Columbus Dispatch is reporting on The Daily Briefing that Rob Portman has taken himself out of the race for Attorney General, effectively stating what we at WMD have been saying all along: he thinks that AG is beneath him.“I returned from Washington eight months ago and I enjoy being home,” Portman told The Dispatch, adding that the attorney general opening “is not the best timing for me.”Don't get me wrong, if Rob decides to take on RINOvich, I'm there for him because that will mean that Rob cares enough not to leave it up to Ham Sandwich to defeat RINOvich. Governor is a dream for Portman at this point, especially if he doesn't keep his name in the papers -- which will stop the minute John Sidney McCain picks somebody else (and he will) for Veep.
But Portman is putting himself in position for a possible 2010 gubernatorial bid or to run for the U.S. Senate if GOP Sen. George V. Voinovich decides not to run again. Voinovich repeatedly has said he will run for a third term.
“I intend to get back into public service in the future,” Portman said.
But I think the smartest move for Portman would have been to take the AG nod and run with it. He could have been billed as a real reformer and a savior of the party. Right about now, John Kasich is having a good chuckle because Rob Portman just blew the best hope he had at taking the lead in the governor's race.
