Lincoln Project Co-Founder Steve Schmidt Fires Back At Trump And Reduces Him To Charred Cinders

 

-by Noah

For those of you who may still not know, Steve Schmidt is a conservative who worked on several Republican campaigns including those of Arnold Schwarenegger, George Dubya Bush, and John McCain. President Donald J. Biohazard, however, was a bigly bridge too far for a conservative with the smarts of Schmidt. So, patriotic American that he is, he just had to respond when our nutcase Beavis & Butt-head President attacked him as a "Loser" and a "Failure" for forming the Lincoln Project to run advertisements against him that speak truth to such corrupted power as that of Trump and the current Republican Party. What follows is the brilliant combined text of several of Schmidt's tweets back at Trump in response to his endless whining about the ads.

You’ve never beaten me at anything. This is our first dance. Did you like, Covita? We are so much better at this than your team of crooks, wife beaters, degenerates, weirdos and losers.

You are losing. We heard you loved Evita. You saw it so many times. Where will you live out your years in disgrace? Will you buy Jeffrey Epstein’s island? One last extra special deal from him? Or will you be drooling on yourself in a suite at Walter Reed? Maybe you will be in prison?

I bet you fear that. The Manhattan District Attorney may not be around to cover for you or your crooked kids anymore. Eliza Orlins doesn’t believe in different sets of rules for the Trumps. What about the State Attorney General? You know what you’ve done.

Oh, Donald. Who do you owe almost $500 million in personally guaranteed loans to? It's all coming down. You think you and your disgusting family are going to be in deal-flow next year? Are you really that delusional?

You are lucky Chris Wallace interrupted you after Joe Biden said you weren’t smart. You started to melt down. That’s the place that hurts the most. Right? Fred Sr., knew it. You’ve spent your whole life proving it. You aren’t very smart. You couldn’t take the SAT on your own. What was the real score? 970? We both know you know.

Are the steroids wearing off? Is the euphoria fading? Do you feel foggy? Tired? Do you ache? How is the breathing? Hmmm. Are you watching TV today? We will have some nice surprises for you. Everyone is laughing at you. You are a joke. A splendid moron turned deadly clown.

Did you watch Martha McSally in her debate against American hero, fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly? She is so embarrassed by you. She is ashamed and full of self-loathing for the choice she made in following you over the cliff. She is in free fall now. She will lose, like most of them, because of you.

We hear from the White House and the campaign everyday. They are betraying you. They are looking to get out alive and salvage careers and their names. It’s Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner vs. Donald Trump Jr., and Kimberly Guilfoyle on the inside. They are at war over scraps and who gets to command what will be the remnants of your rancid cult.

It’s almost over now. You are the greatest failure in American history. You are the worst president in American history. Disgrace will always precede your name. Your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will grow up ashamed of their names.

One day, I suppose there will be some small and not-much-visited library that bears your name. It will be the type of place where a drunk walks by, staring at the wall for a minute, before deciding it is beneath his dignity to piss on. That’s what is waiting for you.

Joe Biden is a better man. He’s smarter. He’s winning.

Do you remember when you didn’t want to name Donald Trump Jr., Donald because you were worried about him being a loser named Donald? You were right about that. He is.

But it is you who will be remembered as America’s greatest loser. You will be crushed in the election! Shhhhhhhh

Having read Schmidt's response to the baggy-suited, ferret-wearing nutcase who is roaming around the White House and the country spreading his disease, it is clear that Trump will never be in Schmidt's league. Schmidt's writing has an Edgar Allan Poe quality about it. It's certainly time to seal Trump behind a wall.

Getting Ready For A Biden Presidency-- It Can't Be As Bad As Trump's Presidency

In an off-the-record talk with a top Florida elected official, I was informed that Debbie Wasserman Schultz no longer has any power inside the Florida Democratic Party. "She has zero influence. The consultants who make money loosing elections have all the influence... The current chair's career experience (Terrie Rizzo) is that she’s a yoga instructor. And the executive director (Juan Peñalosa) was comms director for Joe García's failed reelection campaign and then worked at Mercury, the [sleazy] Republican lobbying firm" (Mar 2015 – Feb 2018). Last week the Biden campaign announced it had taken on Peñalosa as a senior advisor for Florida. Currently Rizzo and Peñalosa are involved in a high octane dispute with dozens of Florida candidates, which comes right on top of a scandal that forced the shabby state party to return at least $780,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) small-business loans after Democratic lawmakers and candidates flipped out over the party's unethical and probably illegal money grab.

As I've said for years, the Florida Democratic Party is saved from being the worst state party in the country by only one thing: the Ohio DemocraticParty, the model of how to destroy a political party from within. Funny that right in the middle of the fight between Peñalosa and the party's grassroots candidates over the way the party squeezes hard-pressed campaigns for VAN access, making it close to impossible for working-class candidates to run in Florida and the shady PPP scam, the Biden camp decides to hire Peñalosa.

"This," a prominent Florida Democratic elected official told me, "is what happens when you hire a novice and a shady lobbyist to run your party... Ethics? What ethics? Congresswoman Donna Shalala pretty much ordered Rizzo and Peñalosa to return the money.-- which they reluctantly did. State Senator Jason Pizzo (D-Miami): "Forget the legality for just a second and consider what should have been a huge ethical dilemma. They are taking financial resources from someone who might have food or housing insecurity in the middle of a pandemic. I don’t know who possibly thought that was a good idea. " Pizzo knew exactly ho thought it was a good idea and said he alerted Biden’s daughter Ashley, to the problem-- at which point the Biden campaign rewarded Peñalosa with the senior advisor job while he stays on as party executive director.

