Georgia GOP Turns Into A Political Madhouse At Exactly The Wrong Time

 

Kelly Loeffler-- the first U.S. Senator to publicly embrace QAnon

Well-meaning but politically naive self-identifying Democrats who are laboring under the impression that "anything blue" is the way to go, are going to be very disappointed in 2021. Cheri Bustos' DCCC has guaranteed a totally dysfunctional conservative Democratic House caucus and Schumer has done even worse in the Senate. Corrupt status quo state Democratic Parties-- done more so than Florida-- have done the same thing: recruited garbage candidates that look like what they see in the mirror.

Last April we took a look at what the too-big-tent allows it's brand to be polluted with-- state Rep. Vernon Jones in Georgia. Jones is a crooked racist and as I wrote back in April, he's virulently anti-gay, anti-immigrant and pro-NRA and happily describes himself as a "conservative Democrat." He admits he voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and has personally donated thousands of dollars to the Georgia Republican Party. I'm shocked Cheri Bustos hasn't recruited him to run as a DCCC candidate yet." He endorsed Trump, the only Democratic elected official in Georgia to do so.

The good news is that a real Democrat, Rhonda Taylor, was kicking his ass so badly in the June primary, that he withdrew and is no longer running for reelection. But that hasn't kept him from using his status as a state legislator to aid Trump's efforts in Georgia.

On Friday, Jones was at the infamous Macon super-spreader event-- the one where Trump threatened to defect to another country if he loses the election. TMZ reported that "Jones crowd-surfed Friday during Trump's rally at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon. Pre-pandemic we'd say this looks like big fun, especially for a political event-- but that just ain't the reality. Jones, or anyone else in the crowd for that matter, didn't seem too concerned about potential COVID-19 spread... lots of folks put their hands on him and no one, in photos at least, was wearing a face covering.

But Jones' stupidity hasn't been the biggest political news this weekend. CNN's Manu Raju and Alex Rogers reported that McConnell jumped into the Georgia Senate free-for-all, counseling Trump to ensure the party would unite behind one candidate and avoid a messy internecine battle that could imperil the crucial Senate seat. Listening to the campaign, you would think Doug Collins and appointed incumbent Kelly Loeffler are running in a Nazi Party primary. Independent and even vaguely mainstream Republican Georgia voters are mortified.

They reported that "the race presents challenges unlike any other in the country. Since it’s a special election, there is no primary. So to win the November election outright, a candidate must surpass 50% of the vote; if not, the top two candidates face off in a January runoff. Since it’s unlikely that any candidate will reach the 50 percent threshold, both [Rep. Doug] Collins and [Sen. Kelly] Loeffler have been competing intensely to make the runoff by wooing Republican voters and appealing to the conservative base, which represents a slice of the state’s 6.9 million registered voters. That has created an opening for the leading Democratic candidate, Rev. Raphael Warnock, who has been mostly unscathed amid the daily slugfest between Collins and Loeffler, and was rewarded with a Friday fundraiser led by former President Barack Obama."

She's cut an ad saying she's "more conservative than Attila the Hun." She's lashed out at the WNBA for its ties to Black Lives Matter. And she frequently promotes herself as having a "100 percent Trump voting record."

And this week, Sen. Kelly Loeffler took her move to the right to a new level: Touting the endorsement of a controversial House candidate from Georgia who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy and had been denounced by other Republicans before winning the GOP nomination in her race for making bigoted and racist comments.

"No one in Georgia cares about the QAnon business," Loeffler told reporters defiantly, after pulling up to the event in a Humvee and sporting a baseball cap, with congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene by her side. "This is something the fake news is gonna continue to bring up-- and ignore Antifa."

Loeffler, an appointed senator and one of the richest in Congress, has been in a race to the right with GOP Rep. Doug Collins, an intraparty battle that has prompted deep Republican concerns that it could splinter the vote and help Democrats sweep Georgia and take the Senate majority.

