Can Trump Fan Boy Matt Gaetz Be Beaten?

The Florida Panhandle has a lot more in common with Alabama than it does with the rest of Florida. In fact, if the state could somehow talk Alabama into annexing the Panhandle, Florida would be a dependably blue state. FL-01 and FL-02 are the congressional districts that take up most of the Panhandle, the first sporting a PVI of R+22 and the second, almost as hideous at R+18. They're the two reddest districts in the state. FL-01 gave Trump 67.5% of the vote, his biggest win in the state.

In 2018, in the midst of the Blue Wave, the district reelected its extreme right incumbent, Matt Gaetz, 216,189 (67.1%) to 106,199 (32.9%) for Democrat Jennifer Zimmerman. Most people would look at a district like that and see it as hopeless. The 5 counties-- Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton and Holmes-- are all Republican bastions. The Democrats don't even have a foothold anywhere in the district. But then you don't know Commander Phil Ehr, a retired naval flight officer (and chess master).

So Gaetz is a walking freak show-- a daddy's boy, drunkard, Trump butt kisser and maybe even a murderer. So he shouldn't be allowed to run without opposition. And Ehr is giving him some real opposition. Yesterday Gaetz was on The View just before Roger Stone was sentenced. He said he thinks Trump should pardon Stone. CNN:

Despite View co-host Meghan McCain's objection that Stone was "the swampiest swamp creature," Gaetz said, "Trump has pardoned 26 people. (Former President Barack) Obama pardoned over 1,700. (Former President) Bill Clinton pardoned 459."

When asked whether pardon power should be reviewed and curbed, Gaetz argued that "if you look at the original intent of pardon power, it cannot be limited."

"I would agree that Roger Stone should be pardoned if for no other reason than that there has been a double standard in this country," he added, before listing several former Justice Department and intelligence community officials whom Trump and his supporters have accused of political bias and not having faced consequences.

Ehr, a former mainstream pre-Trump Republican, doesn't see it the same way.

"Make no mistake," he told me yesterday, "undermining justice for personal or political gain, is a threat to the very foundations of our democracy. Gaetz uses recklessness, deceit, and dishonorable conduct to hide what's really going on. Every day we remain silent our democracy weakens and those who manipulate the system for their own gain move closer to becoming permanent power brokers. We need honesty in government. Matt Gaetz does not represent the great people of Northwest Florida, and I'm prepared to lead."

I hope he's right. He released the really excellent video, Cut the Noise, [up top] yesterday. Newsweek reviewed it yesterday and noted that "Ehr contrasts his long career in the military with the career of Gaetz... who uses 'information warfare' for political advantage. 'I've spent my whole life training for moments like this,' Ehr says in the ad. 'If you spend a lifetime learning how to see through the fog of war, there's one thing you learn: one of the main tools of the enemy, it's noise. Chaos meant to hide what's actually going on.' The bulk of Ehr's Naval career was spent as a pilot, flying reconnaissance missions during several conflicts during the cold war. The video likens the behavior of Gaetz to tactics that were used by the government of the Soviet Union. 'In the cold war, we watched Russia use those tactics every day,' says Ehr. 'But I never thought I'd see the day when American leaders would use information warfare against their own people.'" If you'd like to contribute to Ehr's campaign, you can do it here. It's worth it if, for nothing else, just to drive Gaetz crazy.