National Republicans
Vanished
Ronald Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and stood up to what he called the “Evil Empire.” Trump and Vance sat in the Oval Office, set up Ukraine’s President Zelensky and sucked up to Evil Emperor Putin. Reagan demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Trump and Vance complained that Zelensky was “disrespectful” and didn’t…
Read MoreAnything Goes…
Back when Rod Blagojevich ran for governor of Illinois, Obama endorsed him and Trump gave his campaign money. After Obama got elected president, Governor Blagojevich got caught on tape trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. He got impeached, booted out of office. Then got indicted. Before his trial he starred on…
Read MoreAlways Wrong
It’s a kind of mystery – will hitting Canada and Mexico with tariffs land us in the promised land or in a ditch? The Wall Street Journal, shaking its head, saw Trump’s tariffs as a bad idea. Trump whacked back, calling the Journal ‘always wrong.’ The Wall Street Journal isn’t always right but it isn’t…
Read MoreBroken Egg Promise
Waffle House shows Trump lied – and broke his biggest promise. He promised, “when I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” This week, Waffle House put a 50-cent surcharge on every egg it serves. It’s the Trump Egg Tax. All over the country, egg prices are going up in grocery…
Read MoreWho Pays the Price
Wiley lifted his cell phone, held it in the air in front of him, pushed a button, turned the phone toward Fred. ‘This is Trump’s new ad.’ Leaning forward, shoulders hunched, Fred watched. Rocking back, laughed. ‘That’s great.’ Parting his lips in a crooked grin, voice sharp, grating, Wiley turned to me. ‘I’m guessing in…
Read MoreGoing Too Far
Cheeks round, pudgy fingers fumbling, Ellmer took a newspaper article out of his briefcase, pushed it across the table toward me: ‘I’ll bet you disagwee with Trump on this?’ Sputtering, unable to pronounce r’s, he turned them into w’s. Sitting beside him Wiley’s lips curled in a crooked grin – at the end of the…
Read MoreDividing Line
Trump has done America a big favor: in just two weeks, he’s drawn a bright line between decency and cruelty, honesty and dishonesty, courage and cowardice, competence and incompetence, compassion and contempt. If you want the freedom to openly show your bigotry and prejudice, you stand with Trump. If you want the liberty to tell…
Read MoreA Show
Addison McDowell worked for Ted Budd, worked as a lobbyist, 31 years old ran for Congress, got Trump’s endorsement in the primary, headed to a runoff with Mark Walker. Trump offered Walker a job – Walker got out of the race. McDowell won, took the oath of office, posted on X he’d sponsored a bill…
Read MoreChaos, Carnage and Cruelty
Trump doesn’t care how much chaos he creates, how much carnage he causes and how much cruelty he inflicts on people, including his own supporters. It’s all about making himself look big, strong and powerful. It’s all a show. Before, it was The Apprentice. Now, it’s The President. He makes a show of signing executive…
Read MoreTwo Pieces
When the smoke cleared – after Jesse Helms’ second campaign – we’d raised more money than anyone had ever raised in a Senate election; at the start of that campaign staring at reams of new election laws, confounded, I’d called Stan Evans head of the American Conservative Union. “I’m going to need a lawyer.” Stan…
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