But Collins, who lobbied for the Senate appointment that Gov. Brian Kemp gave to Loeffler, entered the race earlier this year over the furious opposition of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. As Trump has remained silent about his preference in the race, the two candidates have sought to one-up the other and showcase their loyalty to the President, moving further and further to the right in a state where Atlanta's more moderate suburban voters will be the linchpin.

...What's also concerning Republicans: The other Georgia Senate seat, currently occupied by GOP Sen. David Perdue, who is now in a deadheat against Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who announced he'd raised $21.3 million in the past quarter, the largest quarterly haul for any Senate candidate in the state's history.

Republicans privately fret that the bitter Collins-Loeffler fight is dividing the party during the campaign's most critical juncture and now threatening both Senate seats, a scenario some senior Republicans warned could happen months ago when Collins entered the race. Warnock's standing has improved in recent weeks. In late September, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Warnock with 31%, Loeffler at 23%, and Collins at 22% among likely voters. In October, another Quinnipiac poll showed Warnock at 41%, Collins at 22% and Loeffler at 20%.

All of which has some top Republicans frustrated with Collins and accusing him of putting his own personal ambitions ahead of the goal of preserving the Senate majority.

"In a difficult election cycle like this one, you really need candidates to avoid making selfish decisions that further complicate your party's ability to win," said Josh Holmes, a former McConnell chief of staff who still advises the GOP leader. "Clearly that didn't happen in Georgia."

Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator in 20 years. But Democrats are optimistic that they will compete in the state, spurred by the Republicans' race to the right, the growth of the Atlanta suburbs and the voter expansion efforts led by former state House Democratic leader Stacey Abrams.

Late last year, Kemp appointed Loeffler to serve the rest of Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson's term following his resignation. Part of the draw of Loeffler, who is married to New York Stock Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher, was that she could appeal to the rapidly diversifying suburbs-- especially suburban women-- and could self-fundraise. (The couple has spent at least $25 million of their own money in the race so far.)

But not long after Loeffler's appointment, Republican state legislators attempted to pass a bill creating a primary, so that Loeffler would have to face Collins and the winner of the primary would go head-to-head against the Democratic nominee in a general election.

The governor threatened to veto the bill, and it went nowhere.

But now, the Republican candidates are spending the last days of the Senate race as if they were running in a primary, trying to appeal to the hardcore members of their party-- like Greene.

At the Thursday event, a reporter asked Loeffler if she accepted the endorsement of someone who had spread "the baseless QAnon theories" and "made incendiary, xenophobic, controversial remarks" before asking whether she was worried that Greene is damaging the party's brand in the state.

"Look, I don't know anything about QAnon," responded Loeffler. "I know how the media twists people's words, they do it over and over, they even make up things."

A Georgia Republican strategist, who is not affiliated with either campaign, said that Loeffler's endorsement event with Greene was "nothing short of a Hail Mary."

"I think it's devastating to her in a runoff," said the GOP strategist, who asked for anonymity to assess the race candidly. "The day after Election Day on our side, if Kelly Loeffler were to somehow pull this out, there'll be an ad within five minutes tying her to QAnon. And it's not going to be good."

When asked if he was concerned that Loeffler's pitch to conservative voters would turn off independents, and potentially hurt the senator in a runoff race, Loeffler spokesman Stephen Lawson told CNN that the GOP senator would be able to paint Warnock as outside of the mainstream.

"Raphael Warnock is the most radically liberal and extreme candidate running for Senate anywhere in the country--so we're extremely excited about the opportunity to face him in the January runoff," Lawson said.

On Capitol Hill, Loeffler has maintained a low profile and rarely speaks to reporters, flanked by an aide and often walking by in silence when asked a question. And in the extremely rare event that she does answer a reporter's query, she speaks Trump's language.

