GOP Senator Says Family Dispute Put Him In ‘Seventh Level Of Hell’

There's something almost biblical about a sitting senator reaching for "seventh level of hell" to describe his own family, and it tells you how far past normal this has gotten. Bernie Moreno isn't some backbench nobody. Max Miller isn't either. These are two Ohio Republicans who used to share Thanksgiving dinners, and now they're airing a custody fight over a toddler in open court while the cable news cameras figure out how to cover it.

We don't have a strong opinion on who's right in the underlying dispute, because frankly nobody outside that family should. Custody battles are ugly, and they get uglier when both parties have security details and press shops. What's uncomfortable is watching two men who are supposed to be governing the same state, same party, same conference, turn a private wound into a running public storyline because neither one can resist a microphone.

There's a lesson here that has nothing to do with policy. Public officials are still people, and people going through the worst months of their lives don't always make good decisions about what to say out loud. Moreno's quote is raw and probably honest. It's also going to follow his granddaughter around on the internet for the rest of her life, which is the actual cost nobody in this story seems to be pricing in.

The GOP has plenty of real fights worth having in public. This isn't one of them. Whatever happens between Miller and Emily Moreno should get resolved in a courtroom, quietly, by people who know the family and not by pundits treating it like the next chapter of a soap opera.