A Atlantic piece on a coming bio , Romney: A Reckoning, of the US Senator from Massachusetts that has been reping Utah…..
It begins with a text message from Angus King, the junior senator from Maine: “Could you give me a call when you get a chance? Important.”
Romney calls, and King informs him of a conversation he’s just had with a high-ranking Pentagon official. Law enforcement has been tracking online chatter among right-wing extremists who appear to be planning something bad on the day of Donald Trump’s upcoming rally in Washington, D.C. The president has been telling them the election was stolen; now they’re coming to steal it back. There’s talk of gun smuggling, of bombs and arson, of targeting the traitors in Congress who are responsible for this travesty. Romney’s name has been popping up in some frightening corners of the internet, which is why King needed to talk to him. He isn’t sure Romney will be safe.
Romney hangs up and immediately begins typing a text to Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader. McConnell has been indulgent of Trump’s deranged behavior over the past four years, but he’s not crazy. He knows that the election wasn’t stolen, that his guy lost fair and square. He sees the posturing by Republican politicians for what it is. He’ll want to know about this, Romney thinks. He’ll want to protect his colleagues, and himself.
Romney sends his text: “In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”
McConnell never responds…..
…
To Romney, this was the problem with the Trump-era GOP. He believed there were still decent, well-intentioned leaders in his party—they were just nervous. They needed a nudge. A role model, perhaps. As the former nominee, he told me, he felt that he “had the potential to be an alternative voice for Republicans.”
Five years earlier, while running for president, Romney had accepted Trump’s endorsement. At the time, he’d rationalized the decision—yes, Trump was a buffoon and a conspiracy theorist, but he was just a guy on reality TV, not a serious political figure. Romney now realized that he’d badly underestimated the potency of Trumpism. But in the summer of 2017, it still seemed possible that the president would be remembered as an outlier.
Two days before he was sworn in as a senator, Romney published an op-ed in The Washington Post designed to signal his independence from Trump. “On balance,” Romney wrote, the president “has not risen to the mantle of the office.” He pledged to work with him when they agreed on an issue, to oppose him when they didn’t, and to speak out when necessary. He thought of this as a new way to be a Republican senator in Trump’s Washington.
His colleagues were not impressed. A few days after Romney was sworn in, Politico ran a story about the “chilly reception” he was receiving from his fellow Republican senators. The story quoted several of them, on the record or anonymously, griping about his unwillingness to get along with the leader of their party. Romney emailed the story to his advisers, describing himself as “the turd in the punch bowl.” “These guys have got to justify their silence, at least to themselves.”….
Note…
Mitt Romney IS a Conservative Republican….
No doubt….
But he DID vote to support impeaching Donald Trump TWICE…..
I love this quote from the book…
It all helped Mr Romney come to a demoralizing conclusion a few months after the Jan.6 attack,” a very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”
I’ve been saying that for awhile now.Despite their claims most Republicans HATE the Constitution that they claim to be “protecting.”Who really believe that the likes of Matt Gaetz, a two bit authoritarian creep gives a damn about the Constitution?Or how about that piece of White trash Marjorie Taylor Green,the moral equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan.Think she’s ever read a sentence of the Constitution?Then there’s the Orwellian named “House Freedom Caucus” a collection of liars ,cheats and thieves who were fully in support of the totalitarian inclined Donald Trump in his efforts to steal the election in 2020.
The Republican Party is trash.Romney knows that and such explains why he’s getting out.The rot isfar greater than just Trump.It exists at the grassroots as well where hate filled little mini would be dictators almost daily now are taking over local committees intent on imposing their authoritarian views on their local communities.
For those here and elsewhere who seem to believe that just exorcising Trump from the Republican Party will cure what ails it?You are living in a dream world.The totalitarian impulse which is now guiding this party is way to well entrenched to simply melt away.
The Republican Party hates the Constitution!
They also hate voters and high voter turnout.
