Do You Hate Trump? There's Someone Worse Who Might Be Elected President By The Trumpist Base, The Hobbits

Obama made it look like being president was so easy that anyone could do it. It's not and they can't. Seeing Trump win, makes every rich asshole think anyone can become president. Let's hope that isn't true either. How are you going to find a more attracting, if not attractive, headline than Is Steve Bannon Running For President? That's Gabe Sherman's title for his Vanity Fair feature this week. Sherman took a whirlwind tour around the globe with Bannon in November. It started in Tokyo where Bannon delivered a hard-edged anti-China speech at a conference for human-rights activists. "I’m not really a human-rights guy. But this is a chance to talk to them about populism." Bannon travels with an entourage, including an ex-Navy Seal body guard. He flies first class and stays in ultra-expensive 5 star hotels.

At his Tokyo event he told the crowd that "The elites in our country have been under a very false premise that as China became more prosperous and economically developed that there would be an underlying increase in democracy. What we found out over the last decades is the exact opposite has happened... The question has to be asked: Are the elites in the United States that stupid? Did they not sit there year after year after year and not understand what is going on? Or was something else going on? Were these elites either bought off or did they just look the other way? That question is going to have to be answered."

Bannon’s core message-- a clueless, corrupt ruling class (many of whom, of course, reside in blue states) has sold out American workers to a hegemonic China, and it’s up to a vanguard to take our country back before the world tips toward cataclysm-- is the same, whether he’s speaking to Alabamian Roy Moore voters or Chinese dissidents. But he adjusts his vocabulary to fit his audience-- here in Tokyo, he was in full prophetic mode.

Bannon is a voracious reader, who sometimes stays up until dawn powering through books, obscure journals, and news articles, scrawling notes in a pocket-size green diary as he goes (during our trip he used downtime to read a Robespierre biography). This was evident as he freestyled about Hillary Clinton, the opposition party media, artificial intelligence, Thucydides, Hollywood, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, the opioid crisis, Boeing jets, Brown University, Brexit, the Cloud, the Civil War, the Peloponnesian War, the American Revolution, the Great Depression, Churchill, Napoleon, Hitler, and J.D. Vance. “It’s not going to be O.K.,” he concluded ominously. “The world is on a knife’s edge. We have what I call a long, dark valley ahead, like the 1930s.”

The message is that the world needs saving-- but who’s going to save it? Looking around, it’s not hard to see Steve Bannon’s best answer. Four months ago, Bannon was a supporting player, with a whiteboard and telephone. Now he’s made himself the star-- not only the chief strategist but in many ways the candidate, the frontman of his own movement. With his motorcade, retinue of advisers, and security men, his Asia trip was a mirror of President Trump’s.

When he left the White House in August, Bannon said, “the Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.” In private, Bannon told people he was disillusioned with Trump’s shambolic governing style. Trump, in turn, sees Bannon as a self-promoter. “The president views Steve as just a guy who works for him,” a White House official said. “Especially in light of recent news, for the country, the president’s best decision was firing James Comey. His second best decision was firing Steve Bannon, bar none.”

While the two men harbor contempt for each other that can ignite into rage, they can’t quit each other, either. Since Bannon left the West Wing, he’s had eight phone calls with Trump, most initiated by the president, according to a White House official. “The few conversations Steve and the president have had since he was fired this summer have primarily been opportunities for Steve to beg for his job back,” said the White House official. A Bannon spokesperson countered, “anyone around Steve since he left the White House can see he is very happy now out of the White House!

Bannon insists that his real opponent is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “The G.O.P. establishment, as personified by Mitch McConnell, has not done a good job supporting the president’s agenda,” Bannon told me. During a recent speech he declared a “season of war” on the G.O.P. and he is drafting insurgent candidates to challenge seven of eight G.O.P. senators up for election in 2018. Bannon’s war is just ramping up. Through his nonprofit, Government Accountability Institute, he’s planning to release a Clinton Cash-style book that takes aim at the G.O.P. establishment in general and McConnell in particular.

The primary insurgents Bannon has tried to recruit, dubbed “The League of Extraordinary Candidates” by Breitbart, is a ragtag band including former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward; Blackwater founder Erik Prince; mega-donor Foster Friess; and Danny Tarkanian, son of U.N.L.V. basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, all of whom inarguably fall far short of Bannon’s stated populist principles.

And now Roy Moore’s Alabama Senate candidacy was threatening to implode. When I met Bannon at John F. Kennedy Airport, an hour before boarding the Tokyo flight, he’d turned the first-class lounge into a makeshift war room. A few days earlier, the Washington Post published allegations that Moore had pursued romantic and sexual relationships with teenagers in the 1970s while he was an assistant district attorney. One woman told the paper he molested her when she was 14-- and he was 32. Moore’s initial response had been a disaster. He came across as evasive during a radio interview with Sean Hannity. A chorus of Senate Republicans, led by McConnell, were calling on Moore to end his campaign; the Republican National Committee severed all fund-raising ties. Most worrisome for Bannon, the White House put out a statement that Moore should leave the race if the allegations were true.

The situation, and the various arrayed forces for and against Moore, closely resembled two earlier crises Bannon had weathered with Trump: the release of the Billy Bush tape and the aftermath of the white nationalist march in Charlottesville. In both, Trump ultimately followed Bannon’s tactical playbook-- doubling down at all costs-- with large success in the first instance and a highly questionable result in the second.

Bannon huddled over his BlackBerry firing off e-mails to Breitbart reporters he’d dispatched to Alabama to discredit the Post story. “I got my two best guys down there,” he said while waiting for Moore campaign chairman Bill Armistead to call. Bannon’s orders: deny, deny, deny. “One of the things I realized during the campaign is that, like in the military, it all comes down to one or two decisions in the heat of battle,” he said. “You have to double down.” In Moore, he knew he had a less capable candidate. (His first choice had been Alabama congressman Mo Brooks.) “I’m gonna tell Judge Moore to do his thing,” Bannon said. “They’re not cut out for this, though.”

Bannon let the White House know that he wanted Trump to back Moore. But Trump seemed reluctant at first. White House political director Bill Stepien reportedly told Trump to stay out of the race. The conventional wisdom was becoming that Moore was done, and that Bannon was wrong this time.