At the same time, Aída Chávez reported for The Intercept that "More than 50 candidates signed onto a letter on Thursday demanding that the Florida Democratic Party share access to its voter files and resources. For access to VAN, the widely used Democratic voter file technology firm, the party is charging about $3,500 for a congressional campaign, $1,500 for state Senate, and $750 for House-- fees that many candidates can’t afford before their campaigns get off the ground. State Democratic parties in New Jersey, Idaho, Kansas, and Nebraska... do not charge candidates to access their voter data." Other crummy state parties like Florida charge as well. Congressional candidate Adam Christensen noted that "If these candidates had the voter files, the data, the information on where to canvass, who to canvass, not only would it increase the amount of Democrats in Florida, it would in turn increase donations, it would increase the amount of races that are won in Florida. But right now the Democratic Party is more concerned with making money off candidates, who they essentially see as suckers, and they will not call them back, they will not give them any actual backing... They have gone out and hired a bunch of field organizers and they give them access to VAN, they give [Democratic Executive Committees] access to VAN, they give everyone access to VAN except for the candidates. And at the end of the day the candidates are the ones who not only use the data, but update the data. They fix most of the data rolls to begin with because they’re the ones that actually make contact with voters and find people who are persuadable enough."

Biden's guy-- not Christensen-- Peñalosa.

On Monday morning, The Week published an OpEd by Ryan Cooper: Democrats can't afford to let former Republicans co-opt the party. And by "Republicans," he also means sleazy lobbyists and corporate shills, who already have far too much influence inside the Democratic Party. It isn't news that everyone loves the hard-hitting and vicious ads that conservative Republican #NeverTrump groups are running against Trump. Democratic groups-- which have no balls and no spines-- are afraid to run ads like that, so now everyone is excited about how the ethics-free Republicans are doing their dirty work against Trump. This is the newest from the Lincoln Project:





And this is a recent one from Republicans for the Rule of Law:





I'm not seeing ads like this from the DNC, the DCCC, the DSCC or the Biden campaign. But what Cooper and others-- myself included-- worry about is the cost of these ads. "The faction of so-called Never Trump Republicans," he wrote, "has scented opportunity. Some such conservative exiles have formed a group called the Lincoln Project, which is running rude ads mocking Trump for his disastrous presidency. Many Democrats are celebrating the ads for contributing to Trump's downturn in the polls and welcoming these apostates into the party fold. Yet should Biden win, it would be a great mistake to grant these conservatives much credit, and a greater mistake still to allow them to influence a Biden presidency. America needs better than former Republican operatives who learned about anti-racism last week." But that is exactly what Democrats-- and America-- will get when Biden is elected.

[I]t is primarily Trump's own failures that are dragging down his poll numbers. He is presiding over a pandemic that has killed over 136,000 Americans at time of writing, and a resulting economic collapse that is worse than any since the Great Depression. Other rich countries are cautiously emerging from the pandemic, while the U.S. outbreak is only accelerating. Trump is utterly incapable of doing his job, and the result is a humiliating, world-historical catastrophe. A couple viral ads are not making much difference against this background.

Meanwhile, it seems Trump has completely misjudged the political valence of the George Floyd protests. By some counts this has been the largest protest movement in American history, but Trump has reacted as usual by digging in even further with inflammatory racist screeching. The result is a further backlash against racism and police brutality-- support for Black Lives Matter has skyrocketed probably in part because Trump can't stop running his mouth.

...[I]t will be critically important for a Biden administration-- if it cares to keep the Democratic Party in power-- to both address the growing concerns about bigotry and restore economic security. Attacking racism is plainly popular and necessary, and what's more, as Bouie rightly argues in another article, egalitarian economic policy is vital for fixing the problem of police brutality and mass incarceration. On the other hand, failing to fix the coronavirus depression (as President Obama failed to fix the Great Recession) leaves open the future possibility of a more skilled and competent demagogue following in Trump's footsteps. If unemployment and production are still in the toilet in November 2022, Biden and the Democrats will be blamed for it.

Figures in the Lincoln Project are suitable for neither of these tasks. Before their dislike of Trump got them crosswise with the conservative mainstream, they were committed Republicans who generally disliked if not hated Barack Obama, and pushed austerity and deregulation-- precisely the opposite of what is needed to fix the economy. Indeed, Steve Schmidt, one of the groups co-founders, was John McCain's senior strategist for the 2008 campaign, and convinced him to pick Sarah Palin as a running mate-- the most important forerunner for Trump's brand of emboldened stupidity. Stuart Stevens, an adviser for the organization, was similarly a senior strategist for Mitt Romney on the 2012 campaign, which eagerly sought and received Trump's endorsement. Others have done worse-- Ben Howe, reportedly the project's video whiz, once boasted on Twitter that he would have shot Michael Brown of Ferguson himself if given the chance.

Howe now says he regrets those comments, as does Stevens, but these are still not particularly credible messengers for either economic populism or racial justice. It would be hard to produce a stronger impression of a bunch of conservative opportunists who expected Trump to lose and got routed out of their own party when he didn't, and are now rooting around for a place in the other party. If they simply want to help defeat Trump, that's fine, but if they want anything more than that, it should be earned with considerably more self-searching than has so far been in evidence.

The only way Biden can win-- hatred for Trump

In terms of electoral politics, Joe Biden has had the tremendous stroke of luck of his opponent turning in just about the worst presidential performance in American history. That will give him unusually wide latitude to pick who we wants aboard his political bandwagon. But if he takes power, he will have to clean up the worst mess since 1933. We have seen the horror of pre-Trump conservatism-- and few more closely than Biden, because in 2009 he and Obama inherited the mess from the previous Republican disaster. A bunch of conservative washouts are far more likely to hinder than help Biden's attempts to put the country back on two legs.

Healthy For America vs Dangerous For America

"I Can't Breathe" by Nancy Ohanian

One of the themes here at DWT this cycle has been about the dangers of getting too chummy with conservative Republican #NeverTrumpers. They are, after all conservatives and oppose Trump because-- among other things-- he isn't. Many don't have to hold their noses to vote for Biden. He's just what they're looking for. In fact, from what I've seen, conservative #NeverTrump Republicans like Biden a lot more than progressives do. About 80% of progressives are going to hold their noses and vote for Biden, under no delusions about his utter unfitness for office, just thinking about the existential danger Trump is. The #NeverTrump's actually like the idea of a Biden presidency. Sure, they'd prefer someone like Paul Ryan, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, maybe even another overt racist likeTucker Carlson, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Ted Cruz-- one of their own-- but Biden's record of almost 5 decades is very comforting to them in the short run.

