Rick Scott Terrified Trump Will Cost GOP The Senate ... Again

It’s the one thing he might do twice in a row.

The actor Charles Grodin, a personal hero, passed away this week, and I've been thinking about this passage from the introduction to his memoir,  It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business.   

Candy Bergen and I were filming the movie 11 Harrowhouse in a castle outside London. We were sitting in a room off of the main hall where the cameras were being set up. After a few minutes an Englishwoman appeared. I don't know who she was, but she acted as though she had a Duchess-or-something title. She said: "Did someone ask you to wait in here?" “No," we answered, a bit taken aback. She responded: "Well, it would be so nice if you weren't here."

This reminds me of the Republican Party's current situation with the former White House squatter. It would be so nice if he weren't here, but he refuses to go away. So, they'll pander to him because they can't risk losing his insurrection-friendly supporters.

Florida Senator Rick Scott, who heads up the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wants to restore the Senate to GOP control in 2022, but his biggest obstacle is the one-term loser, who won't accept that he is a big loser and should keep his distance from Republican candidates. He already helped Republicans lose Georgia's US Senate runoffs because he wouldn't stop whining about his election defeat or attacking other Republicans. He's recently called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a “dumb son of a bitch," which is unfair because McConnell's not dumb.

Scott has all but begged the former guy to stay away from GOP Senate primary races, especially if they involve incumbents. During an appearance Tuesday on Fox News Radio's "Brian Kilmeade Show," Scott discussed his recent conversations with the Mar-a-Lago resident.

From Florida Politics:  

"What I've suggested to him is to let the citizens of that state pick their primary winner," Scott said. "And then help those that win that he believes in."

"And so, but, you know, he believes in things that I believe in," Scott said, returning to talking points about a "secure border" and so on.

The “secure border" rhetoric is absurdly hilarious considering that the pussy grabber in chief's big 2016 campaign promise was to build WALL and stick Mexico with the bill. He failed completely, but he did manage to terrorize some children. His supporters probably consider that almost as good.

Scott is desperate to avoid another situation like the Georgia runoff election, which was great for decent people but a disaster for Republicans. He wants to repeat the same formula that worked relatively well during the 2020 general election: Smear Democrats as cop-hating socialists so superficially “polite" Republicans can win swing districts. That's harder to pull off in the more MAGA-than-ever GOP where only complete subservience to the mad king's delusions is acceptable.

The one-term loser is obsessed with vendettas, especially against the Republicans he believes didn't do enough to shred democracy in his favor. Scott has gotten on bended knee and asked the twice-impeached thug to stay out of open primaries and not work against incumbents. If you have to remind a former sitting president not to fuck with his party's incumbents, you're wasting your time. Scott's better off suggesting that axe murderers in slasher films leave the skinny-dipping teenagers alone.

"I've suggested that he support the incumbents, all the incumbents," Scott said on ABC "This Week," before admitting it may have done no good.

"When I give advice to somebody, I don't necessarily expect them to take it," Scott allowed.

Scott isn't confident in the efficacy of his own advice. It's so defeatist. Maybe before giving the previous president his very own Presidential Participation trophy, Scott should've required that he not set fire to the GOP like a deranged Mrs. Danvers. 

 James Lankford from Oklahoma,   John Thune from South Dakota, and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska are all on the MAGA shit list to varying degrees. Those are all safely Republican seats, so the one-term loser might think they are shoo-ins to replace with a devoted stooge. The flaw in that fascist reasoning is that if the Senate races are all about him, it makes it harder for Republicans to win in battlegrounds such as Nevada, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. Cindy McCain is the sort of candidate who could potentially defeat incumbent Senator Mark Kelly, but the Arizona GOP censured her. 

There's reason to feel good about Senate Democrats' chances in 2022, especially if the GOP can't avoid dying on the Cheeto Jesus cross.

[ Florida Politics ]

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