Bannon's frenetic pace is part of his strategy. “I realized if you’re not out there for the hobbits, you’re not in their lives,” Bannon said, using his affectionate moniker for Trump voters. During the week I traveled with him from New York to Tokyo to South Florida, for what was Bannon’s first major profile since leaving the White House, he made a half dozen speeches to conservative groups, hosted Breitbart’s talk-radio show, and helped market a new biography Bannon: Always the Rebel. Inside the right-wing echo chamber, Bannon is lionized as a conquering folk hero. Well-wishers flock to snap selfies, press the flesh. At one event I chatted with an elderly man waiting his turn on the receiving line. “If I could ask him one question, it would be, why aren’t you president?’”
That has at least been a passing thought. In October, Bannon called an adviser and said he would consider running for president if Trump doesn’t run for re-election in 2020. Which Bannon has told people is a realistic possibility. In private conversations since leaving the White House, Bannon said Trump only has a 30 percent chance of serving out his term, whether he’s impeached or removed by the Cabinet invoking the 25th amendment. That prospect seemed to become more likely in early December when special counsel Robert Mueller secured a plea deal from former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Bannon has also remarked on the toll the office has taken on Trump, telling advisers his former boss has “lost a step.” “He’s like an 11-year-old child,” Bannon joked to a friend in November.

While Bannon praised Trump during our conversations-- he said he’s the best orator since William Jennings Bryan-- he doesn’t deny he was unhappy in the White House. “It was always a job,” he said. “I realize in hindsight I was just a staffer, and I’m not a good staffer. I had influence, I had a lot of influence, but just influence.” He told me he now feels liberated. “I have power. I can actually drive things in a certain direction."

Not surprisingly, the idea of Bannon as a political figure, let alone a presidential candidate, inspires ridicule and venom from the Republican establishment. The Wall Street Journal editorial page called Bannon’s roster of candidates a bunch of “cranks and outliers.” Former McConnell chief of staff Josh Holmes said Bannon is a “white supremacist.” Stuart Stevens, a veteran of five Republican presidential campaigns, told me that Bannon is “an odd, strangely repulsive figure who is trying to use the political process to work through personal issues of anger and frustration.” He added, “like many people in their first campaign, he confused his candidate winning with the fantasy voters supported him.”

Bannon is even less popular with voters than McConnell

A prominent Republican described Bannon’s crusade as a vanity exercise doomed to fail. “I think there was a lot of rage when he was in the White House,” the Republican said. “Steve had to subsume his ego to Donald, who Steve thinks is dumb and crazy. With Steve, it’s not about building new things-- it’s about destroying the old. I’m not sure he knows what he wants.” As evidence, he pointed out the recent Virginia governor’s race, where Republican Ed Gillespie got crushed by nine points running on a Bannon-esque platform defending Confederate monuments and inciting fear over illegal immigrant crime. “The issues didn’t just fail, they failed miserably,” the Republican said.

...Billy Bush Weekend cemented Bannon’s bond with Trump. But when Trump became Mr. President-Elect, on another plane, the relationship became much more complicated. Trump was deeply galled that the media portrayed Bannon as the wizard behind the curtain. “I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump told the New York Post. “I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve. I’m my own strategist.” (In fact, Trump had known Bannon since 2011). In July, Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Joshua Green published a best-selling book, Devil’s Bargain, that gave a substantial amount of credit for Trump’s win and overall vision to Bannon. Trump tweeted in response: “I love reading about all of the ‘geniuses’ who were so instrumental in my election success. Problem is, most don’t exist. #Fake News! MAGA...”

Meanwhile, Trumpworld, which had been unified by the shared goal of defeating Hillary Clinton, cleaved into warring factions within hours of Trump’s unexpected win. On election night, Bannon said he disagreed with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump over the content of Trump’s victory speech. Kushner and Ivanka wanted it to strike a tone of unity, whereas Bannon wanted to keep up the attack. “I didn’t think it was the right time to talk about uniting,” he said. “I think some of that stuff comes off as phony.”

The battle intensified in the White House. On one side was a group of advisers Bannon dismissively dubbed “the Democrats,” comprising Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Gary Cohn, and Dina Powell. On the other were the nationalists: Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, Sebastian Gorka, and Peter Navarro (Kushner’s camp called them “the crazies” or “Breitbart”).

The nationalists prevailed in the early days of the administration, as Trump signed a flurry of executive orders on trade and regulations from a list of campaign promises Bannon had scrawled on a whiteboard in his West Wing office. “You had to be a disruptor and keep people on their back heels. That’s why we were doing three E.O.s a day,” Bannon explained. “I told Reince that if you slow down, they’ll pick us apart with the palace intrigue stuff, which is what they really want to write.”

On the afternoon of Friday, January 27, the White House announced a travel ban barring immigrants from eight Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, including all Syrian refugees. It sparked protests at airports nationwide. Bannon explained this was by design. “Why did we drop the travel ban on a Friday evening? Because the resistance is our friend,” he told me. “Our thing is to throw gasoline on the resistance. I love it. When they”-- the Democrats-- “talk about identity politics, they’re playing into our hands. Because you can’t win [elections] on that.” I asked Bannon about the charges he’s cultivated white supremacist groups. “These guys are beyond clowns,” he said. “It’s the left media that makes them relevant because 25 of them show up, and it’s like a hundred cameras. They’re losers."

The backlash to the travel ban proved to be a political and legal disaster for the White House and Bannon’s standing in it. As courts blocked the ban and Trump’s poll numbers sank to historic lows, Bannon’s enemies, led by Kushner, moved to marginalize him. (Bannon aided Kushner’s cause by installing himself on the National Security Council, which infuriated Trump, the White House official said.) To Bannon, a former Naval officer who worked his way into Harvard Business School and Goldman Sachs, Kushner was a callow elitist in way over his head. “He doesn’t know anything about the hobbits or the deplorables,” Bannon said. “The railhead of all bad decisions is the same railhead: Javanka.” According to a person close to Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law viewed Bannon as a leaker at best, and a racist at worst.

Any chance of Bannon and Kushner salvaging a working relationship collapsed over Kushner’s role in the decision that many see as the possible linchpin of Trump’s downfall. In early May, Bannon and Kushner tangled over Trump’s plan to fire F.B.I. director James Comey.

Over the weekend of May 6 and 7, Bannon was in Washington when Kushner, Ivanka, and Stephen Miller accompanied Trump to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the decision to fire Comey was finalized. The White House announced Comey’s dismissal on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 9. Bannon was furious when he found out. “It’s the dumbest political decision in modern political history, bar none. A self-inflicted wound of massive proportions,” he later said. Bannon believed the Russia collusion case was meritless, but he blamed Kushner for taking meetings during the campaign that gave the appearance the Trump team sought Putin’s help. “He’s taking meetings with Russians to get additional stuff. This tells you everything about Jared,” Bannon told me. “They were looking for the picture of Hillary Clinton taking the bag of cash from Putin. That’s his maturity level."

