Trump Does The Right Thing

And that happens to also be the smart thing. He's calling on the American people to resist the corrupt know-nothing tyranny of woke pseudo-science. He's also calling on Americans to stand up for their children, the country's future:

In doing so he's putting the GOP brand in play and staking his claim--on a matter of principle--to stand for the party. He's setting the MAGA GOP apart from and in opposition to the GOPe of Mitch McConnell, Mike Lee, and their ilk, who are for coercing Americans into line to participate in a dangerous experiment. It's a red line. The eyes of conservatives will be focused on which side of the line candidates stand.

White Rage--A Bit Late?

Lindsey Graham is white and he's enraged--or so he says--so I guess his reaction to the Dems' attempted bait and switch qualifies as White Rage. But, really, everybody under the sun knew this would happen. The Daily Mail (UK) summarizes:

Republican FURY at Baiden's infrastructure blindside: Lindsey Graham says president made the GOP look like 'f***ing idiots' by tying $1.2trillion deal to huge reconciliation package after 'suicide mission' negotiations

• Lindsey Graham said Baiden has made the GOP look like 'f***ing idiots' by publicly tying the infrastructure deal to whether his American Families Plan passes 
• 'I don't mind bipartisanship, but I'm not going to do a suicide mission,' Graham said in backing out of the group of 11 Republicans supporting the bipartisan deal
• Baiden said Thursday after announcing a deal was reached: 'If this is the only thing that comes to me, I'm not signing it'
• But Republicans claim there was never any 'side deal' involving reconciliation
• Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the five Republicans who negotiated the deal, said he felt 'blindsided' by the all-or-nothing approach  
• Baiden stepped out of the White House Thursday with a group of 10 senators from both parties to announce 'we have a deal' on an infrastructure package 
• 'We made serious compromises on both ends,' Baiden said 
• The deal amounts to $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending over eight years

I suppose wising up is a better late than never thing, but in politics that is done in public there can be a price to pay for being late--in terms of credibility with your base of support. The look Graham describes so vividly is not what the GOP base is looking for, nor is it the kind of look that will attract independents. Having cooperated with the Deep State and the rest of the Establishment in ousting Trump, is this really the sort of fecklessness the GOPe is offering the American people?

Conrad Black's Tour de Force

Today Conrad Black has an outstanding take-down of the WSJ's foolish anti-Trump editorial (on Friday). The WSJ editorial is titled "The GOP's Trump Problem"--see, Trump is the problem. Black responds with some heavy artillery of his own:

The GOP’s Trump Solution

At some point, the former Republican establishment will have to familiarize itself with the consequences of being defeated by Donald Trump within its own party.

Black covers a lot of ground. I'll try to summarize the main points, while urging readers to follow the link--you won't regret it. Black talks turkey, explains the facts of political life in lucid terms.

Black's basic thesis is that the WSJ has things exactly backwards. Trump is not the problem for the GOP. Rather, the Never Trumps are the problem. Trump had a remarkably successful term, especially in light of the constant betrayals and the concerted Dem and Deep State assault on our constitutional order. The reality, contrary to the WSJ's view, is that Republicans want more of the Trump agenda--whether led by Trump himself or by a Trump approved proxy. In fact, the disastrous start and likely deepening national crisis we are experiencing under the Zhou Baiden regime (whoever or what cabal actually is pulling the strings) favor this solution for the GOP, in Black's view:

Good Read On the Mitch - Trump Feud

I'm always cautious with Michael Snyder, but this is an interesting read on an important topic. My working assumption is that, whatever personal animus and political convictions Mitch may have brought to his feud with Trump, there were moneyed interests behind him pushing him. See what you think. One thing is for sure, by now Trump knows who his enemies are. This is a small part of a considerably longer article, so check it out:

Why Mitch McConnell Backed Away From Trying To Convict Trump

Mitch McConnell really wanted to convict Donald Trump and ban him from ever running for office again, but he was forced to back off.  In fact, he just voted for a motion that declared that convicting Trump at this point would be unconstitutional.  That represents a stunning reversal by McConnell, because earlier this month he was telling other Republicans that he wanted Trump gone.  Putting the pieces together, it appears that McConnell really did try to get to 67 votes so that Trump would be convicted, but political reality forced him to back down in a major way.  Now a weakened McConnell will try to move forward as the minority leader in the Senate, and the future of his political career is very much in doubt.