These people will help us take down Trump. The enemy of my enemy is my friend... to a certain extent. Thanks for helping get rid of the fascist. Then go back to your own party and reform it, but don't try to move the Democratic Party even further right than it has already drifted since Arkansas conservative Bill Clinton managed a hostile takeover in 1992.





In an OpEd for TruthOut this week, Beware of Anti-Trump Republicans Who Endorse Joe Biden, William Rivers Pitt agreed. He wrote that "A stampeding herd of 'anti-Trump' Republican organizations and PACs has flooded the zone with ads attacking Trump and endorsing Biden. If beating "Donald Trump in November is your main thing, this would appear to be only good news. I am forced to wonder, however, what the real intent is behind this sudden solidarity after three long years of near-silence from the deeply compromised 'Never Trump' crew."

"Trump," he continued, "is the best campaign spokesman Joe Biden could ever wish for, because Trump will not stop damaging himself, ever. He is incapable of staying out of the spotlight, has no interest in talking points or strategy, and almost never knows what he is talking about when he starts flapping his gums at the cameras. His ceaseless lies about everything from Russian bounties on U.S. troops to the uprising to the pandemic are a feature, not a bug. In the midst of this maelstrom, Biden pops up every so often like some grandfatherly Jack-in-the-box to remind people that, whatever else he may be, he is not that guy. He has out-raised Trump for the second month in a row, while Trump’s own campaign spends its money on ads intended only to assure the president that he’s a great guy and everything is fine."

All the momentum is on Biden’s side at present, and Trump is only going to help him as we lurch toward the reckoning in November. So forgive me for being leery of this abrupt tidal wave of Biden support from Republican-based organizations. It puts me in mind of the old joke about the French aristocrat who sees an angry mob run by and says, “I must find out where my people are going, so I may lead them.”

The newest entry into the Republican anti-Trump push is named 43 Alumni for Biden. It is a collection of hundreds of former campaign and administration members who worked for George W. Bush, the war criminal 43rd president. A list of members is not available so far as I can glean, but the group boasts a number of former Bush Cabinet secretaries and other high-ranking members whose names I’d love to know. Rumsfeld? Ashcroft? Rove? Cheney? Such is the possible character of Biden’s new allies.

“Whether you worked in the earliest days of the 43rd Administration or sprinted to the finish in January 2009, you know a thing or two about serving the grand ideals and exceptional people of our country,” reads the 43 Alumni for Biden endorsement. “Together we saw compassion in action, strength on display and the steady leadership of a true statesman who inspired us to meet some of America’s greatest challenges.”

I don’t have time to fully parse the freight of “Oy vey” in that paragraph; if you lived through the scabrous eight years of the Bush administration, you don’t need me to tell you how much unrefined bullshit is slathered on the words “compassion,” “steady leadership” and “true statesman.” Those hundreds of “43 Alumni” aided and abetted a murderous smash-and-grab robbery of an administration, and now they’re piling in behind Biden exactly when he does not need their help.

Another Republican group that has been throwing hot shade at Trump is The Lincoln Project. The ads produced by this organization have been singularly brutal and ruthlessly timely, and Trump the TV fanatic is well aware of them. Each time another Lincoln Project ad airs, Trump Twitter goes seismic. The Lincoln spots are masterpieces of inflicted political pain, and further proof that conservatives are better at making killer ads than the Democrats ever were or will be.

Many who oppose Trump have rejoiced at the way these ads have been flaying him, but it cannot be forgotten that this same gleefully lethal energy also went into creating and distributing the GOP’s racist Willie Horton ad attacking Michael Dukakis in 1988, and the wildly truthless swift-boat ads attacking John Kerry in 2004. With friends like these, etc.

...[T]hose working to get Trump gone must be deeply wary of this new “help.” These are the people whose policies and go-for-the-jugular campaign ethos made President Donald Trump possible, or even inevitable, in the first place. Here they are now, leaping on the Biden bandwagon in hopes we all forget the blood and tears soaking their hands.

Furthermore, if these right-wing organizations do manage to make a notable difference in the November outcome, they are going to think they are owed something for that assistance, and anything that pushes Biden even further to the right is a menace on its face for anyone seeking genuine progressive change.

Simply put: Never, ever forget who it is you’re dealing with here. These groups do not oppose Trump because of his policies. They oppose Trump because he is bad for the Republican brand, full stop. The enemy of your enemy in this case is not your friend, at all. It feels too much like the Scorpion and the Frog all over again, and folks by now should be heartily wary of getting stung.

Yesterday, super prominent #NeverTrumper Bill Kristol, writing at the NeverTrump Daily Journal Bulwark, tried to appeal to "those who have not been opponents of Donald Trump... those who, for whatever mixtures of reasons and motives, have until now reluctantly supported or tolerated him." He wants them to use July 4th and what it stands for to help them become "former Trump supporters." And he tells them even if they are too reflexively partisan to back Biden, they have an alternative, "His name is Mike Pence." Here's where these #NeverTrumpers show what they're made of and who they are. "[I]t is self-evident that it would be much better for the country if Donald Trump were out of office for the next six months, and if he had no chance to be president for the next four years. A President Pence for the next several months-- even with the possibility of a President Pence for the next four years-- would be a good outcome for all Americans." Yeah, so not our friends. Instead he has a game plan:

Serious and patriotic men and women who have been Trump supporters could go to Donald Trump privately and tell him that he’s done whatever good he can do. They could tell him that it’s time to resign and to turn over both the reins of government and the 2020 Republican nomination to his vice president.

If Donald Trump ignores them, serious and patriotic men and women who have been Trump supporters could urge delegates to the Republican convention to withhold their votes in this emergency from Donald Trump, and could provide legal and political help when the Trump campaign claims those delegates are bound.