"Fake news," she said to CNN when asked last month about Trump's recorded comments to journalist Bob Woodward that he intentionally played down the coronavirus.

In Georgia, though, her moves have made waves.

In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Loeffler, the co-owner of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream, was engaged this summer in a fight with the league and her own players, writing in July to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert that she "adamantly" opposed the Black Lives Matter political movement, which she called "totally misaligned with the values and goals of the WNBA and the Atlanta Dream, where we support tolerance and inclusion."

The players responded in-kind, wearing black shirts that said: "Vote Warnock."

...[Meanwhile] Collins announced on Thursday a "Trump Defender Statewide Tour," with some of the President's staunchest allies, including Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Andy Biggs of Arizona and former Trump advisers George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, who were players in former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

Collins campaign spokesman Dan McLagan said Collins would drive his "family suburban, trailed by volunteers in a 15-passenger van that runs on liberal tears."

McLagan said that Greene was "a nice endorsement for Kelly," but said the senator "looked about as comfortable at that press conference as a deer at a hunters convention."

"Georgians know that Doug is the real conservative and Kelly is a phony," he said.

The courtship of the right has Democrats optimistic about the race.

Warnock, the senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, who raised nearly $13 million in the last quarter, has already attacked the senator over accepting Greene's endorsement.

"Instead of trafficking in division and proudly standing alongside those that spout dangerous rhetoric like Marjorie Taylor Greene, we're focused on being a voice for all Georgians," Warnock said.

While Warnock is the heavy favorite to make it to a runoff, some Democrats fear that Matt Lieberman, a Democratic candidate and son of former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has polled in the single digits, will siphon away enough support to prevent Warnock from winning in November outright.

Like father, like son.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

"And you can't make me!" So say treasonous politicians like the above pictured Rep. Doug Collins. Collins may be from Georgia but, like just about any Republican you care to name, his soul is with our nation's adversaries. It doesn't take anything to assume that Collins sees his first loyalty as not to his district or the nation but to "President" Trump and Trump's spy master handlers based in Moscow. Collins raised his right hand and took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States of America on his very first day in Congress. Evidently, he held his left hand behind his back, fingers crossed.

Collins is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. That's how far the apparent ruble-fed infiltration has gone in the House of Representatives. What we saw from Collins and his Republican fellow travelers on the committee as the debate over impeachment ensued was nothing short of panic as they yelled and screamed louder than a 3 year old who's suddenly told they can't ride in the stroller anymore. Not one House Republican obeyed the oath they swore. Not one.

The insanity of your typical Republican was perhaps best manifested by Rep. Collins's fellow crackpot from Georgia (the state not the part of the former Soviet Union), Rep. Barry Loudermilk. Loudermilk compared the impeachment of the Trumpanzee to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As far as I know, Trump has not been repeatedly beaten by a mob, has not felt the lash of whips, has not had a crown of thorns jammed on his head, and has no bloody nail holes in his hands and feet, or a spear wound in his side. I expect Trump will soon be marketing red Make America Great Again Shrouds of Turin.

Law Professors Are Certain: Impeach, Impeach, Impeach

Those three law professors-- Pamela Karlan (Stanford), Noah Feldman (Harvard) and Michael Gerhardt (University of North Carolina)-- who Nadler called to open the formal Trump impeachment proceedings this week, were very impressive. Two days later, 500 law professors from around the country signed an open letter calling for Trump's impeachment. "We, the undersigned legal scholars," they began, "have concluded that President Trump engaged in impeachable conduct. We do not reach this conclusion lightly. The Founders did not make impeachment available for disagreements over policy, even profound ones, nor for extreme distaste for the manner in which the President executes his office. Only “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” warrant impeachment. But there is overwhelming evidence that President Trump betrayed his oath of office by seeking to use presidential power to pressure a foreign government to help him distort an American election, for his personal and political benefit, at the direct expense of national security interests as determined by Congress. His conduct is precisely the type of threat to our democracy that the Founders feared when they included the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution." Unfortunately, their letter isn't calling for Trump to be tried as a criminal.

