Karl Rove is mad because the country club lost another room to the pitchfork crowd. Good. Indiana voters saw Republican senators block a map that could have strengthened the GOP, and they cleaned house. That is not self-defeat. That is accountability. The establishment always says the money should be spent “beating Democrats,” but the first step is beating Republicans who refuse to fight. Trump saved Indiana in 2016 by dragging weak-kneed Republicans across the finish line. Now MAGA is saving Indiana again by removing the dead weight. The message is simple: stop managing decline, start using power, or get primaried.
I agree in the sense that I don't like to fight but sometimes it's necessary and while the Democrats are going through their insanity we need to protect ourselves and they have already stated what they will do to Trump if they win.
It's what they will do to Trump, but it's also the trillions of additional dollars of our tax revenue that they will waste on graft and funding parasitism.
I'm an American, Americans love to fight. If we don't have an enemy to fight, we fight each other. Football is the safe solution that keeps Americans who are rivals from lining up in a field armed with muskets and shooting each other.
We learned that tradition from the natives who did it with arrows spears and clubs. We did it better and today we do it better still.
Exactly. Politics is about power and implies “fighting”…if done correctly politics actually prevents violence as a means to settle difference.
The whole distaste for “fighting” and risk are symptoms of our overly anxious culture, fomented by progressivism and feminizing culture. (btw, as a woman, I love my fellow females, just decry misplaced application of empathy and emotions to the wrong spheres).
And why the heck the WSJ continues to headline him (along with Peggy Noonan) tells you all you need to know about how antique the sensibilities of Murdoch's staffers are.
05/08/26: Same thing for the NY Post. They're collectively responsible for that funky Howard-Hughes-in-his-Vegas-penthouse aroma given off when the newspaper lands in your driveway.
05/08/26: Granted, I exaggerate for comic effect, but their editorials and 90% of their Op-Ed guest writers have all the verve of a Don Knotts in a bordello.
05/08/26: On occasion, Devine excels. Goodwin is staler than Bill Cosby's alibis, which is a damned shame because I well remember when his prose was frequently compelling. He simply has been doing the same thing for too long. Generally speaking, no matter who the writer happens to be, the-same-old-same-old lulls his words to sleep. Readers are likely to follow suit.
05/08/26: When Dan Rather finally (if ever) keels over, Rove slides right into the vacated designated-driver seat driving the Bellevue Hospital "Happy Rainbow" bus.
Queensberry Rules Republicans every time. They believe being reasonable, finding compromise, seeking the middle ground is the principled path to pursue in politics.
Being aggressive with demands, working hard--fighting, even--for the interests of their constituents, doing the basic blocking and tackling of politics: making the proposition, asking for the vote, getting the vote out--is beneath them. It's too much like breaking a sweat and getting your hands dirty doing a messy, difficult, back-breaking job.
Isn't the best candidate the one that will perform to the task, as opposed to the one with self-seeking platitudes?
Pence is a weak, pusillanimous excuse for a man whom is still trying to justify his stabbing of his boss in the back over five years ago. He needs to just go away for good.
Pusillanimous pipsqueak works for Pence and Rove. Dr Smith directed this admonition to the robot on TV show "Lost in Space' which I never missed as a kid.
BTW, Not seeing Pence and Rove lately on news programs, but I'm not complaining.
I was a word geek even back then, so I remembered what I just verified:
"Spiro Agnew, the 39th Vice President of the United States, famously used the word pusillanimous in his scathing attacks on political opponents during the early 1970s. He is best known for the alliterative phrase "pusillanimous pussyfooters" (or "pusillanimous pussyfooting"), which he used to criticize those he viewed as lacking the courage to enforce law and order and support the Vietnam War."
Well done, Steph. However, you could also have mentioned another one of Agnew's greats in describing the "mainstream" press: "The Nattering Nabobs of Nihilism." True then, still true today.
Cowardly or weak. I think it was used to describe the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz when The Wizard was handing out the medal to the lion. Pence is worse than the cowardly lion. He’s just a lying coward.
I had to look up who talked Trump into picking Pence for his VP:
Donald Trump was convinced to pick Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate primarily by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, along with key campaign advisers such as Paul Manafort and Kellyanne Conway. Kushner reportedly believed Pence would help secure the evangelical Christian vote, a crucial bloc skeptical of Trump due to his personal history and lack of political experience.
Jared Kushner played a central role, advocating for Pence over alternatives like Chris Christie, whom Kushner resented due to his father’s prosecution by Christie.