...In late July, Trump replaced Priebus with John Kelly and gave the retired four-star Marine general a stated mandate to bring the warring West Wing factions to heel. Among Kelly’s first orders of business was firing communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Another, according to White House officials: telling Bannon he needed to go. Bannon told me he always planned to leave by the one-year anniversary of joining Trump’s campaign, and he told Kelly on August 7 he wanted to resign.

Whatever the case, Bannon said he knew Trump might try to control the narrative of his departure, so he told Kelly not to tell Trump. But later that night, Bannon said Trump called him after learning of the decision from White House lawyer John Dowd. Bannon said he told Trump he wanted to attack his G.O.P. detractors from the outside. “I said the establishment is trying to nullify your election,” he recalls. “Forget the Democrats. We got our own thing with the three committees” investigating Russia collusion. According to Bannon, Trump was reluctant at first to let him leave. And the threat of Bannon turning Breitbart loose on Trump and his family loomed. “He was very nervous about it,” Bannon said. “He just fuckin’ knows I’m a junkyard dog, and I was pissed at the time.” Bannon said Trump told him he needed to think about it.

Trump’s instinct to stoke racial conflict delayed Bannon’s departure. During the weekend of August 12, neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting “Jews will not replace us” to protest the removal of Confederate monuments. During clashes with counter-protesters, a white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd killing a 32-year-old woman named Heather Heyer and wounding dozens. Trump fanned outrage by blaming the violence on “many sides.” Kushner and Ivanka implored him to apologize, and other members of the administration contemplated resigning. Bannon told the president on a phone call that apologizing would never satisfy the critics. “I said it’s not enough and it’s too late. Nothing you can say could be good enough.”

As the uproar over Charlottesville grew louder, Bannon quietly plotted his next move. White House officials say Bannon tried calling Trump and lobbied members of Congress to pressure Trump to change his mind. On Thursday, August 17, he held a five-hour strategy meeting with billionaire mega-donor Robert Mercer at his Long Island estate. That same day, the American Prospect published a remarkable score-settling interview Bannon had given to its editor Robert Kuttner. The fact that Bannon spoke to a magazine aligned with the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party got people’s attention. But what likely got Bannon fired were his comments that there was no military solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis. The remark sent the stock market tanking. If Trump understands one thing, it’s money, and he approved Bannon’s dismissal. That night, Bannon left his office for the last time, taking nothing with him.

When news of Bannon’s exit broke on the afternoon of Friday, August 18, he was already back to work at Breitbart’s Washington headquarters, a stately row house blocks from the Capitol known as the Breitbart Embassy. Staffers showered him with a hero’s welcome. “I don’t think Trump understands how dangerous Steve is. He just runs in and conquers shit, like Charlemagne,” a Breitbart journalist told me at the time.

That night, Bannon signaled to Trump he was going to continue the wars he waged in the West Wing from the outside. “Now I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons,” he boasted to the Weekly Standard.

...Bannon’s own transformation from political adviser to a quasi-politician has also transformed Breitbart; it’s become a site that promotes his campaign. On the day of Bannon’s Tokyo speech, his name appeared in seven different headlines on the homepage. In December, Bannon signed a deal to host Breitbart’s daily satellite radio show. His message, however, isn’t quarantined inside the right-wing media bubble. That’s because Bannon has a canny ability to cultivate mainstream journalists.

...The siege on Roy Moore’s campaign continued. The previous day, Ivanka Trump told the Associated Press “there’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children.” Bannon was incredulous she’d make the comment. “What about the allegations about her dad and that 13-year-old?” he said, referring to the California woman who alleged Trump raped her when she was a teen (the suit has since been dropped.) “Ivanka was a fount of bad advice during the campaign.”

Bannon was eager to get Trump on the phone. He told me Trump’s presidency was at stake. His theory was that, if McConnell succeeded in forcing Moore out, it would open Trump up to having every sexual harassment and assault allegation against him relitigated in the court of public opinion. “It’s a firebreak,” he later said.

Bannon’s eyes were circled with dark rings and his ruddy nose was approaching Rudolph-level red. But on his campaign schedule there was no time to slow down. We climbed into a pair of black Suburbans and rolled out.

An hour later Bannon boarded a Hawker 850 private jet at Teterboro Airport bound for Florida. He was due in Palm Beach to deliver a keynote speech at Restoration Weekend, the annual gathering of right-wingers hosted by former New-Leftist-turned-conservative provocateur David Horowitz. “The thing about Restoration Weekend,” Bannon had told me earlier, “is you got a lot of Jewish Palm Beach matrons who used to be superhot. They were all left-wing in the 60s. That was before they locked down successful Palm Beach business guys. Now they’re hardcore. You half expect them to throw their panties at Horowitz. They’re all Trump people.”

A pilot climbed aboard and sealed up the door. “We got a planeload of patriots,” he said.

The engines whirred, and as we taxied towards the runway, Bannon explained why, despite his competition with Trump, he needs to defend him at all costs. “Trump’s at war with the permanent political class in D.C. I have this whole theory about the nullification of the 2016 election by the Democrats, the opposition party and the Republican establishment,” he said. “Can you believe they had that Senate committee meeting that talked about the president’s ability to use nuclear weapons? It’s unreal!”

Once we’re airborne I asked Bannon how the presidency had changed Trump. “He’s much more moderate,” Bannon said, sipping a Fiji water. “He’s an accommodationist. Trump’s tendency is to always get Maggie Haberman in there. He reads the New York Times. To him that’s the paper of record.” For a presidency defined by Twitter, Bannon said Trump has a limited grasp of new media. “He doesn’t go online. That’s a huge thing. I mean Orrin Hatch”-- who’s 83-- “goes online! Trump reads printouts.”

Bannon paused and looked out the window. “I was born down there,” he said, pointing at the hazy Virginia coastline below.

Bannon’s blue-collar upbringing and conservative Catholic faith undergird his populist ideas. He argues that his platform of economic nationalism has been misrepresented by critics that label it racist. Cutting immigration and erecting trade barriers will help people of color by tightening the labor market, thereby raising wages. In the White House, he argued to increase tax rates on the wealthy and has problems with the G.O.P. tax plan (although he ultimately supports it). Bannon also argued to end the country’s decades-long entanglement in Afghanistan and spend the money at home. “You could rebuild America! Do you understand what Baltimore and St. Louis and these places would look like?” And he told me he thinks the government should regulate Google and Facebook like public utilities. “They’re too powerful. I want to make sure their data is a public trust. The stocks would drop two-thirds in value.”