If that doesn’t seem feasible, serious and patriotic men and women who have been Trump supporters could simply announce their support for Joe Biden now. If a sizable number of major figures did so, it would make Trump something like a lame duck and might force him from the race. Even if he refused to withdraw, it would weaken his hold on Republicans on the Hill and on his own administration, and make it harder for him to do substantial damage over the next several months. And since Trump could do substantial damage in using the executive power of the federal government to affect the November election, either beforehand (as in his attempt last year to use Ukraine to damage his opponent) or after (by calling results into question, creating chaos and a crisis of legitimacy, and the like), weakening Trump even if he stays in office would be no small thing.

So the best option would be a Trump who has resigned from office. Second best would be a Trump denied re-nomination. Third best would be a weakened and then defeated Trump.

Those who have previously been Trump supporters could help produce one of these outcomes. They should. For Donald Trump has surely proven himself, even to those who wished him well and hoped for the best, to be, to quote the Declaration, “unfit to be a ruler of a free people.”

There is no reason for patriotic Trump supporters to continue enabling him. There would be a portion of honor in helping us get beyond him.

I'll take a great big pass on that strategy. What would be healthy for the country is a massive November rejection of Trump, Trumpism, fascism, authoritarianism and the Republican Party. And that's what's coming, Bill Kristol and his friends on board or not. There's nothing that would make me cast a ballot for Biden-- nothing-- but there is one thing that I like about him: he promised (though I don't necessarily believe him) that he will not pardon Trump. Pence would, of course. What would be healthy for America-- more healthy than anything I can think of short of a Bernie presidency-- would be to see a Trump trial and to subsequently see Trump die in prison, the way Al Capone did.

#NeverTrump Republicans Will Likely Make A Real Contribution To Defeating Him And His Enablers

So far this year, some of my favorite campaign ads were done by the Lincoln Project, virulently anti-Trump Republicans who have lately turned their fire-power against vulnerable Trump enablers in the Senate, like Martha McSally (R-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC). I'm hearing all kinds of buzz that they'll be turning their guns on Cory Gardner (R-CO), Susan Collins (R-ME), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Miss McConnell (R-KY), David Perdue (R-GA), Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Steve Daines (R-MT). They're doing a noticeably better job than the DSCC!

Yesterday Al Hunt wrote a piece for for The Hill, #NeverTrump Republicans-- Fringe Or A Force To Be Reckoned With?, speculation that #NeverTrump groups and politicians infuriate Señor T and "may gain traction in the election year." Unaware that MSNBC is crawling with anti-Trump Republicans, he suggests starting with the far less influential The Bulwark, which he described as "an online site and podcast directed by a Wisconsin conservative Charlie Sykes and including luminaries from the right like Bill Kristol, who was the editor of the Weekly Standard. It pummels the president's ineptitude and [lack of] integrity and his enablers."

The “Lincoln Project” brigade-- led by longtime Republicans like George Conway (his wife is Trump's counselor), Steve Schmidt, who once was a top aide to John McCain, and John Weaver, who was a top aide to Ohio Gov. John Kasich-- have run mocking negative ads that went viral after infuriating Trump.

There have been no tougher critiques of the Trump presidency than those written by conservative columnists Michael Gerson, George Will, Max Boot and Pete Wehner.

Mind you, none of these critics on the right have become big government, wealth redistributing left wingers. If Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress were to be elected this November, most of these people will be among their most articulate critics.

But they know the traditional conservative values of limited government, free markets and global leadership aren't in this president's vocabulary. They resent that their philosophical mentor William F. Buckley has been replaced in Trump's Republican Party by Sean Hannity.

“We can see how his con works," Charlie Sykes told me, “how he manipulates conservative memes and exploits the worst and darkest elements of the right. We're the ones calling out his bullshit because we know it's bullshit.”

Sykes was a popular Wisconsin conservative radio talk show host and author until Trump was elected. He left and wrote a book, How the Right Lost its Mind. And he founded The Bulwark.

Bulwark isn't just headlines and quick hits-- most pieces are well documented and devastating. One of the lead writers is Tim Miller, who was Jeb Bush's communications director.

On March 25, Miller laid out the timeline of the president's handling of the pandemic. It documented how Trump ignored the early advice of experts-- Republicans-- to vastly expand testing and obtain hospital supplies which soon would be essential. This was one of the earliest and most comprehensive accounts of the massive failure.

Most recently Miller weighed in on the ludicrous “Obamagate” conspiracy hoax, Trump's charge that the former president and his top officials illicitly sought to fix the last presidential election and then to undermine Trump's presidency.

Exhibit A is Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom these conspirators claim was framed when he plead guilty-- on multiple occasions-- to lying to federal officials. William Barr, the attorney general of Trump's dreams, now seeks to drop all charges against Flynn.

A short reprise: Flynn got $45,000 from Russian state television, sat next to Vladimir Putin at a 2015 Moscow dinner and had an inappropriate conversation with the Russian ambassador at the end of the Obama presidency. Then-- when that call was revealed-- he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about it.

Why wouldn't the FBI want to interview him? They did, and he lied to them too.

Nobody forced Flynn to lie. Flynn is a serial liar.

The mere discussion of “Obamagate” is a travesty but, Miller notes, it's vintage Trump. His entire history in business and politics is to “create a preferred universe of convenient facts, then insist they are true, no matter what.”

It seems nearly certain that the children of Joe Biden and Donald Trump will be an issue going into November, and The Bulwark has gone there too.

These anti-Trump conservative activists are making their mark. What remains is whether former top Trump officials or Republican office-holders will enter the fray. If so, they could affect a few voters on the margins, like college educated white men, who went for Trump, 53 percent to 39 percent, last time.

The ex-Trump aides who've turned on him don't matter. One who might, though, is former Defense Secretary James Mattis. Several people who know him say he cringes at the notion of a second Trump term, but the four-star Marine general has resisted weighing in on presidential politics.