Paul Manafort, then-campaign manager, orchestrated a "tryout" meeting between Trump and Pence in Indiana and at Trump’s golf course, helping solidify the choice.
Trump’s adult children, particularly Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, also endorsed Pence after meeting him, calling him "deferential" and "polished," which influenced Trump’s final decision.
The reasons listed in your first paragraph were indeed good and logical reasons to pick Pence, and it probably DID help with the evangelical vote, which may have been crucial. Imagine how different our world would look today if Trump had not won in 2016. And, I would imagine Pence's actual depth of spirituality was felt when the Trumps met him in person. So the choice of Pence is actually very understandable. But it's hard for a vetting process to predict how someone will respond in a crisis.
And American politics in this era has become cutthroat, and the weaponization of a virus (the Covid debacle) and the outright theft of an election (2020) were unprecedented levels of evil attack. Some people recognized some of this immediately at the time, but many Americans (especially on the Left) still haven't gained clarity on what's been going on.
Perhaps Pence played his role in history by helping to get Trump elected in 2016. If he was a factor in that election, we can be very grateful to him. He just turned out to not be a clear-headed warrior in a vicious fight.
But it's not too late to change! Pence could have an epiphany, and go public in his turnaround, and spend the rest of 2026 campaigning hard for Republicans and making speeches to help wake up independents and receptive Democrats to what's at stake. Maybe Trump could extend an olive branch to Pence, in hopes of precipitating such an epiphany. Or maybe Pence could draw deeply on another Christian quality--forgiveness, and forgive Trump for being angry at Pence. Or draw on the quality of humility, in admitting he was wrong. Actually, if Pence could make a turnaround, he would be a Wayshower to the many people on the Left that also need to make a turnaround.
The true weasel was Pence’s “chief of staff” Marc Short. Apparently Short was behind many leaks and other skullduggery to undermine Trump during his first term. And Short is young enough (56) to turn up again like the proverbial bad penny. Head on swivel for any R employing Short.
And he not only looked dignified, but at times he conveyed what seemed like a deep Christian tone. Once I happened on a video of Pence greeting a long stream of Congresspeople of both parties to some event, and I was transfixed by his definite and sincere graciousness and even loving-kindness showed to each one. There can be a real transformative power in that depth of Love.
I do believe Pence has a genuine spiritual depth, but the problem was he could not grasp that in certain situations there are crucial political realities that require some “flexibility” in your “moral purity”.
In this respect, Pence is like Rand Paul, who won’t bend his “political purity” even an inch to vote for urgent Republican bills that NEED his support.
Pence failed to make a key discrimination in thought when he had the power to challenge the Democratic theft of the 2020 election and failed to exercise it.
Religious and moral and political principles are generally good things, but a refusal to bend them when certain dire circumstances require is not actually “principled”. It is perhaps a fear that ANY compromise would be a “slippery slope” to losing your principles, which may indicate a lack of confidence in your own self control.
Or maybe it’s an inability to properly synthesize an aspiration to purity with the realities of human experience, which is nearly always a blend of good and bad. It’s definitely making the perfect be the enemy of the very good.
Pence will never be able to “square this circle”. He should admit his mistake, and seek redemption by joining the fight against the Left that is attempting to destroy America.
Very well said, TPG! The only thing I might add -- though you hinted at it -- is that he has the LOOKS of a very dignified clergyman.
And as to the legitimacy of the 2020 election -- that despite Biden not bothering to campaign, the voter turnout was several millions more than in all previous elections PLUS the one in 2024 should have spoken volumes to Pence. But then, statistics may not be a required course in seminary.
Maybe he can get Indiana to take back its favorite son, Mark Warner, currently U.S. senator from Virginia. And while he's at it, send the other senator - Tim Kaine - back to Minnesoooooota and alleged governor Abigail Scam-berger back to Noo Joisey. Can we please get these carpetbaggers out of the Old Dominion?
Sorry - you are cooked. You did not get enough of your fellow Virginians (I was one for a while) to vote against those fools and for a Veteran, Naturalized Immigrant, Black (oh there is that word), Female - oh geez, did it again. You should have all known that, "the ends justify the means" crowd with hammer and sickles would lie to you - just like a Mohammadan (Churchill's name for Islamists).
The problem is that, even excluding certain and ongoing vote fraud in NOVA (Northern Virginia), as the gub'ment Leviathan expands with gub'ment workers/voters - a very high percentage of whom were not born in the United States - about 5% of the geography controls the over-95% of the state that is sane.