Raheem Kassam, a former adviser to Nigel Farage who now edits Breitbart London and travels in Bannon’s entourage, told me, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bannon and Bernie campaigning together in a couple years."

There’s not much evidence that that notion is more than a fantasy. Not only because of Bannon’s pariah status on the left, but also because it’s difficult to reconcile Bannon’s homilies about helping minorities with a worldview that America is a Western European, Judeo-Christian culture that must close its borders and build a wall at a time when the immigrants are brown-skinned people. “My theory, our philosophy, is that we’re more than an economy. It’s one of the reasons the Republicans and the Paul Ryans of the world and Paul Singers got off track with this Ayn Rand Austrian economics where everything’s about the economy. Well, it’s not the economy. We’re a civic society with borders and values.”

When he’s talking up the virtues of strengthening civic bonds he sounds like Robert Putnam. But Bannon’s Breitbart mobilizes its readers by taunting the left, and can often seem to be the entirety of his program. Rage-stoking is not populism, and politicians Bannon has backed mainly seem interested in pissing off liberals, rather than passing legislation that fundamentally makes America a more equitable society. After all, before Bannon found Trump, there was Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

Bannon said his candidates aren’t wing nuts, they’re just regular people. “They’re not blow-dries,” he said. “I don’t want the Marco Rubios that have been in the R.N.C. since they were 9 years old with a briefcase. It’s all bullshit. Our guys can be a little rough around the edges. They’re gonna say some crazy shit, O.K. You know why? Because people are going to identify this guy’s real and he’s a fighter."

...Moore’s loss further damaged Bannon’s standing with Trump. “The president was annoyed Steve lost the Alabama seat to a Democrat because Steve thought he was a big shot,” a White House official told me. Meanwhile, Bannon’s critics gleefully framed Alabama as proof that Bannon’s political acumen has been vastly overstated. “Mr. Bannon is for losers,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote. Steven Law, the head of the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, released a statement: “Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the president of the United States into his fiasco.”

Two days after Moore’s defeat, I met Bannon for breakfast in New York before he headed back to Tokyo to give another anti-China speech. A bearded bodyguard sat nearby with a pistol tucked into his waistband. Despite the setback, Bannon was in high spirits. “Dude you don’t know the firestorm that’s coming,” he said, picking over a crumb muffin and sipping coffee. “The civil war will go to an even higher, more intense level.” Bannon said McConnell, in his machinations against Moore, revealed that G.O.P. elites are aligned with Democrats against the deplorables. “The G.O.P. establishment would rather have control and give up seats to the radical progressive left."

He insisted his Senate candidates in 2018 will be fully vetted to avoid another Moore. He pointed out Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, and Kevin Nicholson, an Iraq combat veteran with degrees from Dartmouth and Harvard Business School, who’s running in Wisconsin. As we talked, news broke that Paul Ryan is possibly not going to run for re-election in 2018. Bannon saw this as another victory, a sign that the field was tilting in his favor. Bannon said his allies in the House Freedom Caucus will have “a huge role” in picking the next speaker.

And Trump, having flirted with the establishment, has come home. Since Charlottesville, Trump has governed almost exclusively for Bannon’s base. For all the tsuris Bannon causes the president, the two need each other. “He momentarily has lapses when he’s convinced by people around him in the White House to do ridiculous things like support Big Luther Strange, another genius move by Jared,” Bannon said. “But look at how many things he approved right after Alabama to get us back on board. I think the establishment has to understand something. Their day of running the Republican Party is over."

Moore’s defeat could well be the Waterloo of Bannon’s movement, though it’s far too soon to tell. In his view of history, it’s always 1933, but he projects an unrelenting optimism about his own future and those of his projects. It’s a salesman’s gift, one he shares with Trump. Create enough chaos, and the world will re-align. Or it won’t.

As the White House sinks deeper into scandal, along with Roy Moore’s crushing defeat, it’s hard not to see Trump and Bannon as survivors huddled together on a shrinking spit of dry land. Meanwhile, with 2018 looming, even Bannon recognizes the Democrats’ growing strength. “The reason the Democrats did so well in Virginia is because they’re angry. Anger gets people to do things. I admire that,” he said.

During one conversation this fall, Bannon seemed to accept that his campaign might not succeed. But he said people are mistaken if they equate losing elections with failure. “I’m not a political operative,” he said, “I’m a revolutionary."

Who's More Damaging To GOP Candidates-- Trump, Ryan, McConnell Or Moore?

The other day, in talking about the immense value to Randy Bryce the Bernie Sanders endorsement was. I mentioned in passing how toxic most political endorsements are. No Democrats want endorsements from party leaders like Pelosi, Hoyer, Crowley or Wasserman Schultz. And in Republicanville, who would want an endorsement from, for example, Paul Ryan? He's like an anchor around the necks of Republican incumbents and candidates. I used as an example rubber stamp Ryan worshipper in Houston, John Culberson. Ryan's disapproval rating among voters in TX-07 are so high, they are helping to tank Culberson. And that's pretty typical nationally. And Mitch McConnell's favorables are even worse. As Kevin Robillard reported for Politico Saturday, Republicans are doing whatever it takes to distance themselves from the Senate Majority Leader.

Normal people detest him for what's he's doing and Trump supporters detest him for not doing more of it faster. "Nobody," wrote Robillard, "wants to be on Team McConnell. Heading into the 2018 elections, only one Republican Senate candidate nationwide has pledged unequivocally to back Mitch McConnell as majority leader. Most Republicans facing competitive primaries are hemming and hawing, admiring McConnell’s political savvy and fundraising apparatus-- but also looking warily at his sinking approval ratings both with Republicans and the broader electorate. Even in some of the red and purple states represented by Democratic senators where McConnell is hoping to pad his majority-- places like Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin-- the leading candidates are dodging questions about McConnell's leadership or threatening to oppose him if the GOP Congress doesn't deliver on the party's legislative priorities in the coming months." Much like Pelosi does, McConnell has given GOP candidates permission to crap on him if it helps them win. Corey Stewart (VA), Sandy Pensler (MI), Roy Moore (AL), Danny Tarkanian (NV), Kelli Ward (AZ), Kevin Nicholson (WI) and Leah Vukmir (WI)-- all long shots who are unlikely to ever get a chance vote for or against McConnell-- have all been publicly attacking him.

McConnell’s political allies insist they’ve seen all this before, and they are ready to fight it. Past insurgent Republican campaigns have run television ads bashing McConnell, only to lose in GOP primaries anyway. Candidates distancing themselves from party leaders in Washington, they argue, is now standard practice and smart politics.

