I’m guessing irony isn’t Lee Fisher’s strong suit. He’s made the risible claim that Rob Portman’s time as trade czar is the only thing that caused Ohio to lose jobs. Now Fisher is upset that Portman is accusing him of being responsible for Ohio’s job losses, even though Fisher holds the portfolio at the governor’s development office in the here and now. This story in the Cincinnati Enquirer has the hilariously bad details:

Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher – the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and Gov. Ted Strickland’s development chief – said Tuesday that it is “intellectually dishonest” for GOP opponent Rob Portman and his allies to blame him for Ohio’s job losses.
In a meeting Tuesday afternoon with Enquirer editors and reporters, Fisher – trailing the former Terrace Park congressman in the polls by double digits – said he and Strickland deserve credit for what he says they have done to lessen the impact of a national recession.
“The work we did began with the wind in our face because of the national recession,’’ said Fisher, Strickland’s 2006 running mate who ran the Ohio Department of Development for over three years. “What we have been dealing with is beyond the control of any governor or lieutenant governor.”
Fisher said the argument he is making in what he described as his “underdog” campaign is a difficult one to make to voters who see only the loss of nearly 400,000 Ohio jobs since he and Strickland took office.
“If this were a state recession and not a national recession, the progress we have made would be more evident to people,’’ said Fisher, a former Ohio attorney general. “We have been in a situation where you move the ball one yard down the field and the national recession comes along and knocks us back two yards.”

Now, maybe Fisher’s right that he’s not solely to blame for the job losses (even though fact-checkers agree he’s at least somewhat to blame). But he can’t have it both ways.