Herr Trumpf Is Teaching Republican Voters To Distrust Candidates Awash In Special Interest Money

Herr Trumpf has been resourceful-- and extremely successful-- in using the virtually limitless free TV time the networks have given him-- the fairness doctrine was abolished in 1987 and congressional attempts to revive it were vetoed by Reagan and again by George W. Bush-- to define and brand his opponents. He chased most of the GOP's "Deep Bench," most recently Jeb Bush, out of the race by using tried and true non-political marketing techniques to establish each in the collective unconscious as unattractive figures who whose supposed characteristics would cause great harm to the nation and even to the families of the voters. He hasn't spent much money on this tactic-- until this week. He's now running an ad that is likely to be devastating to Ted Cruz. Watch devious MSNBC Trumpf-enabler Joe Scarborough play the ad-- as news, so for free-- on Morning Joe yesterday (above). It looks like he wants to kill of the threat from Cruz entirely before he goes about obliterating Rubio.

Over the weekend, Trumpf loudly-- if spuriously-- claimed that top-level employees at Goldman Sachs have told him the has "total control over [Cruz]." Although always delights at pointing out that all of his opponents are controlled by special interests-- or "big groups and big people" as he puts it so his dullard fans will understand-- his now harping on how "Cruz is totally controlled by the oil companies... You know, one thing good about this system is it's reasonably transparent although there are ways where people can't find out ... but take a look at who's giving Ted Cruz the money." OK, let's:

These are Cruz's top 3 donors so far. The Wilk fortune is from fracking. Renaissance Technologies is a New York hedge fund-- infamous for enabling clients to illegally avoid taxes-- run by Hillary Clinton supporter James Simon and Cruz supporter Robert Mercer. Caprock Partners is a front for oil billionaire Tony Neugebauer. The only current members of Congress who have taken more money from Big Oil are John McCain and Jim Inhofe who have been in Congress since Cruz was being voted the most hated student at Princeton.

"Oh he's the least independent maybe up there," Herr told fans in Myrtle Beach before the primary, referring to Cruz. "There's no independence. He tells people that, 'I'm going to help you with Wall Street-- big, bad Wall Street,' and then he borrowed $1 million with a personal guarantee at a low interest rate-- a rate that you would be very proud to pay... He's got this little tiny filing [and] he forgets to mention that he's borrowed money from Citi Bank, Goldman Sachs and the rate of interest is like Rockefeller in his prime would have to pay... says he's never going to borrow from Wall Street, but he lied. This guy, I've never seen a guy lie like this."

It's great that Trumpf is sounding almost Bernie-like in opposition to big special interest control of campaign finance, though I can't imagine Trumpf's interest in the subject goes further than using it as a club with which to bash his slimy political adversaries. He will soon find Rubio as easy pickings as Cruz. And, if she makes it to the general, Hillary will be an even better target than all the Republicans combined. Her jaw-dropping campaign finance corruption alone would likely lose her the general election... even against Trumpf! Let's make sure that doesn't happen; tap the thermometer below: