The GOP’s Solomon’s choice
by digby
It looks like the GOP establishment actually is deciding it will be better to get thumped with Trump than lose with Cruz:
The most dramatic example of anti-Cruz sentiment came from former House Speaker John Boehner, who told an audience at Stanford University that Cruz was “Lucifer in the flesh” and that he would never vote for that “miserable son of a bitch” in a general election. He would, however, support Trump.
Former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg also blasted Cruz as a “demagogue’s demagogue” in an interview with WMUR and said he would vote for Trump in November but write in House Speaker Paul Ryan if Cruz won the nomination.
Nor is this problem limited to party elites — Kasich supporters drawn to his message of steady bipartisanship have stubbornly refused to unite behind Cruz to stop Trump even as their candidate sits fourth in the delegate count in a three person race.
Perhaps even more shocking than Boehner’s brutal dismissal of Cruz was Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker’s warm embrace of Trump the same day.
Corker is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and often a key player in brokering bipartisan agreements, including the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that Trump and Cruz have each vilified on the campaign trail.
“I just hope that we don’t let demagogues prevail and that we finally deal with this issue and put it behind us,” Corker said after the 2014 election, in which a number of Republican candidates won races while railing against “amnesty.”
Not surprisingly, Corker has been a sharp critic of Trump at points in the race, most notably saying his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States ran “completely counter to the values and principles of our great nation.”
After Trump delivered an often contradictory foreign policy speech that was widely panned by experts, Corker issued a statement gushing over the remarks and told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell he was excited Trump “challenged the foreign policy establishment here in Washington.”
It’s too bad for them. This won’t break the fever. If Cruz loses, it would take the starch out of the conservative movement once and for all. They’d try to excuse the loss with some cockamamie explanations but they will not be able to say it was because the candidate wasn’t conservative enough. I guess the GOP establishment figures it’s better to keep putting up with the congressional freedom caucus and the Tea Party than it is to take a chance on electing an ignorant madman. Maybe they’re patriots in their own twisted fashion.
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