This morning, the Daily Beast reported that Señor Trumpanzee has told associates he’s so angry about Doug Ducey not overturning the Arizona election results that he’d campaign for Democrat Mark Kelly if Ducey runs for Senate. Trump says he'd gladly embrace the role of spoiler. That's him, alright-- and the GOP deserves him. But he wouldn't really do it... and Ducey, termed out as Arizona governor, has said in January he's not going to run anyway. I assume Trump would not support Mark Brnovich, the current GOP Attorney General, if he runs but two deranged Trumpists are looking into jumping into the race, insurrectionist congressmen Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. And there's always crackpot vanity candidate and Trumpist sociopath Kelli Ward, the current chair of the Arizona GOP.
One serious contender for the nomination is Blake Masters, the COO of Thiel Capital and the president of the Thiel Foundation, both named for the infamous crackpot billionaire (and Trumpist) Peter Thiel, who just put $10 million into the budding campaign via the new pro-Masters Saving Arizona SuperPAC. Thiel also sent $10 million to the SuperPAC backing J.D. Vance for his Ohio Senate primary and is likely to underwrite Joe Kent's primary against Jaime Herrera Buetler in Washington.
Not being members of Congress, neither Masters nor any of the Thiel-owned candidates will be graded for the new Republican grading service, the GOP Democracy Report Card, operated by the Republican Accountability Project. Bill Kristof is the chairman of RAP, whose board includes Elizabeth Neumann, former Deputy Chief of Staff of Trump's Department of Homeland Security, and as DHS Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention; Olivia Troye, former Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor for Mike Pence; and Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark. The first score card is out and has rated every Republican senator and congressman in the 117th Congress. There were only 14 "A" grades-- and more grades of "F" than any other score. There are 4 criteria used in the process and none of them have anything to do with the dichotomy between conservative and progressive:
Did he or she sign on to the amicus brief filed along with Texas’ lawsuit to the Supreme Court that sought to nullify votes cast in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia?
Did he or she object to the certification of Electoral College votes from at least one state?
Did he or she make public statements that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election?
Did he or she vote to hold Trump accountable via impeachment or conviction?
These are the scores of some noteworthy Republicans in the news of late:
Don Bacon (NE)- B minus
Andy Biggs (AZ)- F
Lauren Boebert (CO)- F
Mo Brooks (AL)- F
Mad Cawthorn (NC)- F
Susan Collins (ME)- A
John Cornyn (TX)- C minus
Tom Cotton (AR)- C minus
Ted Cruz (TX)- F
Mario Diaz-Balart (FL)- F
Tom Emmer (MN)- D minus
Joni Ernst (IA)- C minus
Brian Fitzpatrick (pretend moderate-PA)- C minus
Matt Gaetz (FL)- F
Andrew Garbarino (NY)- D
Mike Garcia (CA)- D minus
Louie Gohmert (TX)- F
Anthony Gonzalez (OH)- A
Paul Gosar (AZ)- F
Lindsey Graham (SC)- D
Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q)- F
Josh Hawley (MO)- F
Jaime Herrera Buetler (WA)- A
Jody Hice (GA)- F
Darrell Issa (CA)- F
Ronny Jackson (TX)- F
Ron Johnson (WI)- D
Gym Jordan (OH)- F
John Katko (NY)- A
Young Kim (CA)- D
Adam Kinzinger (IL)- A
Mike Lee (UT)- D
Nicole Malliotakis (NY)- F
Thomas Massie (KY)- B minus
Kevin McCarthy (CA)- F
Miss McConnell (KY)- C minus
Peter Meijer (MI)- A
Lisa Murkowski (AK)- A
Dan Newhouse (WA)- A minus
Devin Nunes (CA)- F
Rand Paul (KY)- D
Tom Rice (SC)- B minus
Mitt Romney (UT)- A
Marco Rubio (FL)- C minus
Maria Salazar (FL)- D minus
Ben Sasse (NE)- A
Steve Scalise (LA)- F
David Schweikert (AZ)- D minus
Rick Scott (FL)- F
Michelle Steel (CA)- D minus
Claudia Tenney (NY)- C minus
Tommy Tuberville (AL)- F
Fred Upton (MI)- A
David Valadao (CA)- A minus
Jefferson Van Drew (DCCC-NJ)- F
Beth Van Duyne (TX)- F
Ann Wagner (MO)- C minus
Lee Zeldin (NY)- F
Also worth mentioning right about here is that this morning Liz Cheney broke with Kevin McCarthy's strategy for preventing an investigation into the 1/6 failed Trump coup. McCarthy and the Trump camp have been demanding that the independent commission investigate BLM and Antifa protests and all the nonsense Fox News uses for its fear mongering programming. Cheney told reporters at the GOP shindig in Orlando that "What happened on Jan. 6 is unprecedented in our history, and I think that it's very important that the commission be able to focus on that. I'm very concerned, as all my colleagues are, about the violence that we saw, the BLM, the antifa violence last summer. I think that's a different set of issues, a different set of problems and a different set of solutions. And so I think it's very important that the Jan. 6 commission stays focused on what happened on Jan. 6, and what led to that day."
Also worth mentioning, although the GOP is united around obstructing Biden's infrastructure proposals, the new Monmouth poll, released today, shows that 68% of Americans support the proposal and just 29% are opposed to it. 94% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 32% of Republicans back it. Another question the pollsters asked-- going right to the heart of Republican (and conservative Democratic) opposition in Congress-- was "Biden is also expected to propose a large spending plan to expand access to healthcare and childcare, and provide paid leave and college tuition support. In general, would you support or oppose this plan?" Support was 64% and opposition 34%. In fact, when respondents were asked what was more important, infrastructure of expanding healthcare, although 54% said they are equally important, 21% said healthcare and 19% said infrastructure. When asked if they would like to see corporate taxes raised to pay, 64% yes and 34% said no and when asked if taxes should be raised on people making over $400,000 a year to pay for it, even more people favored it-- 65%, with 33% opposing. The Republicans in Orlando are sitting around screeching "Socialism!!!!!" at each other.