We take no position on whether the President committed a crime. But conduct need not be criminal to be impeachable. The standard here is constitutional; it does not depend on what Congress has chosen to criminalize.

Impeachment is a remedy for grave abuses of the public trust. The two specific bases for impeachment named in the Constitution-- treason and bribery-- involve such abuses because they include conduct undertaken not in the “faithful execution” of public office that the Constitution requires, but instead for personal gain (bribery) or to benefit a foreign enemy (treason).

Impeachment is an especially essential remedy for conduct that corrupts elections. The primary check on presidents is political: if a president behaves poorly, voters can punish him or his party at the polls. A president who corrupts the system of elections seeks to place himself beyond the reach of this political check. At the Constitutional Convention, George Mason described impeachable offenses as “attempts to subvert the constitution.” Corrupting elections subverts the process by which the Constitution makes the president democratically accountable. Put simply, if a President cheats in his effort at re-election, trusting the democratic process to serve as a check through that election is no remedy at all. That is what impeachment is for.

Moreover, the Founders were keenly concerned with the possibility of corruption in the president’s relationships with foreign governments. That is why they prohibited the president from accepting anything of value from foreign governments without Congress’s consent. The same concern drove their thinking on impeachment. James Madison noted that Congress must be able to remove the president between elections lest there be no remedy if a president betrayed the public trust in dealings with foreign powers.

In light of these considerations, overwhelming evidence made public to date forces us to conclude that President Trump engaged in impeachable conduct. To mention only a few of those facts: William B. Taylor, who leads the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, testified that President Trump directed the withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine in its struggle against Russia-- aid that Congress determined to be in the U.S. national security interest-- until Ukraine announced investigations that would aid the President’s re-election campaign. Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified that the President made a White House visit for the Ukrainian president conditional on public announcement of those investigations. In a phone call with the Ukrainian president, President Trump asked for a “favor” in the form of a foreign government investigation of a U.S. citizen who is his political rival. President Trump and his Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney made public statements confirming this use of governmental power to solicit investigations that would aid the President’s personal political interests. The President made clear that his private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was central to efforts to spur Ukrainian investigations, and Mr. Giuliani confirmed that his efforts were in service of President Trump’s private interests.

Ultimately, whether to impeach the President and remove him from office depends on judgments that the Constitution leaves to Congress. But if the House of Representatives impeached the President for the conduct described here and the Senate voted to remove him, they would be acting well within their constitutional powers. Whether President Trump’s conduct is classified as bribery, as a high crime or misdemeanor, or as both, it is clearly impeachable under our Constitution.

Brian Kemp Defies Trump On Georgia Senate Seat Appointment-- Goes For The Big Money Instead Of The Crackpot Wing-Nut

Kemp brings GOP fat cat to meet Trumpanzee

Yesterday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp would ignore Trump's demands that he appoint Trumpist congressman Doug Collins to the open-- Johnny Isakson is retiring-- Georgia Senate seat and decided to appoint one of his own financial backers, Kelly Loeffler, instead. We took a look at this possibility last week and noted that Loeffler, who co-owns Atlanta's WNBA franchise and has doled out immense amounts of money to Republican politicians, has always been Kemp's first choice.

Kemp says appointing Loeffler will pacify women voters in the Atlanta area by making the GOP appear more inclusive and less anti-woman, even though Loeffler's agenda is indistinguishable for any other bigoted Republican conservative. The AJC reported that Kemp "is expected to announce Loeffler’s appointment at a press conference early next week, barring any last-minute change of heart."

Her appointment would do little to tamp down the internal Republican fighting over the seat. Trump and his allies have repeatedly pressed the governor to tap Collins, and the two were still at odds over Loeffler’s appointment even after Kemp brought her to a secretive meeting with the president last week.