Bannon and his allies instead see evidence of McConnell’s ineffectiveness and unpopularity.

“Why are Republicans candidates tweeting out selfies with Steve Bannon, while at the same time doing everything they can to publicly distance themselves from McConnell?” Andy Surabian, a top aide to Bannon, asked rhetorically. “Because they know that McConnell is an albatross, not only in GOP primaries, but more importantly in general elections.”

The electorate hates Congress but McConnell is considerably more unpopular than Schumer, Ryan or Pelosi. Roy Moore is banking on him being unpopular enough to base much of his campaign on attacking McConnell. If he wins (again) it will be a bad omen for McConnell's ability to remain as GOP Senate leader. Moore is actually popular with Republicans-- and not just in Alabama. He has come to personify their sense of grievance and their feelings of martyrdom. The general election voters-- which include Democrats and, more importantly, independents, absolutely hates Moore and sees him for exactly what he is. And Republican candidates are being asked to take a stand on him in races everywhere. In primary races they can't be too harsh but if they're not, general election voters will associate them with a sociopathic child molester.

As Alex Seitz-Wald reported for NBC News, "Democrats are hard at work pressing the issue, dusting off the 2012 playbook they used to make former GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin toxic to candidates across the country."

"There has to be clarity by all candidates about the issue of sexual harassment and specifically about the candidacy of Roy Moore," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, told NBC News.

After scoring an unexpected suburbs-fueled landslide in Virginia's election this month, Democratic officials and party strategists think Moore will be especially radioactive with suburban women.

The Democratic opposition research group American Bridge launched digital ads Wednesday attacking GOP Senate candidates about Moore in Arizona and Ohio, and was already running one in Nevada.



"Not only is the Roy Moore scandal hurting Republicans of all stripes, especially those who have been silent on Moore, but it's also exacerbating the GOP civil war between the establishment and the Bannon wing of the party," said American Bridge spokesperson Allison Teixeira Sulier.

"The GOP owns Moore, his scandals and his backwards beliefs," Sulier added. "And in the same way that Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock dragged their party down, Moore will, too."

A few months after Akin made headlines for talking about "legitimate rape" in Missouri, Indiana Senate candidate Mourdock handed more ammunition to Democrats when he defended his strict pro-life stance by saying pregnancy resulting in rape is "something that God intended to happen."

Democrats used Aiken and Mourdock in races in other states to portray other Republican candidates as extreme.

In Michigan, where Democrats are defending Sen. Debbie Stabenow's seat, Democratic Party Chair Brandon Dillon slammed both of the GOP candidates in the race for failing to "show the bare minimum of decency and leadership" by speaking out strongly against Moore.

Concern about collateral damage helps explain why one of the most forceful voices against Moore among Senate Republicans has been the chairman of their campaign arm, Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who vowed the Senate should expel Moore if he wins.

...Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), who has represented the state for 30 years, said on Wednesday that he's preparing to vote for a write-in candidate over Moore in the Dec. 12 election.

Asked by NBC News if Moore is damaging the GOP brand nationally, Shelby didn’t hesitate: "Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that's on everybody's mind.

The Trump Wing Has Found Its Scapegoat-- And It's A Turtle

Fox was the only news channel not reporting on the tremendous losses the Republicans suffered on Tuesday-- not just in Virginia and New Jersey but, down ballot, in every state that held an election. No mention of Trump cronies like that crazy mayor in in Brook Park Ohio and Rob Astorino, one of Trump's closest friend in politics, who Bannon and Mercer just spent a million dollars trying to save-- and failed miserably. In his latest interview with Hannity, Bannon went so far as to imply that Tuesday was a day of GOP victories. He quickly turned his frustration and ire against the pathetic Turtle (R-KY) instead, demanding McConnell resign immediately ("tonight," he demanded at the end of the segment). Bannon immediately started whining about "the donor class" (the biggest right-wing donor is hedge fund criminal Robert Mercer, Bannon's sugar daddy) and "especially Mitch McConnell."

I tell you Sean, I’m to the point, that I think Mitch McConnell, to really bring unity to the Republican Party, and get things done, I think Mitch McConnell ought to tender his resignation... tomorrow."

And Hannity, of course, backed him up. "I agree with you on McConnell. Step up, get the job done or get out. I'm tired of it." Awwww... Sean is tired of it. Has this bum ever worked a day in his life at anything beyond flapping his gums and cashing his big checks? If you know anything about Trump, it's that he always looks for someone else to blame for his many, many shortcomings and it looks like the Trumpist, neo-fascist wing of the Republican Party has decided that the designated villain for all the failures of 2017 will be Miss McConnell (who, unfortunately, isn't up for reelection 'til 2020).

Trump was a pussy cat with China-- but he's a lion with poor Miss McConnell

Distracting From The Distractions That Distract From Other Distractions-- Paul Singer, Rubio And Bannon

Trump-world generates so much hair-on-fire news... how does anyone keep up? For example, I thought Bannon's pledge to Trump on Friday night to destroy GOP billionaire Paul Singer for financing the Steele pee-pee dossier on behalf of Marco Rubio, would be big news today. But then Trump's Kremlin-paid campaign manager Paul Manafort was indicted on 12 charges including "conspiracy against the United States" and Trump campaign advisor George Papadopolous already pled guilty to lying to the FBI about Russian interference.

Singer and his group are the single biggest contributors to the NRSC, so exactly who Bannon wants to cripple in his campaign to replace mainstream Republicans senators with fascists. Singer, a bloodthirsty vulture capitalist preying on misfortune throughout the world, is not exactly a sympathetic figure. After Singer worked to elect Rubio, then derail Trump, he contributed $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee-- money that went straight into Trump's own pockets. From the Axios report that broke the Singer-Bannon story:

Trump loathed Singer during the campaign, when the billionaire was a lead financier of the "Never Trump" movement. But the two made up earlier this year, and Singer has been financially very helpful since Trump won the presidency... Bannon has long despised Singer. In Bannon's worldview, Singer belongs to a "globalist" cabal that favors open borders and includes other bogeymen and bogeywomen such as George Soros and Hillary Clinton. It's also helpful to Bannon that Singer has close ties Mitch McConnell-- the Senate GOP leader whom Bannon is obsessed with destroying.

Breitbart has been obsessing about Singer (and Little Marco) all weekend. Want to wade through this sewage?

