CLEVELAND -- President Donald Trump calls his opponents “sleazebags” and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan a “warrior.”

He’s got the nametags mixed up.

Facts seem to argue that Jordan, a southwest Ohio Republican whose gerrymandered district winds its way nearly 200 miles north into Greater Cleveland, is far from the worst congressman the state’s voters ever sent to Washington.

Youngstown’s Jim Traficant served 17 years before he was expelled from the House in 2002 following the Democrat’s conviction on 10 felony charges related to racketeering, tax evasion and bribe-taking.

The 27-year congressional reign of the late Belmont County Democrat Wayne Hays crashed and burned in 1976, as high-profile sex scandal involving a woman he put on his congressional payroll (Elizabeth Ray) brought an abrupt end to the congressional career of one of the most powerful members ever to serve there.

And in 1990, a conviction related to paying a 14-year-old girl for sex ended the congressional career of Republican Donald “Buz” Lukens after less than four years. In the midst of the scandal, Lukens was defeated for re-election in the GOP primary by then-State Rep. John Boehner, who would later become U.S. House speaker.

But appearances might just be deceiving.

Jordan’s crimes don’t involve felonies, but they inflict far more harm. They are crimes against America, crimes involving total disregard for the principles of democracy, trampling the truth on behalf of a corrupt president who revels in his inhumanity.

Watching Jordan interrogate honorable truth-tellers during House Intelligence Committee hearings late last year -- hearings that served as a run-up to Trump’s impeachment -- was to view a man who acted like he spent his childhood gleefully ripping wings off flies.

After Jordan’s career reaches its merciful conclusion, my belief is he will come to be remembered as the most wicked human being ever to represent Greater Cleveland in Congress.

But, for President Trump, Jordan checks all the right boxes. He is unquestioningly loyal. His voting record shows utter disdain for the rights of others -- last year, Jordan voted against reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and l ast May he voted against a bill to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation among its protections.

Indeed, Jordan comes off as proud of his bigotry.

But thinking the seven-term incumbent is somehow vulnerable in his congressional district next year is mining for fool’s gold.

In 2024, Jordan wants to run for president as the inheritor of the Trump-Putin mantle. But what he cannot escape is the closetful of ethical baggage that tarnishes what’s left of his reputation.

Jordan continues to be haunted by credible witnesses who insist he willingly ignored warnings that a predator doctor at Ohio State University was in the process of sexually abusing at least 177 young men between 1978 and 1998.

From 1987 to 1995, Jordan was assistant wrestling coach at OSU. Three former wrestlers and a referee have publicly stated they told Jordan that wrestling team doctor Richard Strauss, who killed himself in 2005, was sexually abusing young men and that Jordan did nothing to stop it.

One of those wrestlers, Adam DiSabato reiterated his allegations against Jordan before an Ohio House committee considering a bill that would allow Strauss’ victims to sue OSU for damages. DiSabato testified Jordan called him in July 2018 begging for help in covering up allegations Jordan knew wrestlers were being sexually abused.

Later, during an appearance on MSNBC, DiSabato described Jordan as a “coward” who was “groveling” during their conversation. DiSabato also warned it is “going to get worse” for the congressman.

Asked about DeSabato’s accusation, a Jordan spokesman described it as “another lie.”

That’s right out of the Trump playbook. The president, who lies more in a weekend than most people do in a lifetime, wants us to believe that the more than 20 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct are all liars.

Three months ago, I wrote about the bipartisan betrayal involved in the redistricting process that brought Jordan’s district into Greater Cleveland prior to the 2012 election. The piece labeled Jordan “the second most contemptible human being in the entire U.S. government.”

My reward was about 1,000 emails from almost every state and four countries.

At least 60 percent of those emails agreed with my assessment. Many others suggested I would rot in hell for criticizing a great American. And those were the polite ones.

Since then, Trump and Jordan have spent every day of their lives proving me right.

It is worth repeating that no one has ever defined Jordan better than Michael Gerson, a former chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush and lifelong Republican, who described the Ohio congressman as “the Truly Trumpian man – guided by bigotry, seized by conspiracy theories, dismissive of facts and truth, indifferent to ethics, contemptuous of institutional norms and ruthlessly dedicated to the success of a demagogue."

Trump brings out the worst in people because his only way to win re-election is to tear the country apart. No one is more devoted to Trump’s cause than Jim Jordan.

Jordan is a dangerous bully, someone willing to destroy the lives and reputations of decent Americans in service of the reprobate who leads this country and poses the greatest threat to the republic in 160 years.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

To reach Brent Larkin: blarkin@cleveland.com

Editor’s note: This column was updated March 1 to correct the spelling of Wayne Hays’ last name.

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