We have been trying to get NOVA to secede and form its own state, but the real answer is available: In 1846, to prevent DC from banning slavery, the DC gub'ment "retrocessed" Alexandria and Arlington BACK to Virginia. As I understand it, PDJT has the authority to give it back to DC, taking it out of Virginia permanently. I'd back that....
I am fully in support of an Electoral College at the State level. You would no longer having metro NYC forcing NY State to follow their insanity; Orlando/Tampa/Jacksonville in FL getting so much power; San Fran/LA in CA; etc., etc.
That would be the true equalizer for the Governors Mansions.
You are correct - Islamists are Satanists. Their "religion" is NOT a true Religion but a murderous CULT. Let us not forget that our first overseas endeavor was to stop the Barbary (Islamists) Pirates from taking our Sailors as slaves. The Marines earned the term "Leathernecks" fighting them as their swords were shaped for the cutting of heads from the bodies of those that did not capitulate. WAKE UP 'Merica.
Yup, and even back then the peons were capitulating and paying them bribes. Today they want to pay the Iranians for passage through UAE waters in the Straits of Hormuz.
And people think it's only the Fwench who are spineless.
05/08/26: The research on Louise Lucas, whose offices were FBI-raided on May 6, 2026, suggests that she's a goner. "Red line" dates include today, May 22nd, and June 7th, 2026.
Saw that. I know corruption is everywhere, but from my admittedly very biased POV, it looks like Democrats have raised it to an art form. They remind me of a kid I knew in college; he insisted in setting his pitiful little pot plant on the roof where it was in plain view. Everybody had got so complaisant about marijuana that they weren't all that careful, but in those days IT WAS STILL ILLEGAL AS HELL. Poor boy went to jail for one scrawny, spindly plant.
In that same way, the Dems have got so used to flouting the law and being protected by Democrat judges that they have become careless. What they don't realize is that everybody knows their party is one big crime syndicate and they are salivating at the prospect of seeing somebody finally go to jail.
05/08/26: I once knew someone who in the 1970s became so careless, he placed his pot plants on a quite-visible-from-the-street-below window sill for sunlight. Big mistake. Sixty years later, he would probably be elected Senator.
Back to NJ?? NOOOOOOO! We have enough problems already with Mikie Mindless, thank you! Another evil witch but with a smattering of brains and we are finished forever!
05/08/26: How the h*ll did we end up with the entire cast of "Beverly Hills 90210," 20-30 years later, as the governors of East Coast states?! Mikie beat out Tori Spelling for the gov job!
The thing that the Rove’s of the party never get, or more likely could care less about, is the disdain MAGA has for elected officials who promise real big and then do nothing but spew out excuses as to why they can’t deliver on those promises.
Trump flipped that script because he is not a politician but rather a successful, problem solving businessman. And we love him and respect him for it!
MAGA has to keep the pedal to the metal on kicking the losers to the curb. Every damn one of these RINO’s need to go.
Absolutely! RINO slugs aren't just incompetent windbags. They are actually double-agents who work for the Democrats to sabotage every thing we do. We need to completely extricate them from the gene pool.
The Trumpster is a problem SOLVER. To keep the grift going politicians will never solve any problems. Throw money at the problem and rake it back in through the back door NGO's. The Dems aren't the only ones doing it.
Those that believe that he is MAGA are beyond deluded. I should have saved the emails I rec’d from his office during Russiagate. They oozed smarm and condescension, and of course criticized Trump. A weak, compromised guy.
Don, that was the hardest choice in your polling in forever! There is not a single person on that list. There should be a selection E - all of the above (but in no order).
Karl Rove got Bush into office - one of my least favorite votes - EVER!!! Karl Rove gave us Obummer, McStain, Ryan, Romney...For decades I held me nose and voted for these people (Never Obummer), but as I use my hindsight, so many times the GOP has been feckless.
We have the majority - force OUR ideas on the Demonrats, they have never stopped pushing their Communist agenda on us. Let them "deal with it", "elections have consequences", whatever you want to add in there. We have the POWER WEILD IT!!!!!!
While we hate Bush today, we need to remember what kind of scum he beat. When compared to Gore, and later Kerry, he looked like a " ten" when in fact he was barely a tenth. Still better than the glowbull whore and the cowardly traitor.
Today I hate him as well. His only good point is his love for our troops.
A number of years ago, a unit returning to Ft Riley was diverted due to weather and landed in Dallas late at night. W and his wife were there to greet them.
That was told to me personally by one of the soldiers from that unit.
