About that Chinese spy, Fang Fang
Who amongst us hasn't dreamed of a tryst with a Chinese spy in a car parked somewhere along the banks of the crystalline Scioto River?
My brain works in odd ways, as you might have gleaned by subscribing to The Rooster.
Hilltop Husband can reflexively recall things I said in conversation like a week ago. Things I don’t even remember—partly because I spent the first half of my adult life as a drug-addicted alcoholic, and partly because I just be saying things sometimes.
By Monday, I will probably struggle to recall what I have for lunch in Worthington later today.
Conversely, my mind is an iron trap when harboring my grievances against politicians and cataloging their most embarrassing moments.
Take, for example, on Tuesday afternoon, when I was camping outside the vipers’ nest known as the Columbus Athletic Club, which was set to host the Mayors Alliance Summit.
The original hope was to catch a big fish like one of the mayors of Ohio’s three biggest cities.
But there I was on the sidewalk along Broad Street, chatting with State Rep. Thomas Hall (R-Madison Twp), when I saw former Columbus mayor Michael Coleman step out of an Uber.
“Hold on,” I said to Thomas, pulling my iPhone 15 out of my pocket. “I gotta get this guy.”
Thomas knew what that meant and was smart enough to get out of the impending blast radius.
In December 2020, Axios dropped a devastating bombshell about a Chinese spy named Christine Fang, or more commonly “Fang Fang,” who had apparently honeypotted several public officials in California, including Congressman Eric Swalwell, between 2011 and 2015.
Buried in that report, however, was this small paragraph:
Fang also had a sexual encounter with an Ohio mayor in a car that was under electronic FBI surveillance, said one current U.S. official. When the mayor asked why Fang was interested in him, Fang told him she wanted to improve her English, the same official said.
Shortly thereafter, I wrote a column entitled, “Which Ohio mayor banged a Chinese spy in a car?” in which I laid out my case that, in my opinion, it was none other than former Columbus mayor Michael Coleman.
Coleman is nothing if not a smooth operator. Between 2011 and 2015, he was coming off a divorce. A tryst with Fang Fang wouldn’t have been the only interaction with a Chinese national that piqued the FBI’s interest, either.
In 2015, Coleman shocked Columbus by announcing he wouldn’t seek re-election.
That decision proved less shocking when, six months later, we learned the FBI had launched an investigation into Coleman's sale of his house to a Chinese businesswoman named Jianhua Li for twice the current market rate.
Li went on to sell that house two years later for $150,000 less than what it had been appraised for under Coleman’s ownership. (Quite the business acumen, indeed.)
Coleman was never charged with any crime relating to that deal. And who amongst us hasn’t dreamed of a romantic night in a car parked along the banks of the Scioto River, teaching a Chinese spy English between romantic trysts as the FBI watches?
There’s nothing inherently illegal about that, either. It’s easily the coolest thing an Ohio mayor has done in my lifetime.
But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t curious about things like where a guy like Coleman takes a young nice lady in a town like Columbus to hook up in his car.
Like I said, my brain is wired differently.
While I didn’t expect Coleman to spill the beans, it’s my opinion that the tape speaks for itself. Coleman’s demeanor changed at the mere mention of “Fang Fang,” and I didn’t even delve into anything specific about what, exactly, the FBI had surveilled.
Combine that with his concern about the camera—“What’s this about?” like he had never seen someone use a phone camera—and it was another tell to the trained eye.
Unfortunately, Coleman is a professional and quickly ducked into an area where he knew I couldn’t follow, probably to grease the wheels on some corrupt local real estate deal.
Despite my criticisms of Coleman, I would take him over the odious Mayor Suburbs any day of the week. Sure, Coleman was corrupt, but at least he had swagger and panaché and was a man about town. He had a vision, which is more than you can say about Suburbs on his best day.
Plus, he did more for bicyclists in this city in a year than Mayor Suburbs has done in three terms. And for that, I’ll look the other way on many of his more unsavory antics.
Ohio public educators and supporters rally on Capitol Square against the State Legislature's attacks
The Columbus Education Association held a May Day rally on Capitol Square yesterday. I’d estimate roughly 1,500 Ohioans braved intermittent storming and some wind to send a big middle finger to Speaker Matt Huffman, who, in my opinion, has a lot of questions to answer about his whereabouts on April 19, 1995.
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