Bring the smellin’ salts! Trump is giving the conservative movement the vapors.
by digby
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| Aunt Pittypat |
It’s time to catch up with our friends in the conservative movement as see how they’re faring as Trump maintains his lead and their boy Cruz continues to lag in second place. Let’s just say they are shocked, I tell you, shocked that Trump would be so petty and rude. Where do you suppose he would get he idea that such behavior is acceptable among the genteel Republican party members?
This is from Richard Viguerie’s outfit:
In Saturday night’s debate when The Donald was asked about whether he still believes former president George W. Bush should have been impeached over the Iraq War. Aside from the fact that it’s a stupid Donald Trumpand completely irrelevant question concerning a president who’s been out of office for over seven years, Trump didn’t take the high road. Instead, he answered:
“First of all, I have to say, as a businessman I get along with everybody. I have business all over the world…
“George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East…
“You call it whatever you want. I want to tell you. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction.”
The establishment dominated audience didn’t take it well, which only served to make The Donald double-down on his position.
Seeing Trump debate kind of reminds me of an old axiom I learned in law school that goes something like this:
“If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.”
Trump has specially saved the “pound the table” tactic for Jeb Bush – an easy target – and especially for Ted Cruz.
In trying to assail Ted Cruz’s candidacy, Trump has neither the law (the Constitution) on his side nor the facts, so he’s resorted to pounding the media (“table”) with absurd accusations regarding Cruz’s eligibility for the office of presidency, as an example.
And he’s counting on an uniformed public to swallow his blather, largely because it distracts from any real discussions of his proposals or qualifications.
Bradford Richardson of The Hill reports, “Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to bring a lawsuit challenging rival Ted Cruz’s eligibility to serve as president — unless the Texas senator ‘clean[s] up his act.’
“’If [Ted Cruz] doesn’t clean up his act, stop cheating, & doing negative ads, I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen,’ Trump said in a tweet.”
Can you imagine someone doing this to John McCain in 2008 or Mitt Romney in 2012? Politics certainly needed a change, but do we have to resort to such childish tactics to achieve it?
The whole notion of Donald Trump demanding for Cruz – or any of the other candidates – to stop with negative ads is absurd, because to him, negative campaigning includes any kind of examination of his background or his proposals.
He would much rather the nomination was handed to him rather than win it. So much for the beauty of spirited competition.
Do you think the Democrats are going to go along with Trump’s complaining about negative ads if he goes up against Hillary Clinton in the fall? Of course not. He’s whining about Republicans because he knows he can get away with it, seeing as a good portion of conservatives aren’t wild about the party brand right now.
The GOP richly deserves a healthy dose of criticism – especially from its own members – but Trump’s constant “table pounding” goes beyond legitimate commentary. For him to call Cruz a “nasty guy,” as he did repeatedly in Saturday night’s debate, is just about the ultimate illustration of the pot calling the kettle black.
Beyond the pettiness, Trump’s bloviating is just another ploy to keep the media and his opponents off balance while engendering more “free” news coverage. Why do you think a debate moderator would ask him about impeaching a former president if they didn’t want a heated and likely insulting response?
In business negotiating sessions Trump’s table pounding creates more room to move towards his position. In politics it buys time for him and delays actually having to offer something substantive.
The Trump “act” has been going on for over half a year now. If he doesn’t like the way politics works, he should go back to building skyscrapers.
Oh, mah stars! He’s just such a ruffian!
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