"Answer the question!"

    "Is there anything President Trump could do that you could see yourself opposing?"

          Retired journalist Alberto Enriquez, to U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz

  "Yes, but don't ask me for a list."

           Bentz, at the Medford Rotary Club, August 18

It turns out that that was his answer. All of it.

He said "yes," telling the audience that he was not a mindless sycophant and enabler of Trump, while simultaneously giving himself deniability. So Trump does illegal, immoral, dangerous things? Don't blame Bentz. He said he didn't agree with everything Trump does, right there at a Rotary meeting. But as a loyal part of the GOP caucus, he enables Trump to do anything and everything Trump wants simply by consenting to it.

If even a half-dozen GOP congressmen objected to a Trump action, a House majority would be there to impede Trump. Bentz does nothing. He cannot shed accountability by saying he dislikes things that he then allows. Bentz cannot hide from the power of his office.

Bentz's answer is unworthy of an elected representative.

Bentz makes no objection to Trump making war on Iran without consulting Congress. He makes no objection to Trump imposing tariffs, a congressional responsibility. Nor does Bentz make a peep of objection to Trump's preposterous, pretextual justifications for the tariffs. Nor to the $1.776 billion legal settlement with himself, a blatant self-dealing theft from the public treasury. Nor to the crypto self-enrichment scheme that provided an open-ended way for favor-seeking individuals and governments to invest in a Trump crypto coin that sends money directly from them to Trump. Nor to Trump openly celebrating their loyalty with a recognition dinner, so they know Trump got the message of their tribute. Nor to Trump's active stock trading, with investments in companies whose fortunes rise and fall on Trump's own announcements. Nor to Trump selling early notice of presidential announcements for personal financial gain. Nor to Trump selling pardons. Nor to the DOGE cuts to the Forest Service. 

Immediately after the non-answer, Bentz began a three-minute period of pressured speech — a non-stop ramble of constant sound that blocked any opportunity for interruption. He began by blaming the state of Oregon for high gasoline prices. Then Democrats in the U.S. Senate — the minority — for causing forest fires. Then Iran, saying that their leaders hated America and that they shouldn't have a nuclear weapon (leaving aside the fact that Iran is in a far stronger position now than before the war, and that since the war demonstrated our inability to protect Saudi Arabia and the other countries of the region, they are strongly incentivized to get nuclear bombs themselves. What could go wrong?). Then, not missing a beat, he said that "Trump One and Trump Two" generated more fossil fuel, not mentioning that U.S. oil production went up under Biden. Then he said, "Thank you for your question," in the way speakers do to show that they are done.

A woman in the audience shouted out, "Answer the question! You didn't answer the question!"

Bentz:

"I did. At the very beginning. He asked if there was anything that I would vote against. I said yes. There it is."

The woman made a sound of protest. The audience made restless, jostling sounds. The room started to get away from him.

Bentz:

"Why would I guess whatever he is going to do?"

[Unsaid: Why would I reveal what I object to, but fail to stop, when I can give myself an out, and tell you troublemakers to pound sand?] 

Enriquez spoke up again, saying that 2,000 homes burned in Phoenix and Ashland, Oregon, in the Almeda Fire. That wasn't a forest-management problem, Enriquez said, it was a climate-change problem.

Bentz scrambled again, with more pressured speech. He said that in hearings when he was in the Oregon legislature, he learned that climate change was "baked in." It is real and unstoppable. It is too late to change anything:

"We have to acclimate. We have to protect ourselves from the consequences of hotter, warmer, dryer. That's what's happening."

He said maybe Medford could build a biomass facility and make kerosene out of wood chips, then said an abrupt, "Thank you very much" and left the lectern.

I think Cliff Bentz's performance is shameful. Bentz found career success in politics. He is, after all, an incumbent congressman. He is a below-average public speaker, but he gets through material approximately as articulately as did Joe Biden in 2020, a low bar, but good enough. You don't need to be a great political athlete if you're in the right place at the right time, and Bentz was. Pundits call this a safe seat for Bentz. It is safe in part because he blows off accountability, brushing off constituents with non-answers, while doing exactly what Trump demands.

It seems like a waste of a congressional seat, but he likely gets to keep it. He is a good boy, keeping his head down.

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