And it would come as no surprise to Republican insiders, who have labeled Loeffler the presumptive favorite ever since she submitted her application hours before a deadline imposed by Kemp.

Collins’ allies have aggressively pushed Kemp to appoint the congressman in recent weeks, describing the Gainesville Republican as a champion for conservative causes – and a bulwark against impeachment proceedings headed for the U.S. Senate.

And Collins has helped energize his supporters by telling the AJC that he is “strongly” considering a run for the Senate seat in next year’s special election if he’s not picked.

The special election-- which will feature all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, on the same ballot-- poses a conundrum for the Georgia GOP. If multiple well-funded Republicans enter the contest, they could slice up the GOP base, providing an opportunity for a Democrat with his or her party's unified support.

The state Democratic Party has yet to identify such a candidate. But several lower-profile contenders have entered the race, including Matt Lieberman, an educator and entrepreneur who is the son of former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.

“At this point, whatever pick Kemp makes will be significantly damaged,” said party spokesman Alex Floyd, “forced to limp into November 2020 facing inflamed tensions and internal fights at a time when Georgia Republicans can’t afford either.”

Instead of splitting the GOP base, Kemp has viewed the U.S. Senate opening as a chance to build on it, bringing female voters back to the Republican Party.

He’s also mindful that his selection would not only be on the ballot in 2020 to fill out the remaining two years of Isakson’s term but also potentially alongside Kemp in 2022 when the governor runs for a second term.

Kemp’s allies say Loeffler, a first-time candidate, can help woo women in Atlanta’s suburbs who have bolted a party that’s dominated by white male elected officials.

Loeffler also could pump some of her own personal fortune into a campaign that could break fundraising records.

She runs the Bakkt bitcoin trading platform that’s a subsidiary of the Intercontinental Exchange, the behemoth Atlanta-based financial firm headed by her husband. She is also a co-owner of Atlanta’s WNBA franchise.

Her emergence as Kemp’s favorite for the seat over Collins and other better-known contenders has sparked fierce pushback from some conservative leaders.

They criticize her past campaign contributions to Democrats and question her support for a range of key issues, such as gun rights and anti-abortion efforts. And they worry she’s not committed to Trump.

“If you substitute your judgement for the President’s, maybe you need a primary in 2022,” U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida lawmaker with close ties to Trump, wrote Friday in a tweet directed at Kemp. “Let’s see if you can win one w/o Trump.”

The president, who has directly appealed to Kemp to tap Collins three times in recent weeks, was said to be frustrated with the governor at the meeting Sunday and upset he wasn’t leaning toward Collins or another politically tested candidate.

Loeffler’s allies have tried to allay those fears by pointing to her recent contributions to the Republican National Committee, including two $100,000 checks she and her husband wrote this month to participate in a Trump roundtable in Atlanta.

She also indicated in her Senate application that she shares Kemp’s priorities to “strengthen the border, shutdown drug cartels and human traffickers, lower healthcare costs, and protect our national interests.”

“If chosen, I will stand with President Trump, Senator David Perdue, and you to Keep America Great,” she wrote to Kemp, invoking the president’s 2020 campaign slogan.

Kemp’s supporters, meanwhile, have loudly pleaded for the GOP faithful to trust the governor, whose runaway victory in the 2018 Republican primary runoff was fueled by Trump’s late endorsement.

And the governor this week took to Twitter amid growing conservative backlash to vent about “ridiculous” attacks that he would consider someone for the U.S. Senate who isn’t sufficiently conservative or “100% supportive” of Trump.

“The attacks and games are absolutely absurd,” he said on social media. “Frankly, I could care less what the political establishment thinks.”

Loeffler emerged from a crowd of potential candidates that included current and former officeholders, business executives, a U.S. ambassador, decorated military veterans and radio commentators. A Democratic state legislator even applied on the governor’s website.

A smaller group of top contenders vetted by Kemp’s advisers emerged last week. They include state Rep. Jan Jones, the No. 2 Republican in the Georgia House; and Jackie Gingrich Cushman, an author and financial executive who is the daughter of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Two Kemp administration officials also made the list: Robyn Crittenden, who briefly succeeded Kemp as secretary of state and runs the state’s largest agency; and Allen Poole, a former county commissioner who now heads a state highway department. 

Poor Collins-- and his Trumpist followers-- haven't given up. Collins ran to Fox News Today to play to the far right Republican base in northern Georgia by dancing around with his hair on fire, screeching about calling on House Intel Committee chairman Adam Schiff testify in the Trump impeachment trial when it goes to the Senate. "My first and foremost witness," said the deranged crackpot, "is Adam Schiff." Poor Collins. Oh, yeah, I already said that.

The most current Morning Consult Trump Tracker shows Trump's favorability in Georgia continuing to fall. Since he was inaugurated, Trump's favorability rating with Georgia voters has decreased by an astounding 21 points and he is now underwater by 3, primarily because independent voters have changed their minds about him and no longer support him or his administration. Just 46% of Georgia voters approve of the job he's doing, while 49% disapprove.

Georgians Get To Vote For Two U.S. Senators Next Year

Trump wants to collect on his quid pro quo in Georgia

Georgia is the only state where all 2020 voters will get to pick two U.S. senators. David Perdue's term is up and there is a special election to fill the other seat because Johnny Isakson is resigning from his seat two years early. The filing deadlines are March 6 so there is still time for more candidates to get in but so far there are 8 Democrats challenging Perdue but just one who has declared for the special election, Joe Lieberman's son Matt Lieberman. We'll get to the Republicans in a moment.

4 Democrats have raised money for the Perdue race. Perdue himself has raised $8,791,345 and is spending in a big way already. The 4 Democrats raising are:

• moderate Jon Ossoff- $1,343,249
• progressive Teresa Tomlinson- $928,408
• moderate Sarah Riggs Amico- $710,770 (of which $408,400 is self-financed)
• progressive Ted Terry- $88,113

Democrats not raising money include Elaine Whigham Williams, Akhenaten Amun, Marckeith DeJesus and Harold Shouse. There are also a couple of Republicans running against Perdue but none of raised any money and the challenges are not considered serious.

The other seat has a very different dynamic since Republican Governor Brian Kemp gets to name a successor to Isakson, who then runs as an incumbent. Cameron McWhirter and Lindsay Wise, Wall Street Journal reporters, wrote that arch Trumpist, Rep. Doug Collins, is doing everything he can to get appointed to the seat-- mostly making an idiot of himself in defending Trump as ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee. Trump appreciates anyone be-clowning themselves on his behalf, so he's been pressuring Kemp to appoint Collins. Kemp doesn't want to. "In recent days," wrote McWhirter and Wise, "the president has spoken to Mr. Kemp at least twice-- once face-to-face in Atlanta and once on the phone-- urging him to pick Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), a vocal supporter of the president in Congress… Mr. Collins, a white conservative from north Georgia, has pushed for months to get the seat that Sen. Johnny Isakson, 74 years old, is leaving at the end of the year because of health problems. But the governor is leaning toward appointing a female or minority candidate to improve the GOP’s chances in Atlanta’s burgeoning suburbs, key battlegrounds in the 2020 elections."

Georgia Republican insiders all think Kemp would prefer to appoint Kelly Loeffler, a multimillionaire financial executive who co-owns Atlanta’s WNBA franchise and has given generously to the campaigns of Georgia Republicans (and to Mitt Romney's SuperPAC, but not Trump's).

Melanie Zanon and James Arkin wrote for Politico that Trump sees Collins as "a potentially critical juror in any Senate impeachment trial soon after he helps lead the case for Trump in the House."