UPDATED: McCarthy Heading To Mar A Lago?

Sundance is citing a report in The Hill:

McCarthy to meet with Trump in Florida

Former President Trump is expected to meet this week with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in Florida, a source familiar with the meeting confirmed to The Hill.

The rendezvous, which was first reported by Punchbowl News, comes as McCarthy attempts to manage simmering tensions within the House GOP caucus amid the fallout from the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol and Trump's ensuing impeachment for his role in the mayhem.

McCarthy's office did not respond to a request for comment.

There's a bit more at the link, but not too much of substance--except, of course, that Trump has bruited the idea of supporting primary challenges of his GOP opponents.

It's anyone's idea how the GOPe thought helping to install Zhou Baiden would somehow magically eliminate Trump from the national--or, indeed, the world--stage. I have to agree with sundance that there's been a rude awakening for GOPe leaders like McConnell, and would be fence straddlers like McCarthy. After a short lived period of euphoria and boldness, they find themselves, as sundance says, essentially without leverage. Trump holds all the cards for now, and for the foreseeable future:

UPDATED: Rand Paul On The Bluto - McConnell Strategy

Disgraced former AG Bluto Barr and Cocaine Mitch McConnell appear to be coordinating attacks on President Trump, claiming that Trump incited a mob to attack Congress while it was engaged in "sacred" constitutional duties--putting the finishing touches on The Big Steal. Exactly what the end game is, is anyone's guess. They clearly seem to be egging the Dems on to push for an impeachment trial in the Senate and to convict Trump of ... something. Apparently McConnell believes that Barr's backing will give this push credibility with, well, the GOPe? It surely won't help get Republicans elected come 2022, not if the Georgia runoffs were any indication and not if Trump's approval polling means anything.

To me, all this is mind bogglingly wacky, but each of Barr and McConnell have shown real tone deafness and serious lack of perspective during the past two years. Commenter Ray So-Cal has linked a Zerohedge blog that features Senator Rand Paul being interviewed by Laura Ingraham. Paul speaks lucid good sense:

“I don’t understand how they can be moving forward with this,” he said, before adding

“The thing they’re doing now is an overreaction, and if they think they’re going to have a positive feeling from the public, when they’re going to go through a partisan impeachment again, I think that’s absolutely insane and wrong headed.”

"Absolutely insane and wrong?" Sounds like Trump derangement syndrome on steroids.

How To Turn Victory Into Defeat

Suppose you were leader of a major political party, albeit the minority one, in Congress. Suppose further that a goofball in your leadership team tried to help impeach the President--a member of your own party. Finally, suppose that influential members of your party demanded that member be dumped from her leadership position. Here's how you could turn what looks like a victory into an own goal: you could protect the goofball member. I kid you not.

Trump said people would get tired of winning. Right again.

A Salutary Reminder About The GOPe

We all tend to focus on events in DC, and understandably so. National politics control much of what goes on at the state and local level. Nevertheless, we still have some semblance of a federal system, and we need to remember that local politics have led to the national debacle that we are witnessing. Today at at American Greatness, Gavin Wax drives that point home:

How the GOP Establishment Created Its Lin Wood Problem

Only the emergence of the Republican Party as a fully populist, America First entity can keep the wackiness at bay.

Wax agrees that Wood's current antics are a problem for the Republican party. He offers no opinion on Wood's motives or his mental state. He simply points out that the GOPe brought this upon themselves. You can surf the internet today and find all the usual suspects blaming Trump, blaming Sidney Powell, but the reality is that the GOPe has only itself to blame:

[Wood] is a release valve for a growing movement of people who are angry, disaffected, looking for answers, and becoming increasingly convinced that there is a dark, all-powerful conspiracy working in the shadows to destroy their rights.

But is that really crazy? In many ways, particularly given how the Republican Party establishment has behaved since the election, they have a point.

Rather than focusing on John Roberts and the Trump Threesome at the SCOTUS, or on Bill Barr and John Durham, or even on Mitch McConnell and so many others in Congress, Wax wants us to remember the role of the state party apparatus--and with good reason, as I've also had occasion to mention. Without the state parties nothing like the extent of this could have happened: