing deception. And we're not buying it.