A few retired Republican office-holders, like conservative Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, will come out against Trump. Others, like former New Hampshire Governor and Senator Judd Gregg, are mortified by this president; in a recent column Gregg said Biden is the antithesis of Trump-- “decent, fair, substantive and well-informed.” But in an interview with me, Gregg suggested the Democratic nominee's leftward lurch concerns him.

The long-shot blockbuster would be George W. Bush.

It's no secret he and Trump have a mutual contempt for one another. If a former Republican president-- the head of an influential Republican brand for decades-- supports a Democratic candidate, it would send shock waves.

It's very unlikely-- but keep an eye on it.

My guess is that yesterday the Lincoln Project released this brand new clip on Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manger, to make Trumpanzee's ears and eyes bleed. It's a doozy, not so much for the general public as for Trump and his cronies and for #NeverTrumpers everywhere-- and for all times. This has got to be Steve Schmidt's work! Or maybe Schmidt and Weaver. They really want to get under his skin and make him do something idiotic. Would I love to be able to hear Trump's reaction when he sees this one!

Trump is sinking poll numbers for GOP senators and House members. Some of these people were never comfortable with him to begin with. Are they willing to see their careers flushed down the toilet now by backing them? Do they even have any choice? Imagine Maine Senator Susan Collins breaks with Trump. Democrats are unlikely to vote for her but the independent voters who have backed away from her could be wooed back. Probably some Republicans would stick with her but many on the right-- Trump and LePage partisans-- would abandon her. Take Lewiston. There are 23,937 registered voters-- 42.6% Democrats, 34.9% independent and 17.3% Republican. Denouncing Trump would be a good move there. Same in neighboring Auburn (15,463 registered voters-- 39.9% independents, 32.4% Dems, 23.3% Republicans). But what about Caribou and Presque Isle, the two biggest towns in Aroostook County? Caribou's voters are 38.1% independent, 29.9% Democrat and 29.7% Republican. Presque Isle's 6,524 registered voters are 35.5% independent, 31.1% Republican and 29.9% Democrat. The gamble could work there. And statewide? Pew reports that 47% of Maine's voters are Democrats (or independents who lean Democratic), 36% are Republicans and independents who lean Republican and that 17% are independents with no lean. Collins can't afford to lose any significant number of the Republicans, especially with more Democrats than Republicans going to the polls in Maine. Last year "nearly 42,000 more Democrats cast ballots in November than did Republicans-- roughly three times the gaps seen in 2010 and 2014."

In the House just 23 Republicans who are running for reelection have voted with Trump less than 90% of the time. These are them with their Trump scores-- the higher the number the more pro-Trump their voting records:

• Mike Gallagher (WI-08)- 89.9%
• Don Young (AK-al)- 89.8%
• Mo Brooks (AL-05)- 89.7%
• Warren Davidson (OH-08)- 89.7%
• Bill Posey (FL-08)- 89.2%
• Jim Jordan (OH-04)- 88.6%
• Lee Zeldin (NY-01)- 88.2%
• Tom McClintock (CA-04)- 87.3%
• Ken Buck (R-CO)- 87.2%
• Alex Mooney (WV-02)- 87.0%
• Trey Hollingworth (IN-09)- 86.8%
• Paul Gosar (AZ-04)- 86.1%
• Louie Gohmert (TX-01)- 85.7%
• Matt Gaetz (FL-01)- 84.6%
• Andy Biggs (AZ-05)- 82.1%
• Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03)- 81.6%
• Fred Upton (MI-06)- 81.5%
• Elise Stefanik (NY-21)- 78.1%
• John Katko (NY-24)- 75.8%
• Thomas Massie (KY-04)- 70.1%
• Chris Smith (NJ-04)- 67.9%
• Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01)- 64.7%
• Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02)- recently switched parties

I don't see any of these members with the guts to break with Trump. The only possibilities might be Massie, who Trump is already against, and Fitzpatrick, whose district is strongly anti-Trump. And remember, most of the 23 members above who have voted "against" Trump have done so because they are further right than Trump, not because they are mainstream conservatives, let alone moderates.

I Bet As Many DINOs Vote For Trump As RINOs Vote For Biden

True-- except he was never liberal on civil rights or civil liberties

Every Republican presidential candidate has had a Democrats For [GOP asshole] and every Democratic candidate has had a Democrats For [Dem asshole]. I'm old and I don't remember an election when that wasn't the case, although I imagine Republicans for Biden is going to be a lot larger and more vibrant than a Republicans for Bernie committee might have been. Biden is a great fit for Republicans-- above and beyond any animus any of them feel towards Señor Trumpanzee for any reason:

According to the Daily Beast, the folks who operate Biden are spending a lot of energy building out a strong Republicans-for-Biden operation. The various #NeverTrump groups, like the Lincoln Project and Republicans For The Rule Of Law, for have already been bashing Trump-- and GOP congressional candidates-- more skillfully than the cloddish and incompetent DCCC.

Hanna Trudo and Hunter Woodall reported that Biden admits "he's been 'speaking to a lot of Republicans,' including 'former colleagues, who are calling and saying Joe, if you win, we’re gonna help.'" I guess that means if he beats Trump they'll be delighted to steer him in the conservative direction he's moved in since the early '70s until Obama made him behave a little better. But some may even be willing to help him-- he claims-- before he beats Trump, although this sounds like typical Biden bullshit:

"Matter of fact, there’s some major Republicans who are already forming Republicans for Biden. Major officeholders."

That's an obvious lie. Not one 'major Republican officeholder' will back him before the election, unless he means former officeholders like Jeff Flake or fake Democrats like Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ) and Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR) who everyone knows aren't bona fide Democrats but parade around with "D"s next to their names.

Interviews with several of the most prominent NeverTrump Republicans reveal that for now, the nascent effort is loosely defined and could ultimately take a variety of forms. But preliminary talks about messaging, engagement, leadership, and rollout are starting to be broadly sketched out, according to sources directly familiar with the matter. And the talks have happened more frequently as Biden moves solidly into general election mode.

