Ex-Wife Files Restraining Order Against GOP Congressman Max Miller After Domestic Abuse Allegations

A sitting congressman with a restraining order filed against him by his own ex-wife is not a story any party wants to defend, and we're not going to try. The filing claims he's continued to harass and threaten her through counsel even after the relationship ended, which if true is not some messy personal spat that stays private. It's a pattern, and patterns are exactly what courts are set up to examine.

We've spent plenty of column inches over the years pointing out that the other side likes to bury its own scandals while screaming about ours. That cuts both ways. If Republicans want to be the party that actually stands for something beyond winning the next news cycle, we can't get squeamish about calling out our own when the allegations are this serious. Domestic abuse claims aren't a partisan football, and pretending otherwise insults the voters who sent Miller to Congress expecting basic decency, not court dates.

None of this means Miller is guilty of everything alleged. Restraining orders get granted on lower evidentiary standards than criminal convictions, and ex-spouse disputes can get ugly and exaggerated on both sides. But "innocent until proven guilty" is a legal standard, not a reason for his own party to look away while the process plays out. Ohio voters deserve a congressman who isn't tangled up in this, and if the facts bear out what's alleged here, GOP leadership needs to say so plainly instead of running out the clock hoping it fades from the news.

What we won't do is pretend this is somehow manufactured or overblown just because of who it involves. If a Democrat were facing this exact filing, our readers would expect us to call it what it is. We hold Miller to the same line.