• 5 Times Paul Singer Funded Globalist Nonsense Before the Anti-Trump Dossier
• Anti-Trump Dossier Original Funder Paul Singer an Open Borders Establishment Republican Billionaire
• Paul Singer-Funded Washington Free Beacon Behind Initial Fusion GPS Trump Effort
• The Marco Rubio Connection: Senator Dodges Questions About Megadonor Paul Singer’s Funding of Anti-Trump Research Firm Behind Dossier

And while all this has the media's shared head exploding, Ryan and McConnell are moving to deliver on the one thing that keeps them glued to Trump: tax cuts for the billionaires (like Singer). As we pointed out on Sunday, the billionaires are threatening the abandon Trump and the GOP if they don't deliver the promised mammoth tax cuts. Ryan will unveil his final-- ever-changing-- plan on Wednesday. Ryan has been begging Trump to stop with all the twitter-feuds and distractions and just focus on the most important thing in the GOP universe: tx cuts for the rich. Trump, though, is heading for Asia for the early 2 weeks of the debate about some extremely controversial issues that the GOP needs his bold-faced lying for. They want him to keep repeating the Big Lie that the tax cuts will promote economic growth and jobs for Americans.

Ironically, when Ryan was asked if he worries that Trump will screw up the tax roll-out and tweet something insane that will blow up the whole project, Ryan's immediate response was "He’s going to be in Asia."

Key issues Ryan doesn't want Trump meddling in include the way the GOP is changing retirement planning by phasing out 401 (k) accounts, ending federal tax deductions for state and local taxes and mucking around the mortgage deductions. Trump admitted that the Republican plans are to use these popular programs as "bargaining chips." And while Trump blunders around he says if Ryan and McConnell can't get something passed-- he doesn't care what it is as long as it eliminates the estate tax-- they'll get the blame. "I’m not going to blame myself, I’ll be honest," he said oddly (since he's never honest... about anything... ever.)

Are You Rooting For Either Side In The Bitter Civil War Tearing The Republican Party Apart?

It would be hard to imagine any self-respecting DWT reader rooting for the Republican establishment-- think Paul Ryan and Miss McConnell-- who we've been fighting forever. We want them to get mauled, right? And then think of Mercer's neo-fascists led by Steve Bannon and all the scary garbage that comes with him. No one's rooting for the Nazis, right? Bannon and Mercer vs McConnell and Rove (while Ryan hides under the bed peeing in his pants and shivering)... what could go wrong? Let's hope for lots of blood. And don't kid yourself for one second... this is a fight to the death, not a kiss-and-make-up family spat.

The Washington Post has its top political journalistic brain trust on the beat: Dave Weigel, Bob Costa and Mike Scherer. And didn't they have fun on Wednesday! McConnell allies declare open warfare on Bannon. Alternative title: Bannon allies declare open warfare on Turtle. Odd, though, that McConnell, who is far less popular among the GOP base and right-ing opinion leaders than Bannon, has chosen to telegraph his intentions to the whole world.

More than a year ahead of the 2018 congressional contests, a ­super PAC aligned with McConnell (R-Ky.) revealed plans to attack Bannon personally as it works to protect GOP incumbents facing uphill primary fights. The effort reflects the growing concern of Republican lawmakers over the rise of anti-establishment forces and comes amid escalating frustration over President Trump’s conduct, which has prompted a handful of lawmakers to publicly criticize the president.

Yet the retaliatory crusade does not aim to target Trump, whose popularity remains high among Republican voters. Instead, the McConnell-allied Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) will highlight Bannon’s hard-line populism and attempt to link him to white nationalism to discredit him and the candidates he will support. It will also boost candidates with traditional GOP profiles and excoriate those tied to Bannon, with plans to spend millions and launch a heavy social media presence in some states.

So, the same team and the same tactics McConnell tried using-- unsuccessfully-- to protect swamp-creature Luther Strange from Alabama neo-Nazi Roy Moore. Maybe it will work in other states? I sincerely doubt McConnell will persuade Señor Trumpanzee to jump into the fray on his side this time. In fact, in some of these races, Trump may even come out on the sider of the Nazis, as he had planned to do in Arizona before Flake announced he was retiring. What will Trump do in Nevada? And in Wyoming? And what about in congressional districts? Th establishment candidate in State Island is incumbent Dan Donovan-- but he voted against TrumpCare-- and Bannon's candidate is Mafia thug Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, a natural Trump candidate. NY-11 was the only congressional district in NYC where Trump won. He beat Hillary by a pretty massive 53.6% to 43.8% there and even if some of his lustre has diminished, he's still popular with GOP primary voters. I suspect there will be dozens of congressional seats Bannon contests (the reason Ryan's hiding under the bed). As the Post trio wrote, "The turbulence presents a danger to Republicans’ narrow 52-seat majority in the Senate, with seasoned GOP lawmakers deciding against seeking reelection amid the political storm-- and with many GOP voters cheering the rancor that Bannon has stoked from his perch at his website, Breitbart."

Some Republican lawmakers have privately fretted that simply speaking out against Trump’s incendiary statements or the ­Bannon-aligned candidates that are rousing anger in their states will not be enough-- and could backfire-- as they try to survive the surge of grievance-driven politics that has gripped the GOP’s base.

Hedge fund executive Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah-- Bannon’s wealthy allies-- have pledged millions to the cause, said people briefed on their plans.

Bannon’s critics argue that he is causing unnecessary internal divisions that could make it harder to pass tax legislation-- and to win general elections next fall. They also point to Sen. Luther Strange’s defeat in last month’s Republican primary in a special Senate election in Alabama as an example of a dynamic they worry could repeat itself across the next year if left unchecked. The SLF spent more than $10 million to help Strange.

...“This is a guy who is more interested in seeing his name in the headlines than he is in any kind of accomplishment for the president,” said Josh Holmes, a former chief of staff to McConnell who has been increasingly outspoken in his opposition to Bannon. “It comes at great cost to the president’s term, the Republican Party and any hope they can have at working as a team.”

On Wednesday, the SLF’s Twitter account mocked Danny Tarkanian-- a frequent conservative candidate in Nevada who is challenging Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV)-- for suggesting that Heller join him in pledging to oppose McConnell as majority leader.

That attack was one of a number of swipes at Bannon that have popped up as the former White House adviser has emerged as a player on the national political scene. Holmes and others have called him a “white supremacist.”

