Don't Blame The Donald! It's The GOP GRIFT DRIFT: Defeat Has Many Fathers But Mostly Kevin McCarthy & His Pals Frank "The Fraud" Luntz and Jeff "Under FBI Investigation" Miller
Isn't McCarthy the majority leader? He should resign in disgrace
“Red waves” become red mist when the agenda is written by the lobbyists who enrich themselves at our expense. This is what I’ve come to calling the GOP “grift drift.”
In a world in which nothing matters, the man who believes in nothing save his own power, will find that he had all the friends in the world. That is, until he calls upon them.
Now we’ve already spoken at length about Kevin McCarthy’s deep, personal and financial corruption. We’ve pointed out how Frank Luntz, his occasional roommate, is a total fraud and a con man. We’ve even noted, in passing, how lobbyist Jeff Miller is under investigation by the FBI, for his involvement in the tax cheating company Ryan LLC. This investigation was reportedly why Amazon terminated Miller’s contract earlier this month — days before what was supposed to be a red wave.
I mean just take a look at Miller’s clients. Are these the clients making America great again?
Naturally, and on the moment of his would-be ascension, Miller had been sleeping with another congressman’s wife. Say, is this how a majority leader allows his bag man to operate? Of course not. But that’s how Miller’s been going about things.
What we haven’t gotten into is the why of the thing.
The GOP has a nepotism and corruption problem because it has centralized power within its conference. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s particularly bad when the absolute power is stupid.
During the 2017 discussion of the Trump tax bill I told a member of Congress that it would be the end of the suburban Republican. My friend told me that he thought it would be great for Florida and Texas where there were low taxes and lots of land to develop. I told him that that would only work in a low interest rate environment. Besides, who wants to live in the path of hurricanes?
There is no vision of the GOP other than Gen X greed. If we’re honest, this is what the grift drift was already about.
Fortunately the Boomers and the Zoomers defeated the Doomers and given that Millennials and Zoomers will make a majority of the electorate in 2024, GOP had better do a better job than they’ve been doing.
What’s this mean for Trump?
Well, there’s no path to the presidency without the support of the rednecks.
Put another way: there’s no path to the GOP nomination without Trump and there’s no path back to the White House with Trump.
Call this the Trump paradox.
I’d say this gives Trump exactly the negotiating leverage he needs with the Biden Justice Department.
Michael Cohen says that Jared Kushner’s the mole. Maybe.
But maybe Trump, long an FBI informant, is still an FBI informant…
Looking forward to Charles’ take on the FTX scandal.
Grift is a design feature of the two party system. It's why "club" members are all up in both parties and so intent on preserving the back-and-forth show.
The real shame from election day is how the fully-legalize-child-sacrifice amendments won in so many places, especially in Michigan.