“It is literally just forming,” one former top Republican Party official involved with the preliminary discussions told the Daily Beast. “I’ve had several conversations with people who have approached me. It’s going to take off, it’s going to happen. The question is to what degree and form it does,” the source, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about private discussions, said.

“You don’t want something like this out on the street before it needs to be,” the GOP source added. “It just makes it much harder to do.”

The contours of a developing “Republicans for Biden” movement are indeed fluid, with longtime operatives and former party loyalists mixed on what a final product would look like and when it might come into fruition. The movement behind-the-scenes is in contrast to the very public effort to unite the left, but matches Biden’s own professed fondness for working with Republicans.

When presented with Biden’s comments, GOP sources interviewed referenced two main possibilities: an external group that would work on his behalf as a political action committee-- similar to other Democratic-led outside groups—that could theoretically clear a pathway for others to join; or an internal operation within Biden’s campaign, with one or more recognizable Republican figures joining as the public face.

A second source well-placed in Republican circles-- who has had conversations with senior Biden advisers in recent weeks—said that any mounting effort would most likely come from within the campaign’s vast network.

“My impression is the official one will be part of the campaign,” the Republican source said, referencing the apparent “Republicans for Biden” group Biden mentioned himself.

Among the GOP’s more ardent anti-Trump faction, several names came up in conversation when asked who could theoretically have a role in an outside political entity, which would not be allowed under campaign-finance laws to coordinate with the campaign directly. Those names include former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Wisconsin-based political analyst Charlie Sykes, conservative media giant Bill Kristol, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, longtime campaign operative Steve Schmidt, former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL), and columnist Mona Charen, among others.

Meanwhile, one name in particular has been floated as a choice to help give legs to such an effort from the inside: former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The source who has spoken to top Biden allies about a number of topics said there has been discussion in Bidenworld about Kasich, a leading NeverTrump voice, who joined as a CNN analyst after leaving office in January 2019.

Throughout much of the primary, the former VP remained the national frontrunner with the explicit message that he can appeal to a broad coalition of individuals needed to beat Trump, often maintaining more moderate policy positions when his opponents tilted leftward. At one juncture in late 2019, he even floated the possibility of selecting a Republican running mate, an idea he has since backed away from since becoming the party’s presumptive nominee.

...As his campaign continues to plow forward toward November, Biden has taken new steps to appeal to Republicans. In late April, he said during a virtual fundraiser that he would consider naming Republicans to his Cabinet under the stipulation that they were “the best qualified person.”

To some Republicans, that type of public messaging from Biden, paired with early private discussions, is setting the right groundwork for one or more efforts to take off in earnest on his behalf, albeit at a slower pace in the age of COVID-19.

No ordinary Republican

“I know that it’s happening and it’s coming together,” Jennifer Horn, a longtime Republican operative and former state party official, told The Daily Beast. Horn said she was approached several months ago by a national GOP operative about specifically joining a “Republicans for Biden” effort, but hasn’t been involved directly. Instead, she’s focused her attention on the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC she advises along with George Conway, the husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, Schmidt, and political operatives John Weaver and Rick Wilson (a Daily Beast columnist).

With less than six months until Election Day, there are already a number of Republicans and ex-Republicans who have stated they intend to vote for Biden. On Tuesday, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina, who competed against Trump in 2016, declared that she “cannot vote for Donald Trump in 2020,” while entertaining the possibility of not voting.

For Republicans aiming to get a pro-Biden movement off the ground, that potential scenario-- where voters may feel they simply can’t vote for Trump or Biden-- is a nightmarish thought.

“It’s really hard to get people to take that last step,” Horn said. “To publicly say and do something. You need five or 10 people who are all ready to go at the same time.”

...While most Republicans interviewed spoke candidly about the first portion of Biden’s statement, when asked about the second part-- that “major officeholders” are starting this effort-- no GOP source contacted could present a concrete name. Indeed, most admitted they would be shocked to hear of anyone at the Senate or House level likely to take such a step, but did not rule out the possibility that Biden could be referring to state or local elected officials.

Others are less convinced. Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who plans to vote for the Democrat in an expected Trump vs. Biden matchup, said  “it’s still a leap,” for a Republican to publicly say they’re against Trump. “It still takes some balls, and so I don’t think you’ll see a huge number of well-known names,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any freaking way a current elected Republican would ever sign their name on to Republicans for Biden,” Walsh said. “They’ve demonstrated over the course of the last three years that they’re just too damn cowardly to do that.”

That sense of skepticism was picked up in other conversations.

“No one wants to end up like Jeff Flake,” Fergus Cullen, a Trump critic and past chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said about the former Arizona senator, who retired with an isolated anti-Trump crusade early last year.

The sense of resignation shared among some disgruntled Republicans is built, at least partially, on recent history. Early in the presidential cycle, so-called NeverTrump Republicans were not able to woo a single marquee challenger into primarying the president, with Kasich and others passing on the opportunity.

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford ran in the GOP primary for a short time before abandoning his run in November, leaving Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld as the most prominent remaining options. Both failed to gain much traction or sway any prominent current GOP office holders to their cause.

“This is about killing the alligator closest to the boat,” said Rick Tyler, who served as Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) communications director during his 2016 presidential campaign. “People say how can you support Biden? The alligator that’s going to kill us is the closest one, and that’s Trump,” he said.

“I don’t want Biden to be president. I don’t want Trump to be president,” he added. “Am I willing to have Biden be president so Trump won’t be president? You’re damn right I am.”

Are there as many progressive Democrats saying "I don’t want Trump to be president. I don’t want Biden to be president. Am I willing to have Trump be president so Biden won’t be president? You’re damn right I am." I doubt it... but there are certainly some. Which reminds me... once Biden has his Republicans-For-Biden operation up and running, will he try to cobble together a Progressives-For-Biden operation too? I guess he could lasso some make-believe "progressives" to join, like Hakeem Jeffries or other Congressional Progressive Caucus not-really-progressive members like Donald Norcross (NJ), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Gil Cisneros (CA), Don Beyer (VA), Jimmy Panetta (CA), Grace Meng (NY), Brendan Boyle (PA), Juan Vargas (CA), Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Andy Kim (NJ), Angie Craig (MN), Joe Morelle (NY), Adam Smith (WA), Lacy Clay (MO), Darren Soto (FL) and Frank Pallone (NJ).

He Thinks He's A Democrat Now-- But Until He Understands AOC, He Never Will Be

Aaron Price used to be a Republican political consultant. In January he wrote about why he had decided to leave the GOP and become, more or less, a Democrat. He admits, though, he hasn't changed any of his core political beliefs. He's still a Republican-- just wearing a "D" next to his name until Trump is gone... like half the talking heads you see on MSNBC. He voted for McCain and Romney but says he misses Obama now. His favorite member of Congress is Justin Amash and his vision of the Democratic Party is the Yang Gang. Now he wants to tell Democrats that need to be exactly like pre-Trump Republicans. Let's face it, if a #NeverTrump Republicans claims to be a Democrat and then hates what Bernie and Elizabeth Warren stand for, they're still just a #NeverTrump Republican-- especially if they're still quoting Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek. Which do you think will happen first-- Cheri Bustos recruits him to run for Congress or MSNBC gives him an afternoon slot?

I don’t have the wisdom, or wit, of George Will. I’m not a defecting GOP Congressman. Nor State Representative. Not even a retired party elder saying what others won’t.

But, I’m not politically apathetic. I was a door knocker for a Republican congresswoman. I interned for the GOP get out the vote effort in 2004. I had a leadership position in College Republicans. More recently, as a lawyer and political consultant, I helped elect numerous Republicans in four states while flipping the State House in one and the State Senate in another.

On paper, I’m that “5 for 5” primary voter, that steadfast party loyalist politics is built on-- and I’m leaving the Republican Party.

That discrepancy, between paper and reality, is just one of those contradictions that defines modern American life. I’m a well-educated straight white man from one of the whitest, and politically reddest, states in the country. I regularly (okay, semi-regularly) attend church. My wife is one of our deacons. I’m a small business owner who, without exaggeration, would likely have to close our business upon the passage of progressive policies.

My family tree is more military than civilian. After 22 years in the Marine Corps, my father told me that one of his only career regrets was that he retired in early 1993 instead of a tad sooner. He wanted George H.W. Bush to have signed his papers instead of Bill Clinton.

Both my parents are Republicans.

I’m privileged. Those same parents, still married, have worked hard to improve their economic circumstances throughout my life. At every turn, like their parents before them, they have sacrificed to help me do the same.

Even when we had very little money, they spent time and energy teaching me, supporting me, and ensuring I was taken care of. My wife’s parents fit that same mold.

We’ve worked long hours to build a stable life for our family (and we’ve got a seemingly endless distance yet to go)-- but I’ve never quite had to face the economic, systemic, or prejudicial obstacles that others have. I’ve been able to do it all with the belief that, no matter what, everything will be OK. I’ve had a personal safety net of support-- emotional and financial-- that many others don’t.

I’m a father. A dad who loves data. Is that a dadatician? Wocka wocka! (My kids are 2 and 4 so I’m working on my dad jokes.)

Like my parents, and every other parent I know, I want my kids to grow up in a world that is better than the one I grew up in. I want them to have a shot at a better life and a better America.

And, as I look at the data-- that’s becoming increasingly unlikely. The joint combination of the GOP’s eroding principles and the U.S.’s emerging challenges has pushed me to the point of switching parties.

Somehow, without trying and while avoiding it as long as possible, I’ve become a Democrat.

I’m not quite comfortable in my new political skin. I struggle with the idea of joining a party I disagree with rhetorically, and in some ways, culturally. Where I do rhetorically relate, I disagree with their ideas. I’m not sure I can support many of their candidates outright-- but you’re welcome to join me on the Yang Gang.

I haven’t changed my core beliefs and Justin Amash (also no longer a Republican) remains one of my favorite members of Congress. But, even if they differ only in scope or scale, the partisan distinctions of old seem more like a relic of time gone by than a prescription for the future.

The world has changed, or is changing, and it seems that many of our core economic assumptions just don’t fit the challenges that lie before us.

I didn’t “choose” the Democratic Party. I still believe that most of their proposed solutions evince a fundamental misunderstanding of both economics and business. I believe that most of their ideas come with dark unintended consequences that will harm the very people they seek to help. But in the end, I’d rather debate the people whose hearts are in the right place than those whose heads are in the sand.

And so to the extent there is a “choosing,” I’m sandwiched between what I believe to be bad ideas and an intellectually bankrupt opposition that increasingly has no ideas at all.

I tried to describe the modern GOP platform. I thought it might help me figure out why I don’t feel at home anymore. The problem? I have no idea what it is.

I’m not sure the GOP actually has a real platform outside of “Making America Great Again” or combining increased governmental borrowing with tax cuts and increased military spending. It has a policy agenda dead set on short term gain for a specific subset of people.

It’s willingly blind to the troubles we increasingly face.

I’ve got a brand new mascot for the Grand Old Party.

As long as the stock market is high there won’t be nary a peep about how everyday people are increasingly squeezed by the rising combined cost of housing, healthcare, fuel, and food.

As long as unemployment remains low you won’t hear about under-employment. Nor are there proposals to deal with the consequences of automation. Their plan to address globalization seems to be demonizing everyone else around the globe.

The President doesn’t really have a foreign policy. The party doesn’t really have a backbone, so it doesn’t have one either. But hey, we abandoned the Kurds for no strategic gain and we just took one more step towards war.

There’s no real plan to control healthcare costs.

They aren’t small government conservatives anymore-- they’ve voted for increased spending at every turn.

They aren’t no one’s above the law anti-elitists-- they turn a blind-eye to the President’s increasing corruption and profiteering.