I came to loathe Bush more than just about anyone else because I felt he was a two-faced traitor. I always knew that is who he was from the time he was governor and all of our establishment jerks told us, Bush was next. It was his turn. He showed us who he really was when Republicans lost control of congress in 2006. The stinking traitor said, "Good, now I have some people in congress I can actually work with!" And that was immediately after he had thrown Donald Rumsfeld under the bus. He showed me his true colors then and I have always henceforth referred to this jackass as The Chimpmeister, or Boo Boo Bush. And then the scumbag spends his time painting pictures of all of the servicemen he sent to die and be maimed for nothing. He can rot in hell as far as I am concerned
I chose Thune because he is the one that holds everything in his disgusting, RINO, quisling, hands. If he had the desire to win, and the actual willingness to win, Republicans could enact every single thing that has ever been on our wish list in less than TWO months. We could have it all. But we lack leaders who are honestly on our side and want to win. Thune sees his job as preventing us from winning while he runs the clock out on Trump. Thune is our enemy, not our champion, and that is why he is the Majority Leader. Look who the other one was as our choice, Cornyn! Our party sucks.
Unfortunately, as Tony Kinnet pointed out, he doesn't have the votes because Collins, Murkowski, Cornyn and Cocaine Mitch are voting with the communists. Get Fetterman to switch and it's possible.
But that's the difference between a leader and a poser. It would be his stinking job to cajole these recalcitrants into doing what they're supposed to as Republicans by publicly shaming them, initiating pressure campaigns against them in their home districts. You just don't throw up your arms and cry you tried but just don't have the vote. Alex Marlow from Breitbart said that Thune acts like a thermometer when we need a thermostat. He is intentionally impotent.
Trust me, Cornyn is toast. I don't care even if the Trumpster eventually supports him. Mitch is gone soon too. It's MurCowski that needs to go. She is in no way shape or form an actual Republican. However, she can be bought. I wonder what her price is for her vote??
You also need a million dollars. Set a can in your closet for that million to be deposited in. Bet you get the million before you get proof Mitch is sentient.
I have come to believe that a fair amount of "party" discipline in the DementoRat crew could likely now be enforced through blackmail and threats to family, in addition to the traditional sacks of moolah.
And quite a few of the RINOs are de facto DementoRats now.
Being from Indiana and now finally a true bipartisan I have a slightly different take. We work in a bipartisan fashion in Indiana. It is why we are so sane compared to our sister state the fruit loops of Illinois. All of our healthy projects are put out in a bipartisan bidding fashion. There are 31 hospice groups and each has to go through a competitive bidding process so when Trump first admonished us to redistrict my first thoughts were if it ain't broke don't fix it. But as I saw the total insanity of the suicidal kamikaze Democrats I thought this actually might be a good thing and now I rejoice that the rhinos got primaried only because the rest of the nation is so stupid.
I moved to Indiana in 2019, so I missed all of this. But I remember in 2020 attending the 6 "Stop the Steal" rallies held after the election theft, and not one single GOP Senator or Representative attended. Not one for even one rally, even though we were outside the statehouse. They were either afraid to be seen, or they agreed with the theft, or both. Regardless, they showed their true colors.
As we've seen with Kash and other "firebrands" who went to DC, it takes very little time for newcomers to be captured by the system, to bend to the will of the Deep State. It will be interesting to see how these 5 newcomers vote in 2027 - to see how far down the corruption goes. Will they hold to their promises or will the carrot (money) and stick (extortion) work their Deep State magic and turn them against the people who elected them? Time will tell.
I was also on board immediately. My son, an MIT grad, never had any interest in politics before Trump. But he fell in love with Trump and his message and started finding ways to attend his rallies. He went to the one near us in Waterbury, CT. Once people "get" Trump, we can't get enough of him.
So true. His humor and work ethic are legendary, along with his courage.
Heard a clip from this week where Trump complained about spell check changing Melania’s name to “Melody” in emails and when Trump composes a “truth”. Hilarious! And expresses the frustration of many of us with that “helpful” IT hack.
IMHO, Mike Pence is an afterthought, a non-entity. No one even knows his name;
Trump mistakenly trusted Elmer Fudd who, as we all know, is still a backstabbing weasel, bought and paid for by the ChiComs. NoDak’s John Thune is his hand-picked successor.
All it takes is five republicans to remove him from Senate Majority Leader.
Like Pence, no one would know MT-G’s name if it weren’t for Trump.
Which brings me to the truly evil, traitorous and arrogant Paul Ryan, who thought he was smarter than those of US in flyover country.
He and the milquetoast Romney lost an easily winnable election to the 3rd Worst President in American History.
