Mitt Romney has decided not to lose to a MAGA primary challenger, so he's retiring at the end of his term. On the way out the door, he's decided to speak to McKay Coppins, who's sort of the Isaac Chotiner of Right Wing media: people just seem to admit stuff to him that they don't admit to others.
Anyhoo, Romney has dished about the abject cowardice and cynicism of his Republican colleagues. He asserts (somewhat tenuously) that people like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz are among the smartest people in the Senate (really?) yet they pretend to be MAGAt mouth breathers, because that's where the juice is. He also dished that Angus King reached out to Romney to warn about January 6th, Romney reached out to McConnell and McConnell never got back to him. Interesting that King was hearing about the insurrection and the threats against Romney's life and did the right thing and McConnell did nothing.
None of this is "surprising" in the sense that we all know that Republicans were absolutely complicit in their silence before and after January 6th, but the fact that one of them kept the receipts is interesting, I guess. Nor will it make a dent in the MAGAt delusions about what happened surrounding Trump's entire behavior from election day onwards. There is no longer an institutional party to rein these lunatic in.
In fact, Romney also notes that many Republican members of Congress admitted that Trump should be impeached and convicted, but they worried about threats of violence from Trump supporters and caved into this terrorism...and still haven't done shit to curb the terrorists within their own camp. Plus, I'm sure these yegs have an arsenal of Freedumb Guns in their home for personal defense, but a few scary letters and they abandon their constitutional duty.
Regardless, Romney's perspective is a slightly new one, I guess, though I'm not sure how much new information we will get, rather than corroborating evidence. Still, his decision to break the omerta that governs the GOP has burnished his reputation some (even as he engages in some classic bothsides by criticizing Biden for...stuff). Most astonishingly, there have been people making the argument that Democrats should have let Romney win in 2012, because Romney's defeat led to Trump four years later.
The Party of Personal Responsibility folks.
Still, when compared to the feral lunacy of Trumpism, Romney does come off better. George Bush was probably the worst president of my lifetime until Trump and even he came off better. Doesn't make him good, but being an idiot is better than being a sociopathic authoritarian.
So, Romney's out. He was about as decent as person as you could expect from the post-Gingrich GOP. His efforts on child poverty were really interesting and effective, though they sadly lapsed recently. So who remains in the Grand Old Party?
Lauren Boebert. She was recently kicked out of a Denver theater for vaping next to a pregnant woman, being loud AF and groping and being groped by her date. She then flips off the usher as she walks out of the lobby. Classy!
Boebert is neither smart, nor educated, nor principled. She is one of the worst people you are likely to meet, and she will almost certainly survive a primary challenge and would have to be a slight favorite to win reelection, despite her close call last year. This is a person who has no business being in Congress. Hell she has no business being on a town council. Even Marjorie Traitor Greene has had enough of her shit. She is Matt Gaetz: a vapid sex pest who hasn't an original thought in their wee head.
Yet, Republicans will still vote for her.
When Romney made a bothsides comment about Joe Biden, it reminds me of statement by people like Bill Barr, who excoriate Trump for trying to overthrow the electoral legitimacy of American democracy. Barr basically ripped him, but said he would vote for him anyway.
Trump - and people like Boebert - represent a clear and present danger to American democracy. Some Republicans like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger understand this essential fact. Romney, for all his purported decency, can't seem to make that final leap. This is the malignancy of the Never-Never-Trumpers who don't like Trump, but petulantly refuse to stand against him because Joe Biden is a communist or something.
So, Mitt, nice tea your spilling. But until you actually step up and work against Trump and fools like Lauren Boebert, fuck you. In all seriousness, fuck you.
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