...“Do we need any further evidence than Mitch McConnell and his cronies reducing themselves to using left-wing talking points to attack Steve? It’s pathetic to watch,” said Andy Surabian, a senior adviser to the Great America Alliance super PAC and Bannon’s former deputy at the White House. The pro-Trump PAC is engaged in a slew of races, sending around a bus to rally activists, and counts longtime operative Edward Rollins as its strategist. “Every poll shows Mitch McConnell is an albatross on the Republican candidates,” Surabian said. “If McConnell truly cared about our Republican majority in the Senate more than he cares about his own power, then he would step down as Senate majority leader today.”

Bannon’s circle says the contents of his divorce proceedings, along with claims of racism, are unlikely to do new damage to his reputation, since he has been targeted in the past along those same lines by Democrats, and even in a Saturday Night Live caricature as an angel of death. Advisers also note that the attacks elevate Bannon’s profile, which could help carry his anti-establishment message.

In an email, SLF President Steven Law said he expects Bannon to become a liability for any insurgent candidates he supports in 2018.

“But his real impact would be felt in general elections, where Bannon’s well-documented, toxic views and alt-right paper trail could become a liability for candidates who are perceived as closely tied to him,” Law said.

According to public polling, neither McConnell nor Bannon is in good standing with voters. In an April poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, one of few to ask voters about Bannon, just 11 percent said they viewed him positively and 45 percent said they viewed him negatively. The numbers were better among Republicans, with a nine-point favorability margin.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), one of the incumbents mentioned as a possible target for Bannon in 2018, dismissed the effort to get Senate Republicans to sign pledges vowing to oppose McConnell.

“No, I haven’t signed pledges. I didn’t sign Grover Norquist’s pledge,” Barrasso said on Wednesday, referring to the anti-tax advocate’s famous pledge. “I’m not a guy that signs pledges, and I’m going to vote for whoever I believe is in the best interests of the people of Wyoming.”

...McConnell’s polling among Republicans has tumbled since the start of the year-- a fact that Bannon has used to his advantage. On Tuesday, Bannon’s Breitbart website reported that a Harvard-Harris poll found 56 percent of Republicans in favor of dumping McConnell as leader. That same day, at a media roundtable organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation, a reporter for Breitbart asked members of the House Freedom Caucus to respond to the poll number.

“It was that high?” scoffed Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), wondering jokingly about why it wasn’t even higher.

GOP donors who are friendly with McConnell welcomed the effort to thwart Bannon’s attempts to shape the 2018 contests and rattle McConnell as Senate Republicans are trying to work with Trump.

“Absolutely. Why not?” said Al Hoffman, a major Republican donor and McConnell ally. “You’ve got to get rid of the Bannon banner.”

Mainstream Republicans-- i.e., non-fascists-- are panic-stricken that the Mercer-Bannon brand will destroy the Republican Party. McConnell-- through SLF's Steven Law-- is getting the message out that "In states where Trump is popular, Bannon gives Democrats an alternate pathway to fire up their base and appeal to swing voters who support the president but recoil at Bannon’s racially-charged worldview." Yeah, well that's one way to put it. But a better way to put it is that independent voters-- who decide the winners in almost every non-Confederate district in America-- are repulsed by fascism and by Bannon (and by Trump).

The Fox News poll is not a poll of Fox viewers. It's a non-partisan poll of normal registered voters. They just released a new one that shows Trump with his highest ever disapproval in their polling 57% disapprove (10 points worse than last February). Trump's approval is an anemic 38%, his lowest ever in their polling-- also 10 points worse than last February. Trump is underwater on every single issue: the economy (44% approve, 49% disapprove), taxes (37% approve, 51% disapprove), North Korea (35% approve, 59% disapprove), Iran (34% approve, 55% disapprove), health care (33% approve, 60 disapprove). This is what Republican congressional candidates going into the midterms will have hung around their necks. Fox also asked respondents "If the election for Congress were held today, would you vote for the Democratic candidate in your district or the Republican candidate in your district?" They've been asking this question since June 2010 but in all those 17 years there has never been a number with the Democrats so high (50%) and the Republicans so low (35%). When people say they see a tsunami forming up, this is what they're talking about. These numbers-- if they hold up, and there's more reason that they will get worse for the GOP than better-- indicate not just the House Republicans being pushed out of power but the end of political careers for Republicans once considered "safe," from Paul Ryan (WI) to heavy duty committee and subcommittee chairs like Ed Royce (CA), Fred Upton (MI), Rodney Davis (IL), John Culberson (TX), Lamar Smith (TX), Elise Stefanik (NY), Virginia Foxx (NC), Pat Meehan (PA), Chris Smith (NJ), Dana Rohrabacher (CA), John Katko (NY), Dan Donovan (NY), Peter King (NY), Pete Sessions (TX), Steve Chabot (OH), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), Duncan Hunter (CA), Peter Roskam (IL), Devin Nunes (CA)-- a virtual decapitation of the congressional Republican caucus. Bannon can only play one role-- making every worse-- much, much worse-- for the GOP in 2018.

Is McConnell A Dead Turtle Politically?

Bannon has declared Mitch McConnell the enemy-- and there are plenty of Republican voters who agree. Did you see that stunning new poll from Harvard and Harris this week? When asked if they approve or disapprove of the way the Republican Party is handling its job, only 29% of respondents said approve. 71% said disapprove. And among Republican voters there were still 47% who disapproved and, disastrous for the GOP, 77% among independent voters.

The poll also asked respondents if they approved or disapproved of around a dozen political figures. The unfavorables are first and the second number is the favorables... among Republican voters:

Trump- 19%/78%
McConnell- 43%/24%
Ryan- 28%/52%

Note how much trouble McConnell is in among Republicans. Now among independent voters-- again, first number is unfavorable and second is favorable:

Trump- 59%/38%
McConnell- 59%/13%
Ryan- 54%/27%

Again... no love for the Turtle. He's lucky he's not up for reelection until 2020. Can you imagine Bannon recruiting some fascist to run against him in 2018. It'll be hilarious watching McConnell and Trump both campaigning for Republican votes in 2020-- if either or both of them are even running in 2020!

That same HarvardHarris survey indicates that 56% of Republican voters want McConnell to resign as Senate majority leader. To win Bannon's endorsement-- and the Mercers' money-- candidates have to pledge to vote against McConnell as GOP leader. And in the survey 61% of Republican voters say they support Bannon’s "movement to oust Republicans who fail to support tax cuts, tough immigration policies, and the repeal of Obamacare."

Yesterday, after Flake's brutal analysis of the insanity of the Trump Regime, McConnell took the floor of the Senate to praise him, something that will surely drive Trump and Bannon and the ascendant fascist part of the GOP base, insane(r). "On behalf of myself and I think many of my colleagues, we've just witnessed a speech from a very fine man, a man who clearly brings high principles to the office every day and does what he believes is in the interest of Arizona and the country," said McConnell.