We all need to stay focused on the future of our democracy going forward. Republicans only care about being in charge — you only need to look at Wisconsin or what they recently tried in Ohio for proof. Or the re-writing of history, book banning, or their newest villain — transgender people.
One of the reasons I don’t post here much is that I am spending my time raising money for Joe and Adam Schiff. It’s actually easy to do, just time consuming.
I refuse to believe that folks want to return to a Trump Administration. I am doing my best to help stop that.
Keep at it Keith…….
I think Schiff pull’s it out…
Schiff does have the support of all the Big Oil oligarchs(see the boy in the bubble upthread), whose relation to the plight of average Americans is tenuous to nonexistent at best.
However, if Lee doesn’t gain traction(very possible if the Schiff/Feinstein conspiracy implodes and she gets appointed by Newsom), Porter probably has a high enough base of non-astroturfed support to win.
Schieff would seem to have more media recognition OUTSIDE California…..
I know he has raised a LOT of money……
Yea Jack….
For the most part?
It DOES SEEM that way
They are afraid and just want to own America and Not deal with what and who it is Now
S.E. Cupp writes:
he heartfelt eulogies poured in from both sides of the aisle after Utah Sen. Mitt Romney announced he would not seek reelection in 2024.
Democrats and Republicans alike agreed that the Senate, the Republican Party, and indeed the country was losing a good man, a decent man, one of the last principled politicians on the planet.
The media was especially despondent, and many admitted they’d gotten it wrong when they covered him in 2008 and 2012.
Patricia Murphy in the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote, “At the time, he was so gee-whiz and perfectly presented that he was hard to take seriously. Regrettably, I often referred to him on social media as ‘Mittens.’ ”
She sees Romney differently now, though: “[L]ife under President ‘Mittens’ should not have been so easily dismissed.”
David Brooks wrote in The New York Times:
“Sometimes you do things that make you feel ashamed. It was the first day of the Republican convention in 2012, and I had nothing to write about, so I wrote a humor column mocking the Romney family for being perfect in every way. It was a hit with readers, but the afternoon it was published, I crossed paths with two of Mitt Romney’s sons, and they looked at me with hurt in their eyes, which pierced me. I’d ridiculed people for the sin of being admirable.”
Philip Elliott wrote in Time of Romney’s re-emergence as a “Lazarus” figure in Washington:
“Romney was the lone Republican to vote for conviction during Trump’s first impeachment trial, became an important negotiator for deals with Joe Biden’s White House, and stood-in as a moral core for what conservatism could ideally stand for and against.”
This is all a lovely way to memorialize Mitt’s political career, but it’s also an admission that everyone was wrong about Romney, and for very bad, very cynical reasons.
Too perfect, gee-whiz, goofy, earnest — none of these descriptors should have been disqualifying.
But Democrats and the media went even further in trying to ruin Romney in 2012, just to get Barack Obama reelected….
Thanks to Corey’s Prognostications for the top
https://tribunecontentagency.com/article/s-e-cupp-romney-is-a-good-man-who-was-always-a-good-man/
Thank’s DSD….
Keith is STILL not cutting the guy any slack…..
Mitt joins Liz Cheney
Chris Christie
And other like minded individuals casted aside by most of their political party….
Mitt Romney is whatever you want him to be.
I love the line that the Democrats tried to ruin Romney in 2012?!!
Really, he was the one dishing out racist troupe’s through his campaign. He went low while Obama went high.
It’s easy to forget after almost eight years of Trump and his Party, but Mitt dog whistled pretty good back then.
And yes, Mitt did vote to convict the Great White Hope, only after he crawled on his belly to Trump for a cabinet post. Seems he was willing to give up his Senate seat for that.
Part of Mittens’ calculation in this new honesty rests firmly on the fact that the Republicans would never re-nominate him next year.
Nixon, Bush, and Romney all blew that racist dog whistle. Trump outdid them with his bullhorn and a shamelessness unmatched in our politics.
The Republican Party has finally arrived where Nixon sent it.