But even if Collins doesn’t get tapped for the Senate by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), he’s still considering launching a bid for the seat in a 2020 special election, citing his “resume supporting the president” and “being an advocate for Georgia.” And positioning himself as a top Trump defender could help bolster his campaign.

“I think people will see that I’m up here fighting for what I believe,” Collins said in an interview outside the House floor. “I’m fighting for them, and I’m fighting for an administration that I think has been treated unfairly.”

Collins, a former lawyer and pastor, has already emerged as a key Trump ally. And he’ll be the GOP’s point-man on impeachment when the Judiciary Committee takes the reins of the inquiry in the coming weeks and considers any articles of impeachment-- which could come right as Kemp announces an appointment for the Senate seat.

Trump phoned Kemp on Wednesday and pressed him to appoint Collins to the seat, according to a source familiar with the call. The conversation was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

TrumpWorld soon followed suit with a lobbying campaign in his favor.

Donald Trump Jr., who hosted a fundraiser for Collins in late October, tweeted that Collins is a "fighter and exactly the kind of person Republicans should want in the Senate.” Matt Schlapp, the pro-Trump chairman of the American Conservative Union, sent a letter to Kemp urging him to tap Collins.

Collins has earned plaudits in conservative circles when he led the GOP through Judiciary hearings connected to the Russia probe earlier this year.

Collins regularly slams the impeachment process as a “sham” and a “circus.” And on Thursday, he fired off a letter to Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) demanding that they obtain all evidence from the House Intelligence Committee’s underlying probe-- a preview of the fight that Collins is likely to wage, which will rely heavily on procedural weapons.

Yet Collins has also carved out a reputation on Capitol Hill as a bipartisan deal-maker, and has seemed like a reluctant warrior at times. Collins has made clear that he prefers legislating over bomb throwing, and notes he even signed his name to Nadler’s signature 9/11 health care bill a few months ago.

He says the impeachment process has been so unfair that Democrats have left him no choice but to be a fierce partisan. “I’ll play the role that I’m having to play,” Collins said. “Frankly, this committee has forced me to defend the integrity of the House, more than anything else. Because we have blatantly not followed the rules.”

“I’m willing to reach out and put my hand out, but unfortunately, many times this year, it’s gotten bit,” he added.

Collins is expected to bring a different flavor to the impeachment proceedings than Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

His colleagues describe Collins as friendly, no nonsense and high-energy-- he walks around the Capitol hallways bouncing a small rubber ball, his version of a fidget spinner. And while Collins might have a southern drawl, he speaks with the speed of an auctioneer.

“Doug was exactly the right guy to put in charge of that committee this cycle,” said Rep. Rob Woodall, a fellow Georgia Republican. “I expect [him to bring] southern gentility with a steel backbone that says, ‘I’m not gonna let us get run over.’”

If the Georgia governor does tap Collins to take over Isakson’s seat, it would hand him another key role in the impeachment saga. With the House aiming to wrap up impeachment by the end of year, Iskanson’s successor is likely to be asked to vote on whether to convict the president and remove him from office after a Senate trial.

“I don’t see how [the impeachment battle] does anything but help him… I don’t think there’s been any better defender of Trump than Doug Collins,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK). “I think this strengthens his hand, if this is the direction he wants to go.”

Former Rep. Jack Kingston, who has also applied for the Senate appointment, said he had not spoken to Kemp and had been counseled not to crowd the governor on the looming decision.

Kingston said he would consider running for the seat in 2020 if he’s not appointed, but added that he would be unlikely to challenge Collins because their politics are "well aligned."

"I think Doug Collins should and definitely would consider that," he said about Collins running for the seat next year.

"I think Brian Kemp wants to make sure he has a tested, pro-Trump conservative in there,” Kingston added. “I think in terms of avoiding a primary, that's what he will need to have."

