The Parable Of The 'Good Republican'

It's your Sunday show rundown!

 Republicans have always been bad .

The GOP used to be evil like Lex Luthor (ruthless and corrupt businesspeople who want power) instead of evil like The Joker (chaotic, sociopathic death cultists). But with each concession the GOP has made to the worst elements of its base, it's moved a little further down that Joker path, which is also the path of of its toxic, bigoted messiah Donald Trump.

So how do they pull back from the abyss and "fix" their party? A fewnaive"principled" Republicans are trying (with the media's help). Let's see how it's going!

CNN's 'State Of The Union'

Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan spoke to Jake Tapper about Mitch McConnell's attempts to recruit him to retake the Senate. But much like New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu , Hogan noped out of that idea. Tapper kept asking why he wouldn't run for the Senate, at least to "change the direction of the Republican Party and provide a model for pragmatic, fact-based conservative leadership."

Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan on rejecting Senate bid: "I like to get things done and in Washington it seems as if there's just a lot of divisiveness and dysfunction and not a lot gets done. So, it wasn't the right job, right fit for me." #CNNSOTUpic.twitter.com/PR9V7Y2X8t

— State of the Union (@State of the Union) 1644763681 

Tapper played a recently released PAC video featuring Hogan, which seemed to suggest maybe Hogan has ambitions a little higher than Mitch McConnell's Senate, and asked an obvious question:

TAPPER: That's a nice video. And it just lacked the Hogan 2024 banner at the bottom. Are you considering a presidential run?

Hogan did the non-denial denial, but Tapper kept pressing him on it.

HOGAN: Well, we put out great videos like that almost every week. That was taken from my state of the state address last week. And it's pretty well done. But, like I said, I'm going to be -- I'm going to run through the tape as governor until January of next year. I'm going to try to be the very best governor I can be. I'm going to continue to stand up and be a voice. I'm not going to sit back and not be involved in the issues of the day. I'm concerned about the direction of the party and the country. And I will make a decision about 2024 after I finish this job.

TAPPER: So, you are considering it?

HOGAN: We're certainly going to take a look at it after January of '23.

Then Tapper asked why Hogan is going to "take a look" at it, and Hogan explained why he thinks he has a chance in Trump's GOP:

HOGAN: Well, I consider myself a commonsense conservative. I have been a lifelong Republican. I believe that that's where most people in America are. About 70 percent of the people in America are completely frustrated with politics on both sides, Republicans and Democrats. And the latest CNN poll came out and said, right now, only 50 percent of the Republicans would like to see Donald Trump run again. I believe that there is a pretty large lane of sane Republicans. And they're looking for a voice.

You betcha.

CBS's 'Face The Nation'

Another Republican the media has a crush on is Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

 Kinzinger is not your BFF, but we'll admit it when he's telling the truth about Russia, Ukraine, and the increasing number of Republicans who find themselves on the anti-American side of that question.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have more Trump-oriented parts of the party, like Senator Josh Hawley, who recently called on President Biden to rule out admitting Ukraine into NATO. You have similar sentiments elsewhere. What is happening here? I mean, how significant a portion of the Republican Party is moving in this direction?

KINZINGER: Well, I don't think it's a huge portion, but it's way too big and it's growing and it's a huge concern. I mean, what was this five years ago? It might be like somebody like Rand Paul that would say something or Dana Rohrabacher. Now there's a significant number of folks doing it with Tucker Carlson talking about, you know, how great Vladimir Putin is and how Ukraine is really actually part of Russia. I think it's a couple of things. Number one, it could be some naivete on foreign policy, not in Tucker's case. I think it's an affection for authoritarianism.

Even broken clocks can tell Tucker Carlson is an asshole. (I think that's the expression.)

ABC's 'This Week'

We end with South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, who's stuck between cowardly genuflecting to Trump and recognizing that he's not good for politics.

GRAHAM: It's his nomination for the taking in 2024, if he wants. If he wants to be the Republican nominee for the Republican Party, it's his for the taking. [...] Donald Trump is the most consequential Republican in the Republican Party today. He has a great chance of being president again in 2024. If he'll start comparing what he did as president versus what's going on now and how to fix the mess we -- we're in. If he looks backward, I think he's hurting his chances.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: [...] You said the president was going to have to change if he wanted to be competitive in 2024. He doesn't really show any signs of changing. He continues to lie about the 2020 election. A couple weeks ago he talked about pardoning the January 6 rioters. He called you a RINO [...] Republican In Name Only because you disagreed with that. There's no evidence that the president's going to change.

GRAHAM: Well, here's my statement about the president's situation right now. He's the most dominant figure in the Republican Party.

Have a week! And ...

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