就连共和党人也将上周的中期选举描述为“水门事件级别的否定”和“对共和党而言近乎灭绝级别的事件”。共和党甚至在红州也遭到彻底惨败，这场选举是对总统唐纳德·特朗普以及共和党未能为美国人民带来关键政策胜利的一次公投。然而，众议院共和党人并未调整路线，而是刚刚选出了一位将变本加厉的新领袖：俄亥俄州众议员吉姆·乔丹。
Even Republicans have described last week’s midterm elections as a “Watergate-level repudiation” and “close to an extinction-level event for the Republican Party.”The absolute clobbering of the GOP, even in red states, was a referendum on President Donald Trump and Republicans’ failure to deliver key policy wins for the American people. Yet rather than a course correction, House Republicans have just elected a new leader who will double down: Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.
乔丹是MAGA的死硬派，他更感兴趣的是庇护这位跛脚鸭总统、起哄攻击其对手，而不是与民主党人合作降低生活成本或结束极不受欢迎的伊朗战争。选民刚刚惩罚了共和党，因为他们制造的是闹剧而非成果。众议院共和党的回应是选出一位体现这种做法的领袖，而到了明年1月，此人甚至连上演闹剧所需的议长木槌都拿不到。
Jordan is a MAGA diehard who is more interested in shielding the lame-duck president and heckling his foes than in working with Democrats to lower costs or end the deeply unpopular Iran war. Voters just punished Republicans for producing spectacle instead of results. The House GOP has responded by electing a leader who embodies that approach and — come January — lacks even the gavel he needs to stage a spectacle.
乔丹的立法方式可以用一个数字概括：在国会近20年里，乔丹起草的法案成为法律的，总数是零。乔丹最接近实质成果的一次，是牵头推动2013年政府停摆的众议院一方，试图以此削弱《平价医疗法案》，但以失败告终。时任众议院议长、共和党人（也是俄亥俄州同乡）约翰·博纳后来对《政治报》说：“乔丹从他在俄亥俄州众议院和参议院的日子起，就是一名立法者中的恐怖分子。一个恐怖分子。一个立法恐怖分子。”
Jordan’s approach to legislating can be summed up with one statistic: In almost 20 years in Congress, a grand total of zero bills Jordan authored have become law. The closest to substance Jordan ever came was spearheading the House side of the 2013 government shutdown in a failed effort to undermine the Affordable Care Act. The House speaker at the time, Republican (and fellow Ohioan) John Boehner, later told Politico, “Jordan was a terrorist as a legislator going back to his days in the Ohio House and Senate. A terrorist. A legislative terrorist.”
博纳2021年对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的约翰·迪克森说：“我从没见过一个人花更多时间拆东西，从不建设任何东西，从不把任何东西拼起来。”范德堡大学和弗吉尼亚大学的“有效立法中心”将乔丹评为2023-24届国会中效率最低的共和党人，而他一直位列共和党人中的倒数五名。
“I just never saw a guy who spent more time tearing things apart, never building anything, never putting anything together,” Boehner told CBS News’ John Dickerson in 2021. The Center for Effective Lawmaking, a project of Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, ranked Jordan the least effective Republican in the 2023-24 Congress, and he has consistently ranked in the bottom five Republicans.
但别只听我一面之词。乔丹本人就公开说过：“我来国会不是为了制定更多法律。”这会让路透社/益普索最新民调中71%希望国会通过立法结束伊朗战争的美国人感到失望，也会让62%希望国会着手废除特朗普关税的美国人失望。
But don’t take my word for it. Jordan himself is on record saying “I didn’t come to Congress to make more laws.”That will come as a disappointment to the 71% of Americans in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll who want Congress to pass legislation ending the Iran war and the 62% who want the legislative body to work on repealing Trump’s tariffs.
事实恰恰相反，乔丹没有为美国纳税人做事，而是把职业生涯建立在频繁亮相福克斯新闻和在听证会上搞马戏式作秀之上。自2017年以来，他至少在工作日上过716次福克斯新闻。作为众议院司法委员会主席，乔丹还执掌过联邦政府武器化问题特别小组委员会。在这个职位上，乔丹承诺要证明政府被用来对付保守派，结果却远远没有做到。他声称与几十上百名举报人谈过话，但最终只拿出三个人，而这三人都没有提供任何关于他所指控内容的第一手证据。
No, instead of getting work for the American taxpayer, Jordan has built a career on Fox News hits and circus-style stunts at hearings. He has made at least 716 weekday appearances on Fox News since 2017. As House Judiciary chairman, Jordan also ran the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. In that role, Jordan promised to prove weaponization of government against conservatives, but came up incredibly short. He claimed to have spoken with dozens and dozens of whistleblowers, but produced three, none of whom produced any firsthand knowledge of his allegations.
这向来是乔丹的招牌戏码。在班加西特别委员会上，他花时间就一段反穆斯林视频对希拉里·克林顿大喊大叫，这是多项重复调查的一部分，而这些调查最终都没有对她提出任何指控。在2021年一场新冠疫情听证会上，他要求安东尼·福奇说出美国人能够“重获自由”的确切病例编号，对得到的每一个回答都拒不接受，一直纠缠到福奇告诉他：“你又在胡言乱语了。”这些片段在社交媒体上很火，但监督工作没有产生任何有价值的东西。
That has been Jordan’s signature act. On the Benghazi select committee, he spent his time shouting at Hillary Clinton over an anti-Muslim video, as part of several redundant investigations that ended with no charges against her. At a 2021 Covid-19 hearing, he demanded Anthony Fauci name the exact case number at which Americans could “get their freedom back,” refused every answer he got and kept going until Fauci told him, “You’re ranting again.”The clips did numbers on social media, but the oversight produced nothing of value.
共和党人团结在只会一招的乔丹身后，最大的讽刺在于：到了明年1月，随着新的民主党多数派上任，国会共和党人将失去监督权。剩下的将是乔丹自己承认从未感兴趣的工作：清点票数、达成交易和通过法律。
The great irony in Republicans rallying behind Jordan, a one-trick pony, is that come January, Congressional Republicans will lose their oversight power as the new Democratic majority comes into office. What will be left is the job that, by his own account, Jordan has never been interested in: counting votes, cutting deals and passing laws.
乔丹告诉我们，他来国会不是为了制定法律。尽管选民发出了明确无误的反馈——他们迫切希望立法者改善自己的生活——共和党人却加倍支持一个只会虚张声势、毫无实质的人。而他即将以惨痛的方式认识到，当你处于少数党地位时，听证室不过就是一个房间而已。
Jordan told us that he didn’t come to Congress to make laws. Despite unmistakable feedback from the voters — desperate for legislators to change their lives for the better — Republicans have doubled down on a man who is all blustering form over substance. And he is about to learn the hard way that a hearing room when you’re in the minority is just a room.