The seeds of history making statesmanship are planted in late January. At least that’s my latest theory.
On January 25th, 2021 US Senator Rob Portman announced he would retire at the end of his current term. While the political class jumped straight to discussions of potential successors, they missed Portman’s transition from Senator to Statesman. Now, six months down the line, they’re trumpeting him as the irreplaceable, indispensable figure in the bi-partisan infrastructure negotiations.
“It’s much more comfortable to stay on the right and the left and be negative. What takes courage is to find that middle ground and embrace the fact that our job here is not to simply express our points of view through our partisan rhetoric. Our job is to actually get beyond that and accomplish something.”
US Senator Rob Portman
A politician with no office to pursue has nothing to lose, and every ounce of legacy to gain if they commit to service above self. Rob Portman is the latest in a string of legacy building American statesmen with notable ties to January.
Keeping it in the Senate for another recent example, January 2018 saw John McCain take a stand against his own party’s sitting President to defend the integrity of a free Press. By the time of his passing, just months later, McCain’s long service to his country and maverick approach to politics prompted public acclaim and memorialization rivaled by few but Presidents.
In January of 1991, President George HW Bush initiated Operation Desert Storm with a clear goal to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. His statesman moment? The conscious restraint, firmly resolved in the early moments of the conflict, to not invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein. By that singular moment of pause, ’41 avoided a predictable power vacuum and resultant quagmire.
Then there’s FDR, who in January, 1941 asked Congress to take their first steps toward actively supporting the allied cause through the Lend-Lease program. That agreement set the stage for America to assume an economic war footing which would prove the deciding factor of the Second World War.
Of course we also have a connection for, arguably, our greatest President. When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 it did more than create a strategic wartime advantage, it set a course for the war to serve the highest of moral causes.
And lest we forget the oft overlooked second President, John Adams, who on January 20th 1801 nominated John Marshall to serve as Chief Justice. Even though Adams was on his way out of office, this appointment would guide the work of the court for more than 30 years and establish some of our most closely held legal precedents, and cementing Adams as one of the furthest reaching legacy builders in our history.
I doubt Rob Portman was thinking about all of this history on that chilly day in January. But I’m sure he knew he was becoming the ultimate free agent, able to assume an immense responsibility without the looming pressure of an election. What can I say? I like when it’s Ohio Against the World.
History will be the ultimate judge of the work the 117th Congress accomplishes through this latest spending package. While I’m sure both sides will leverage all $1.2 trillion of it into attack ads and fundraising mailers in the months ahead, the record will show only one Senator from Cincinnati was positioned to advance it as far as it has come.
Now just imagine if he had a few more free agent Januaries in him.
Part of the Possible 