This looks unfriendly

Poor Jeff Flake Just Called It A Day

Today Jeff Flake announced his retirement with a withering blast at Señor Trumpanzee.""We must stop pretending that the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal... It is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. In this century, a new phrase to describe the accommodation of a new and undesirable order, that phrase being the new normal. That we must never adjust to the present coarseness of our national dialogue with the tone set up at the top. We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals, we must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country. The personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms and institution the flagrant disregard for truth and decency. The reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have been elected to serve. None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that that is just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that it’s just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences and without consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not normal. Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as telling it like it is when it is actually just reckless, outrageous and undignified. And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy. Such behavior does not project strength because our strength comes from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit and weakness. It is often said that children are watching. Well, they are. And what are we going to do about that? When the next generation asks us, why didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you speak up? What are we going to say?" Listen to the whole incredible speech above.

John McCormack's look at what would have been Flake's grim-- but brave-- march towards likely defeat in the Arizona Republican primary for the Weekly Standard raised a very crucial question for our politics: "How much room is there in the GOP to criticize Donald Trump and to what extent is the party transforming itself into a cult of personality?" McCormack asked Flake "if there’s a point at which the Republican party will no longer be worth it. How many Kelli Wards and Roy Moores can it nominate before it’s time to start thinking about a new party? 'I don’t know,' Flake says. 'We’re not there yet.'" Republican voters in Arizona are unlikely to give Flake much choice. Every recent poll shows him losing to far right crackpot and fringe Bannon character Kelli Ward.

The most recent poll, by Google Consumer Surveys, shows Ward with 58% of GOP primary voters and Flake at 42%. It's his best showing all year-- and his only one that breaks out of the 20s and 30s. He's have a better shot in the general election, where Schumer has chosen Kyrsten Sinema to run. She has the worst voting record of any Democrat in the House and her ethics-free career is all about endemic corruption.

At Ward's kickoff event in Scottsdale last week, Bannon told the crowd that "There’s a revolt going on from Alabama to Arizona. This movement is working-class and middle-class people standing up against a permanent political class of global elitists." Ward, who has wrapped herself in the Trumpist mantle, said she would make Arizona and America great again by serving in the Senate "as a conservative, as a populist, as an Americanist, as a scurrilous nationalist," a disparaging reference to John McCain denouncing "spurious nationalism" in a speech the day before.

Clinging to Trump is a decent primary strategy for Ward but a risky general election move. Now the Arizona Republican Party will insert a more establishment figure in Flake's stead. Trump didn't even crack 50% in last year's presidential election. McCain and Romney had each scored 54% against Obama. Trump won but his margin was weak-- 1,252,401 (49.0%) to 1,161,167 (45.4%). The best shot for Ward general election would would come if the Democratic base figures out what a piece of crap Schumer is shoving down their throats. But can Ward's campaign criticize Sinema for being Republican-lite and for voting with Trump and Ryan too frequently?

As for Flake, it would have been hard to have imagined him coming back from his low poll numbers to overcome Trump's animosity. Most Republican voters in Arizona like Trump... and hate Flake for criticizing him.

Five short years ago, Flake cruised to victory in his first GOP Senate primary with nearly 70 percent of the vote. Known in the House of Representatives as a budget hawk who bucked congressional leaders and President George W. Bush by opposing earmarks, No Child Left Behind, and Medicare’s prescription-drug benefit, Flake had the backing of then-senator Jim DeMint, the most influential patron of Tea Party insurgents. “Jeff Flake is one of the strongest conservative leaders in Congress,” DeMint said in his 2012 endorsement. “Nobody has done more to advance the cause of freedom than Jeff Flake. Nobody.”

DeMint’s insurgency was best summed up by his comment before the 2010 midterm elections that he’d “rather have 40 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters” in the Senate. (Specter, a liberal Republican till then, had joined the Democratic party in 2009 rather than face a conservative challenger.) “If you want 60 Republicans, you’ve got to have at least 40 to start with who stand on principle,” DeMint explained. But the insurgents of 2010 are now the elitist establishmentarians of 2017. At least that’s how it appears to the likes of Steve Bannon, who thinks Flake, particularly in his criticism of President Trump, is standing on the wrong principles. The Bannon motto seems to be that he’d rather have 40 Kelli Wards than 60 Jeff Flakes in the Senate.

...[I]f you spend a few minutes talking to Flake or reading his August book, Conscience of a Conservative, it’s clear Flake has no interest in winning reelection by pretending to be someone he’s not. When I ask him after the tech summit on October 12 whether immigration reduces the wages of some Americans, Flake is blunt: “We need more robust legal immigration, and we need significant temporary worker programs, more than we have, to account for the labor shortages that we have, particularly in the high-tech area.” He writes in his book that he remains “very proud” of his participation in the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013, divided the Republican party, and died in the House.

...In Trump’s first meeting with congressional Republicans after wrapping up the GOP nomination in 2016, he immediately recognized Flake. “You’ve been very critical of me,” Trump said, according to Flake. “Yes, I’m the other senator from Arizona-- the one who didn’t get captured-- and I want to talk to you about statements like that,” Flake replied, before asking about Trump’s comment that Mexico was sending rapists to the United States. Flake writes that Trump brushed off the question and told Flake he was going to lose reelection. “I had to inform him that I wasn’t on the fall ballot,” Flake writes. Trump may have just been off by two years.

The Arizona Republic's Dan Nowicki was treating Ward as the primary front-runner in his report on the race last week. That's going to change very quickly. "Ward's standing with the right has been bolstered by Steve Bannon," he wrote, but points out that she's so extreme and fringy that "she could help deliver the Senate seat to the Democrats in the general election. Because of that possible scenario, Ward is drawing comparisons to past conservative 'tea party' challengers such as Sharron Angle of Nevada, Christine O'Donnell of Delaware, Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana, who won Senate primaries but lost seats that more moderate Republicans might have been able to win."

Arizona GOP operatives see her as a conspiracy theory nut, a "nightmare candidate" and "a sure loser." Sabato's Crystal Ball refers to her as "Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle and Todd Akin all wrapped into one."

Flake: "There are hinges of history that happen, I hope we're nearing that, I hope there are enough people that will stand up, and I think as elected leaders it's our responsibility to do that." And the American fascist movement celebrated today. Bannon crowed, thinking about his own hinge of history: "Our movement will defeat you in primaries or force you to retire. The days of establishment Republicans who oppose the people's America First agenda are numbered."