Republican governors are taking their party in hand. Removing Romney from memory is at the top of the agenda.
A telling sign of their determination to change course was their swift denunciation of the latest tone-deaf comments by Mitt Romney, who little more than a week ago they were all trying to help elect president.
In a conference call with campaign donors on Wednesday, Romney blamed his loss in part on “gifts” that a “very generous” President Obama had given to African Americans, Hispanics and young people. It was similar in sentiment to his earlier suggestion — also to a group of wealthy contributors — that 47 percent of the American public consists of government-dependent deadbeats who view themselves as victims. ...WaPo
You can be pretty sure that, with a few exceptions, most Republicans continue to agree with Romney’s take on that fantasy 47%. The point is, Don’t talk that way outside of the circle of friends. To be fair to Romney, he didn’t say it outside of the circle. He just got caught saying it to like-minded Republicans who remain like-minded to this day. Who think he’s right and who will continue to think he’s right. But Romney is just not socially acceptable at this time.
While some defeated presidential candidates remain influential figures in their parties, Republicans appear ready to treat Romney as a dinner guest who has stayed too long after coffee.
“There is no Romney wing in the party that he needs to address,” said Ed Rogers, a longtime Republican strategist. “He never developed an emotional foothold within the GOP, so he can exit the stage anytime and no one will mourn.” ...WaPo
As the report points out, they’re turning their attention and their affections to Marco Rubio. If I were Mr. Rubio, I’d be very wary of these “friends.” Cuba would probably be safer…
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Another Republican who has probably earned exile is John McCain. His “erratic” behaviors lately are more than just a sign of old age, they’re a sign of a streak of nastiness. No surprise there, particularly. But it underlines the fact that there’s an awful lot of bull-you-know-what behind the Republicans’ search for something impeachable in the Benghazi story.
As Daily Intel points out, a bunch of Republican senators didn’t even attend their Homeland Security Committee meeting yesterday. McCain’s absence drew attention to this breakdown.
So what caused McCain to miss this important meeting? Why, he was busy holding a press conference about his demand for more information on Benghazi, of course. We guess even McCain is embarrassed by how that turned out, because he was even more crotchety than usual when a CNN reporter asked him about it today:
When CNN approached McCain in a Capitol hallway Thursday morning, the senator refused to comment about why he missed the briefing …. Instead, McCain got testy when pressed to say why he wasn’t there.“I have no comment about my schedule and I’m not going to comment on how I spend my time to the media,” McCain said.
Asked why he wouldn’t comment, McCain grew agitated: “Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment and who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?”
We lost some very good people in Benghazi. As most diplomats tell us — and have been telling us in this case — it happens. You can’t have real diplomacy and guarantee security at the same time. The Republican effort is transparent and demeaning. Now that Republican senators have tangled the Benghazi in the Petraeus mess, they’ll have a lot to answer for, probably more than Petraeus himself. Bad handling, bad politics, dirty stuff.
Maybe once they’ve erased Mitt, they should take a fresh look at John McCain and his colleagues.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
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