U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan can't get U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson on the phone and accuses the Oshkosh Republican of being homophobic

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan is sticking up for his brother and taking on U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, accusing the Oshkosh Republican of being homophobic.

In February, Johnson blocked the nomination of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge William Pocan to a U.S. District Court seat in Green Bay.

The Pocan brothers are gay.

Mark Pocan said he has spent more than a week trying to get Johnson on the phone to discuss funding for a University of Wisconsin-Madison research facility, as well as his brother's stalled nomination.

Mark Pocan said in a tweet Thursday that he couldn't understand why "a U.S. Senator wouldn't return a call from a Member of Congress from his own state — unless it’s because of the increasingly homophobic behavior of @SenRonJohnson."

In a statement, Johnson's office vehemently denied the accusation.

The office said Johnson's opposition to Judge Pocan revolved around concerns from the Green Bay legal community that the judge did not have ties to the area. The statement also detailed concerns over what Johnson called low bail set in a case involving a violent felon in Milwaukee County that Judge Pocan handled.

"Any charge or accusation that somehow this is motivated for other reasons than what has been previously stated is a completely false personal attack," the statement said.

For around the last year, Mark Pocan has issued around three-dozen negative tweets directed at Johnson, several of them impugning the senator's intellect.

Johnson's office said "the Senator has always treated the Congressman with respect. Unfortunately, that respect has not been reciprocated as evidenced by a long string of vile social media attacks against the Senator that the Congressman has posted over the last year. The Senator simply does not wish to interact with a person that spreads such malicious poison over a public forum.”

During an interview Friday, Mark Pocan claimed Johnson "has proven he’s homophobic, right?"

Mark Pocan cited Johnson's past opposition to gay marriage, his 2013 vote against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and claim that infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci had "overhyped" AIDS and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"His comments regularly prove that Ron Johnson isn’t well connected to reality, period," he said. "I tried to have a conversation with him initially, but he's not going to return the call. We need two senators working for Wisconsin. We have one right now. And this has been the ongoing problem we’ve had had with Ron Johnson for a long time."

'It's absurd to make these charges against Ron Johnson'

Richard Grenell, who was Acting Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration and the first openly gay person to serve at the cabinet-level in U.S. history, defended Johnson.

"It's absurd to make these charges against Ron Johnson," Grenell said in an interview. "Senator Johnson has been a champion of me on substantive issues."

Grenell said he worked "elbow-to-elbow" with Johnson on the Serbia and Kosovo economic normalization agreement.

"Senator Johnson came to the Munich Security Conference to help me negotiate on the issue," said Grenell, who also served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany. "He came to the White House when they weren't in session to help negotiate the final agreement."

Grenell said, "it's ridiculous when Democrats can't debate the substance they  immediately start talking about racism, sexism and homophobia."

Grenell added: "Shame on the media for falling for this because it's something that keeps working for the Democrats."

In declining to turn in what is known as a blue slip to let William Pocan's nomination proceed, Johnson said he had heard concerns from the legal community in Green Bay that they wanted a local person in the role and he also criticized the judge on the issue of bail.

The low bail issue struck a chord with Johnson after the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy. The defendant in that case, Darrell Brooks, was free on $1,000 bail set in a domestic violence case in Milwaukee County involving the same vehicle.

Johnson's office has pointed to a 2015 case involving Davario D. Washington of Milwaukee. William Pocan sided with the prosecutor who was seeking to increase the defendant's bail to $5,000 — an amount Johnson's office says was too low.

Under the system that appears in place for district court nominees, both home state senators have to turn in the blue slip for a nomination to move forward.

Johnson withdrew support for William Pocan

In June, Johnson and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin recommended William Pocan and three other candidates to fill the vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Their names were forwarded to the White House.

The candidates were recommended to Johnson and Baldwin by the bipartisan Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission.

Johnson announced his opposition to William Pocan the night before the judge was due to get a hearing with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Mark Pocan, the Madison-area Congressman, said he stayed in Wisconsin so that he could show his mother the hearing on her iPad. But William Pocan's hearing was scrapped.

Corrine Pocan, 93, died March 2.

This month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told The Hill that he wouldn't move forward with William Pocan's nomination since Johnson was opposed.

The article noted that Durbin "generally pledged to honor the blue slip precedent for district court nominees but left the door open to exceptions if the process was abused by GOP senators or in 'those cases where it appears to clearly be a case of discrimination based on gender, race or sexual orientation.' ”

Durbin has held talks with Johnson on the nomination.

Mark Pocan held out hope that the nomination could be salvaged and defended his brother's judicial record.

"He has a stellar reputation among Democratic and Republican lawyers and other judges," he said. "I don't know what other reasons could be out there, other than my brother happens to be married to a man."

Mark Pocan said he wanted to initiate the call with Johnson to make sure the senator was still on board with a $39.7 million earmark for a plant breeding facility at UW-Madison.

Johnson, Baldwin, Mark Pocan and U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, were among those to tour the facility in 2019 with then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

"Ron had committed to help us get funding for that building," Mark Pocan said. "Fast forward to now and Ron has morphed into many things since then. But one of those wasn't helping us get any money for this."

The earmark was included in the $1.5 trillion omnibus federal spending bill approved Thursday night by the U.S. Senate. Johnson opposed the bill while Baldwin voted to support the package.

There were three major votes on the omnibus bill in the House. Pocan voted for a rule to allow the measure to move forward. He also voted for the non-defense discretionary funding part, which included humanitarian aid for Ukraine. He voted against the portion of the bill that was related primarily to defense spending.