UPDATED: Rand Paul On The Bluto - McConnell Strategy
Disgraced former AG Bluto Barr and Cocaine Mitch McConnell appear to be coordinating attacks on President Trump, claiming that Trump incited a mob to attack Congress while it was engaged in "sacred" constitutional duties--putting the finishing touches on The Big Steal. Exactly what the end game is, is anyone's guess. They clearly seem to be egging the Dems on to push for an impeachment trial in the Senate and to convict Trump of ... something. Apparently McConnell believes that Barr's backing will give this push credibility with, well, the GOPe? It surely won't help get Republicans elected come 2022, not if the Georgia runoffs were any indication and not if Trump's approval polling means anything.
To me, all this is mind bogglingly wacky, but each of Barr and McConnell have shown real tone deafness and serious lack of perspective during the past two years. Commenter Ray So-Cal has linked a Zerohedge blog that features Senator Rand Paul being interviewed by Laura Ingraham. Paul speaks lucid good sense:
“I don’t understand how they can be moving forward with this,” he said, before adding
“The thing they’re doing now is an overreaction, and if they think they’re going to have a positive feeling from the public, when they’re going to go through a partisan impeachment again, I think that’s absolutely insane and wrong headed.”
"Absolutely insane and wrong?" Sounds like Trump derangement syndrome on steroids.
Ingraham then asked Paul if he was surprised that McConnell is reportedly planning to instruct Republicans to vote to convict President Trump after he leaves the presidency, in a move that could strip him of his security and prevent him from running for office in 2024.
“I don’t often get asked my advice from leadership on how they should react, but my unsolicited suggestion would be this: They will destroy the Republican Party if leadership is complicit in impeachment, or if leadership votes for impeachment, they will destroy the party.”
“Impeachment is purely a partisan thing, it’s for the moral, ‘Oh I’m so much better than you, and you’re a bad person, because I’m so moral.’” Paul added, “These are the kind of people that are going to do this.”
I think he means, 'It's about virtue signaling.' But Paul believes that Republican voters will interpret that signaling as something quite different from virtue.
“The impeachment is a wrongheaded, partisan notion. If Republicans go along with it, it will destroy the party. A third of Republicans will leave the party.”
“This isn’t about, anymore, the electoral college,” Paul concluded.
“It’s about the future of the party, and if you’re going to ostracize and excommunicate President Trump from the party, then guess what, millions of his fans will leave as well.”
Trump's electoral victories were based on getting people to vote who had never voted or hadn't voted in many years. Those people will stay home if the GOPe continues down this path to a political cliff. Many previously loyal regular Republican voters will also be turned off.
UPDATE: To prove Rand Paul's point: