That was the title of a book by Bob Novak, long ago (1965): “The Agony of the G.O.P.” I have used that phrase from time to time over the years.
• Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, the fist-pumper, says, “The old party is dead. Time to bury it. Build something new.”
But doesn’t he have the GOP he wants? A nationalist-populist one? Isn’t it the old Reaganite party that is dead?
• At one of her last campaign rallies, Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for governor in Arizona, said, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we?” She then said, “All right, get the hell out.”
That has been the attitude of MAGA toward others for years. Lake perfectly encapsulated the attitude in question.
She also said, alluding to McCain, “Boy, Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?” I do not regard the late senator as a loser. Far from it.
• You are familiar with the expression “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” I thought of it when reading a short missive from Liz Cheney: here.
• Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, gave his analysis of his party’s performance in the midterms. Listen to him here. He said that too many GOP candidates spooked voters with their general weirdness. It occurred to me: McConnell is a more honest analyst than many a Republican in the media. Most of them, in fact. Which is extraordinary, given that McConnell is a pol, and an important one.
Does “candidate quality” (as McConnell says) matter? You bet it does.
• Talking with Larry Kudlow on Fox, Herschel Walker, the GOP Senate nominee in Georgia, said, “If I do not win that seat, we may not recognize America.” He further said, “I want every kid in America to have that American Dream. Well, I can tell you right now, if I don’t win that seat, no other American will ever have that American Dream again.”
A question: Does anyone believe that?
• Once more, McConnell is running for Republican leader in the Senate. He is being challenged by Rick Scott. McConnell says he has the votes.
Which triggered a memory in me. In the fall of 1984, I was an intern in Bob Dole’s office. With Howard Baker retiring, he was running for majority leader. “Senator, do you have the votes?” a staffer asked him. Dole replied, “I have the promises. Not sure I have the votes.” So Dole. (He did win.)
• On the stump for her fellow Republicans, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, made a vow: “Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine.” Evidently, Kevin McCarthy is to be the new Speaker of the House. With Nancy Pelosi, the outgoing Speaker, I probably agree on no domestic issue. But on Ukraine and Taiwan, she has been noble and right. May McCarthy and his Republicans do half as well in these departments.
• Another Kevin, Williamson, wrote this:
The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American — would benefit the country.
Also this:
Conservatives have always understood their attachment to the Republican Party to be a marriage of convenience — and now the most convenient thing for conservatives would be a divorce.
(Article here.)
• Donald Trump has claimed that Democrats rigged the Senate election in Arizona. “They stole the Electron [election] from Blake Masters,” he wrote. “Do Election over again!”
The thing about crying wolf is — it’s hard to do it over and over. People get wary, and weary. Even some MAGA people, I wager, are having doubts — doubts about the wolf act. And anti-anti-MAGA people? They are eager to change the subject.
• If it wasn’t before, recent days have made one thing crystal clear: Many people will forgive, or overlook, anything — except losing. This is pure strong-horse-ism, devoid of principle or morality. Also, it is very human. Trump must be bewildered. Where are all his defenders and excusers on TV? It was always dependent on: power. Exclusively? No. But mainly, I think.