Is this what integrity looks like?
State Rep. Christine Cockley, A Democratic freshman state legislator from the indomitable Hilltop, demonstrated more moral courage than 99% of Central Ohio politicians in the course of an hour.
Ohio State survivors braved arctic temperatures on Tuesday to assemble outside the Leslie Wexner Football Center at the Woody Hayes Athletic Complex for the latest chapter in their relentless quest for justice.
Ringleader Michael DiSabato, a former Ohio State wrestler, escalated his group’s demands from a similar summit in December, where they called on the university to remove the name of Central Ohio billionaire Leslie Wexner from the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
A federal judge overseeing negotiations between Ohio State and survivors of the sadistic sexual abuser the university allowed to operate unmolested for 20 years, recently allowed Wexner to be served a subpoena by way of order.
The survivors convened on Tuesday to call for the resignation of two university powerbrokers with staggering conflicts of interest.
Ohio State Board of Trustees chairman John Zeiger, Wexner’s longtime personal lawyer, refused to accept subpoena service on behalf of his client since September.
Zeiger’s second-in-command: Trustee Elizabeth Kessler, the daughter of Wexner’s longtime builder in New Albany, Jack Kessler.
Trustee Kessler also serves as the managing partner of Jones Day, a Republican multinational white-shoe law firm that represented former Ohio State assistant wrestling coach and current Congressman Jim Jordan during his deposition in the class-action lawsuit against the university.
The conflict is obvious for anyone not on Ohio State’s payroll to see, even before learning that the firm of Zeiger’s former business partner, Michael Carpenter, has made over $20 million while litigating the case.
The survivors weren’t alone, however.
They were joined, for the second time in as many months, by State Rep. Christine Cockley (D-Hilltop).
Cockley, who also moonlights as an instructor at Ohio State, called on the university to remove Wexner’s name.
She also declared that politicians who had received donations from Wexner or his wife, Abigail, should give that tainted money to charity:
In a little over a minute, a freshman legislator from Columbus’ poorest neighborhood demonstrated more moral courage than any Central Ohio Democrat other than Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady, who recently fulfilled his promise to The Rooster by donating $5,000 to Ours Brothers Keepers, a local charity serving at-risk youth.
O’Grady was the first politician in Ohio history to cleanse his coffers of Wexner money.
State Senator Bill DeMora (D-Columbus), to his credit, called on Ohio State to remove Wexner’s name in December, albeit with my camera in his face.
He has never received $1 from Wexner, but he has yet to appear alongside survivors as Cockley has done twice.
It only gets worse from there.
Wexner’s money, and the silence it apparently buys, bleeds through all levels of Columbus government, from Mayor Suburbs to multiple city council members to City Attorney Zach Klein.
That silence can be explained by their refusal to embarrass Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who considers Wexner a longtime friend, but apparently not the kind she wants to defend from sex trafficking allegations in any meaningful way, either.
Beatty attended a candlelight vigil for Epstein victims on Nov. 19, but that sympathy apparently ended when Wexner, who, even under the most charitable timeline, financed a notorious international sex trafficker for decades while hand-picking another, lesser-known sex trafficker to resurrect a floundering lacrosse apparel brand.
I’m harping on Wexner, not because it gives me personal fulfillment, but because it highlights an integrity problem that affects our state government on down.
I expect the cowardice from Republicans.
A 4K video of Donald Trump stating his name and social security number before molesting a teenager with Jeffrey Epstein snorting cocaine in the background could drop later this morning, and his approval rating among Republican voters would probably improve by Monday.
The Republican politicians would follow suit, as they have for every one of Dear Leader’s depraved acts for nine years running. Trump has shown them, time and again, that there is no moral gutter too low for their voters.
But the Democrats are supposed to be the good guys, right?
I don’t impugn the Franklin County Democratic Party because I see myself as Jesus Christ reincarnated.
I just hold this wacky belief, instilled into me by civics teachers back when Ohio took pride in its public school system, that we should hold our leaders to a higher moral standard.
Because it’s hard to think of an easier moral test to pass than judgment on Wexner.
Yet, Cockley is the only Democrat who has passed that test without me shoving a camera in her face.
She could have thrown her hands in the air and said, "Gosh, what can a lowly freshman in a legislative superminority party even do about a billionaire connected to Central Ohio’s three most notorious sex scandals?”
That’s basically what Attorney General Dave Yost did last week, which makes me wonder why Ohio shouldn’t abolish that position tomorrow if that’s the case.
Instead, Cockley leveraged the prestige of her office to lend legitimacy to survivors of systemic sexual abuse and their call to action, as seen in this excellent report from NBC4’s Colleen Marshall, who was also on scene:
That Cockley wasn’t joined by any of her Statehouse colleagues, the mayor, a single member of city council, or the city attorney helps explain why Wexner will likely die before he sees any serious consequences to his actions, which is no small feat considering the FBI considered him to be one of ten undicted co-conspirators of Epstein as recently as 2019.
But if our so-called city leaders can’t muster the courage to confront a pint-sized sex pest with one foot in the grave, then why should we trust them to do the right thing in literally any other situation?