Several prominent Republicans are considered top potential picks along with Collins, including Jan Jones, the speaker pro-tempore of the Georgia state House; businesswoman Kelly Loeffler; and two members of Kemp’s administration, Robyn Crittenden and Allen Poole.

Collins’ role as an ardent Trump defender would put him in a similar position as Sen. David Perdue, the first-term Republican who is also on the ballot in 2020 and is one of Trump’s strongest backers in the chamber.

“I have the highest respect for Doug Collins. He’s a great leader in the House,” Perdue said. “He has the full right to make that decision and we’ll go forward. I know the governor is still trying to make his decision right now and so we’ll see how this plays out.”

Some Republicans have been eager for a Senate appointee with a less partisan profile to help the party regain some of their standing in the Atlanta suburbs, an area where GOP support has cratered since 2016.

Georgia Republicans love Trump but, Georgia independents, who will decide who wins the general election, are markedly less enthusiastic. In the latest Morning Consult Trump Tracker Trump's approval in Georgia is underwater-- minus 3. More ominous is that since his inauguration, Trump's approval in Georgia has ticked steadily downward and has now decreased 21 points. His influence in a Republican primary will be paramount-- but they could well backfire in the general election where his toxicity will work against any Republican but more so against a Republican he has hand-picked.

Make A Wish-- Any Wish... As Long As It's About Trump

"Do you want to see the president of the United States in jail?" That's the question Wolf Blitzer asked Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT). Himes didn't answer by disputing that Trump isn't a legitimate president who wasn't elected but was placed in the Oval Office by a hostile power. Instead he made a little joke by saying "the lizard brain that I have hope that bad things happen to this man because he is so destructive to our republic, to the concept of democracy, to the concept that internationally we are a 'light unto the nations.' Yes, I have my emotional reactions." He then reminded Blitzer that "we are a nation of laws."

I asked my twitter followers a slightly different question-- and left Trump out because I knew he would have gotten 100% of the votes:

And by the way, Himes hasn't publicly called for Trump's impeachment yet. But Fox and other right-wing media outlets are already attacking him. A former colleague of his, Alan Grayson, came to his defense. "It’s completely ridiculous for Fox 'News' to be attacking anyone for saying what is painfully obvious: that the President has committed crimes, and that he, like every other criminal, belongs in prison. Why is Michael Cohen in prison now for crimes that Trump ordered him to commit, and Trump is not? Next, Fox News will be attacking the boy in the Hans Christian Andersen story who observed that the emperor had no clothes. Or, Fox News can try to do what the Armenian king Tigranes did, according to Plutarch: 'The first messenger, that gave notice of Lucullus’s coming was so far from pleasing Tigranes that, he had his head cut off for his pains.'"

Poetic license

Which brings us to the Republicans' clownish, frothing-at-the-mouth Judiciary Committee's ranking member, Doug Collins (R-GA). He had a bee in his bonnet yesterday, not over impeaching or jailing Señor Trumpanzee, but because the Democrats on the committee want to question William Barr, who has been consistently lying to protect Trump. He told Fox News that the Democrats "are just so blinded by rage at what's going on with this administration that they are willing to make false accusations [unintelligable] that's where the breakdown in honesty with the American people and Congress has got to get better. They need to be working on immigration and trade deals, and what the American people need. Not this continual attack on the president... The ones who need to be scared are the corrupt cabal of Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Comey and others. They're out there trying to rehabilitate themselves because I don't think they want looked into-- what they did... I don't want to blanket the entire FBI or even the entire DOJ with the wrongdoings of some very wrong-minded, corrupt individuals who decided on their own that they were going to take things into their own hands... Democrats have gotten way over their skis and promising their rabid base who doesn't like the president... at the same time, they much rather would focus on this because they have no legislative agenda, We've seen five and have months of absolute nothing but pandering to the left base, so now they are having that as a problem, and also the problem of their whole house of cards on what the president did coming apart as well." One has to wonder if he managed that all on his own or the White House sent it over for him to regurgitate.