He's A Mutt?

Far right extremist Martha Roby represents a blood red (R+17) hellhole-- ethnically cleansed-- in southeast Alabama. Romney beat Obama there 63-36%. No Democrat will ever win her district; the DCCC doesn't even run candidates there. This morning she woke up-- perhaps having slept badly because of yesterday's Trump revelations-- and withdrew her ill-advised Trumpy-the-Clown endorsement. "Trump's behavior," she said, "makes him unacceptable as a candidate… and I won't vote for him." GOP crackpot Barbara Comstock, who represents a very swingy (R+2) northern Virginia district Hillary is going to win handily, didn't need to sleep on it. She denounced Trump and called for him to step down from the ticket last night as the media began pounding the "pussy" revelations nonstop. Unlike Roby, she's in a very tough reelection campaign with the DCCC heavily backing reprehensible Blue Dog LuAnn Bennett for the seat. By the June 30 FEC reporting deadline Comstock had already spent $2,256,613 (and Bennett had spent $871,830). The NRCC had spent $1,189,109 to hold the seat-- $431,582 just last week! "This is disgusting, vile, and disqualifying," she said minutes before Trump's carefully crafted non-apology apology was issued. "No woman should ever be subjected to this type of obscene behavior and it is unbecoming of anybody seeking high office. In light of these comments, Donald Trump should step aside and allow our party to replace him with Mike Pence or another appropriate nominee from the Republican Party. I cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump and I would never vote for Hillary Clinton."

On the other hand, Tony Perkins, head of the neo-fascist (but Christianist neo-fascist) Family Research Council-- which claims in its mission statement that its goal is to "make a lasting difference for timeless values across our land"-- says he's sticking with Trump. "My personal support for Donald Trump," he admitted this morning, "has never been based upon shared values." Oh. So is Dr. Ben.

This morning John Harwood speculated that Trump "has brought the Republican Party to its nightmare scenario... Trump, trailing Clinton by several percentage points nationally and in most battleground states, was on track to lose the election before disclosure of the tape. Republican confidence that he can close that gap and win has vanished as Trump approaches Sunday night's second debate with Clinton in a severely-weakened position. The principal question now is how many other Republicans go down with him. Democrats need to gain at least four seats to win back a Senate majority; their odds are good. It remains unlikely that Democrats can achieve the 30 seat gain they need to win back the House. But the moves Friday night by jittery Republican members suggest that they are alarmed by the possibility. The theme of the next month will be the scramble of Republican politicians to protect themselves."

This is starting to smell like when Rahm sprang the trap on Mark Foley in late September, 2006... one day after it was too late to get his name off the ballot. The Democrats had the best of all worlds: Foley withdrew from the race but his now-toxic name remained on the ballot as the GOP nominee. The question, of course, is how badly it will hurt down-ballot Republicans... like Peter King on Long Island, Pat Meehan in the Philly suburbs, John Faso in upstate New York, Cresent Harding in North Las Vegas (a Mormon who, after defending every Trumpist outrage for the last year, finally pulled his support for the sociopathic billionaire this morning), Mario Diaz-Balart in Miami-Dade, Darrell Issa in San Diego and Orange counties, Fred Upton in Kalamazoo, Frank Guinta in New Hampshire, Sean Duffy in northern Wisconsin, Lamar Smith in Bexar and Travis counties. Is this-- and Trump's reaction over the next couple of days-- going be enough to wipe the GOP out? Please help that along here. Damn shame that doddering Pelosi doesn't have an even remotely competent DCCC in place to take advantage of this!




A short time ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Reince Priebus told party officials today to start redirecting funds away from Trump and to down-ballot candidates.

The speed and breadth of the abandonment of Mr. Trump’s candidacy shocked some long-time party members and exposed a shattered party without a clear path forward.

“Our party is in its deepest crisis since Watergate in 1974,” said Ron Nehring, former chairman of the California Republican Party, referring to the mid-term election when the resignation of then-President Richard M. Nixon led to a Democratic landslide. “It’s compounded by the fact that it doesn’t matter whether Donald Trump were to bow out. It’s too late to change the candidate on the ballot."

The immediate consequence of the RNC’s decision on allocating resources is a halt to the party’s mail program so it can be redirected toward a new universe of voters, the official said. News of the mail program stopping was first reported by Politico. Mr. Priebus and top party strategist Sean Spicer didn’t respond to requests for comment.

...Trump’s latest imbroglio is also widening a chasm between the party’s old guard and the legions of voters drawn to his anti-establishment message.

Those divisions surfaced on Saturday when House Speaker Paul Ryan appeared at a rally in his Wisconsin district after disinviting Mr. Trump from that event and denouncing his crude comments. Mr. Ryan’s own welcome was mixed with boos and pro-Trump hecklers in the crowd.