They aren’t in favor of free-trade and free-markets-- they gleefully support tariffs that are hurting America more than anyone else.

To make matters worse, the Republican Party has not only abandoned its core conservative principles but has seemingly abandoned reality.

Just two years ago a slew of respected conservative economists and advisors argued that:

The opposition of many Republicans to meaningfully address climate change reflects poor science and poor economics, and is at odds with the party’s own noble tradition of stewardship.

Does it feel like we’ve made any headway since then? Nope. The administration is, instead, scrubbing the words from its website.

The party that routinely mocked liberals for their “bleeding hearts” has emotionally chosen to ignore the facts.

It shouldn’t have to feel like pulling teeth to get someone to acknowledge that:

• Having the highest incarceration rate in the world is both unnecessary and shameful.
• The war on drugs has failed.
• Our complicated, government-driven, and anti-competitive healthcare system is more expensive and less universal than every other developed nation.
• Increased immigration has been good for the economy and helped limit the impact of our aging population.
• We are underspending on infrastructure and accruing huge liabilities via deferred maintenance.
• We have too much rent-seeking, regulatory capture, and corruption.
• The 2018 tax cuts did not “pay for themselves” and have only increased deficit spending.
• Climate change is real. This one is particularly vexing-- have modern Republicans just stopped going outside these last few years?

It gets even worse when shifting from policy and cost to principles and character.

Can you imagine the outrage if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election then didn’t divest conflicts of interest and let Chelsea Clinton control her finances? If it was patently obvious that the President and her family were profiting off the presidency itself?

At virtually every turn, the President has sought to advance his own interest through his office and at the expense of anyone in his way. As long as they get the judges they want, I guess the GOP won’t do a thing to stop him.

Sure, just like President Trump, AOC shares a shocking proclivity to bend facts and attack anyone who challenges her. Elizabeth Warren’s most well-known plan is to replicate European failure. Bernie Sanders doesn’t acknowledge either the lessons learned from failed socialist states or the free-market and free-trade reforms of his Nordic examples. I’ve got a lot of issues with these three, but that’s for a different piece.

For me, what it comes down to is this:

Democrats paint with too broad of brush. They’re every bit as partisan. They have their own issues with ideology-- including a problem with large centralized businesses but a blind spot for an increasingly large and centralized government.

They speak holistically and evaluate their plans in isolation. Their economics can be shaky. Their evidence untested.

And yet...

The evidence regarding the problems they are trying to solve is quite real. They have legitimate debates about solutions.

The Republicans can’t participate in those debates because they won’t acknowledge underlying facts. Despite growing consensus and mounting evidence on a number of fronts, the Republicans have seemingly become deniers in every degree. In some cases, the GOP has led an all out assault on science, facts, and truth.

Shouldn’t we have:

• A system of shared prosperity with a broad social safety net, including some type of universal healthcare.
• A restrained and engaging foreign policy that responds to global trends, ensures peace, and protects the environment.
• A morally just and inviting immigration policy that benefits the economy and promotes the “American Dream.”
• A society where we have access to clean air, clean water, and public land.
• A government that roots out corruption, prosecutes corporate crime, and preserves the free market.
• An economy that promotes entrepreneurship while also endeavoring to protect those most harmed by the transition to an information age.
• A plan to reform the criminal justice system, end mass incarceration, and begin repairing the damage done by Jim Crow laws and modern segregation.
• A modern tax system that isn’t rigged in favor of the rich and powerful.
• An upgrade to our declining infrastructure and more investment in research with broad public application but little private incentive to pursue.

Ultimately, I don’t think any of these ideas are that controversial. Or at least they shouldn’t be.

What's In Your Wallet?

Republicans once advocated for free trade, free markets, environmental conservation, universal basic incomes, increased immigration, and pathways to citizenship. They were civil libertarians concerned with abuses of police power and skeptical of foreign interventionism. They funded and advanced infrastructure projects.

Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize winning economist and adviser to Ronald Reagan, once wrote:

Suppose one accepts, as I do, this line of reasoning as justifying governmental action to alleviate poverty; to set, as it were, a floor under the standard of living of every person in the community.

What did F.A. Hayek, conservative stalwart and another Nobel Prize winner, think?

The assurance of a certain minimum income for everyone, or a sort of floor below which nobody need fall even when he is unable to provide for himself, appears not only to be a wholly legitimate protection against a common risk to all, but a necessary part of a Great Society...

They weren’t alone. Richard Nixon almost implemented a basic income in 1969. Who oversaw his initial UBI experiments? Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

Teddy Roosevelt’s legacy is one great quote and 230 million acres of public land. Dwight Eisenhower helped create interstate highways. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Its not just social issues either. Which party do you hear talk about corruption and the rules of the game? Which one is concerned with combating technical monopolies? Which wants to evaluate our systems as we enter the information age?

We’ve somehow reached the point where anyone who reads the above largely assumes I’m a dyed-in-the-wool liberal.

These ideas have not just fallen out of Republican favor, but the very ideas underlying them have fallen out of the Republican platform.

Leaving the GOP is easy.

But, what do you do when you agree with one party’s premises while abhorring their conclusions? When the other isn’t premised on much of anything? If you don’t want to end up independently irrelevant, where do you go?

Someday the Democratic Party might split and we’ll see the rise of a moderate/centrist party focused on practical solutions to everyday problems instead of using them to pursue broad ideological agenda. It can be home to independents as well as disaffected Ds and Rs.

Until then, whether I’ve intentionally chosen them or not-- I guess these are my people now.

I removed Yang for him-- and replaced him with Bloomberg

So here I am. A Democrat. I’m uncomfortable but I’m OK.

That’s more than I can say for the party I called home. The party of the free-market, checks and balances, the rule of law, principles and restraint-- the party acutely aware of the corrupting power of government-- abandoned all of that in blind loyalty to an authoritarian strongman and a small cadre of crony corporatists getting rich at our expense.

That’s just not a party I can be party to.