Moreno calls for Miller, former son-in-law, to resign over abuse allegations

When your own former father-in-law, a sitting senator from your own party, publicly calls for your resignation and says you need "serious psychological help," that is not a political story anymore. That is a family standing in front of cameras saying they cannot protect themselves from you any other way. Bernie Moreno did not have to do this. He could have handled it quietly, the way so many of these things get handled in Washington, with a statement about "family matters" and a request for privacy. He chose the opposite.

Give him credit for that, because the easier path in this town is always silence. Too many members of Congress have skated through allegations involving spouses, exes, staffers, whatever, because their own party decided the seat mattered more than the person sitting in it. Moreno is risking an Ohio GOP headache, a messy public feud, and his own daughter's privacy being picked apart online, all to say plainly that abuse allegations involving his grandchild are disqualifying. That should not be a controversial stance for a Republican to take. It should be the baseline.

What makes this uncomfortable is exactly what should make it credible. Moreno is not a rival trying to score points or a partisan opponent looking for an opening. He is the man's former father-in-law, someone who presumably wanted this marriage to work and this family to stay whole. People do not usually blow up their own family ties over politics. They do it when they believe something serious happened and nobody else with power is willing to say so out loud.

Miller deserves whatever due process exists in a House ethics process or a courtroom, and voters in his district deserve real answers, not vague statements from either side. But the instinct to circle the wagons around an incumbent because of the letter next to his name needs to die. If Republicans want to be the party that actually stands for family and character, that has to include the family members who get hurt, not just the ones running for reelection.