Much of what is wrong in America was caused by Paul Ryan’s FAILURE as House Speaker..
I remember when Paul Ryan first came on the scene as a young Congressman. He seemed like a Golden Boy and a "straight arrow". He was a promoter of Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged, and IIRC was what first drew me to her. I cannot understand what has happened to poison him.
But it is not too late for him, either. Alot of these "fallen Republicans" need to have a turnaround, and quick, and do it publicly, and get to work to help in the midterms. Surely they must see what a lethal threat the Left has become.
That will never happen, TPG, because they think they are smarter than everyone else. Why? No one knows. Politicians create most of the problems we have, solving
TPG, you see the good in humanity, I don’t.
Being a veteran, I’ve seen the worst.
NEVER trust politicians, especially democRATs.
Republicans aren’t much better, but the two I trust most were Ronald W. Reagan and Donald J. Trump.
Grumpy, I see the POSSIBILITY For Good in people, and also I can envision the specific impact they could make if they had a turnaround.
When we just mentally bash on our opponents, in a way, we are pinning them tighter into their bad side. When we can envision the contribution they could make if their good side was to take the upper hand, I think we open a metaphysical door for them that supports the opportunity for a turnaround.
I just love the idea of turnarounds in general. I believe there is something instinctive deep down in everyone's heart, that they want to be good, and they want to experience good.
In some cases this instinct for good may have been hijacked because some organization or ideology seduced them into thinking that organization or ideology was "good", but it wasn't. But the possibility of "wising up" is always present for everyone at any time.
I won’t belabor the point, TPG, but narcissistic, vain and self-centered people, politicians and entertainers especially, can’t change. It’s not in their DNA. They’re right, you’re wrong and, in their mind, that’s the way it is and will always be
Back in 2010, Angelo Codevilla labeled the Republicans as "junior partners" to the Democrats in the Ruling Class. Too many of them still are, 16 years later--state and local as well as national level. But things are changing. Slower than we would like, maybe, but changing. And the Democrats keep going farther and farther left, and away from the mass of the people.
Karl Rove is mad because the country club lost another room to the pitchfork crowd. Good. Indiana voters saw Republican senators block a map that could have strengthened the GOP, and they cleaned house. That is not self-defeat. That is accountability. The establishment always says the money should be spent “beating Democrats,” but the first step is beating Republicans who refuse to fight. Trump saved Indiana in 2016 by dragging weak-kneed Republicans across the finish line. Now MAGA is saving Indiana again by removing the dead weight. The message is simple: stop managing decline, start using power, or get primaried.
I agree in the sense that I don't like to fight but sometimes it's necessary and while the Democrats are going through their insanity we need to protect ourselves and they have already stated what they will do to Trump if they win.
It's what they will do to Trump, but it's also the trillions of additional dollars of our tax revenue that they will waste on graft and funding parasitism.
I'm an American, Americans love to fight. If we don't have an enemy to fight, we fight each other. Football is the safe solution that keeps Americans who are rivals from lining up in a field armed with muskets and shooting each other.
We learned that tradition from the natives who did it with arrows spears and clubs. We did it better and today we do it better still.
Exactly. Politics is about power and implies “fighting”…if done correctly politics actually prevents violence as a means to settle difference.
The whole distaste for “fighting” and risk are symptoms of our overly anxious culture, fomented by progressivism and feminizing culture. (btw, as a woman, I love my fellow females, just decry misplaced application of empathy and emotions to the wrong spheres).
Interesting take!! True. And we fight to succeed and advance our lives.
There is only the fight.
It’s not about what they will do to Trump, it’s what they will do to us, the people.
05/08/26: "Is Karl Rove still alive?" Good God, so he is. He must have escaped from a defective Roach Motel.
"removing dead weight." AMEN
Rove is as irrelevant as Billy Cap'n Kristol. Sound and Fury and not a thing can he do to change 1 thing.
And why the heck the WSJ continues to headline him (along with Peggy Noonan) tells you all you need to know about how antique the sensibilities of Murdoch's staffers are.
05/08/26: Same thing for the NY Post. They're collectively responsible for that funky Howard-Hughes-in-his-Vegas-penthouse aroma given off when the newspaper lands in your driveway.
Ughhh !
05/08/26: Granted, I exaggerate for comic effect, but their editorials and 90% of their Op-Ed guest writers have all the verve of a Don Knotts in a bordello.
I don’t subscribe to NYPost. Do enjoy MIranda Devine and MIchael Goodwin.
05/08/26: On occasion, Devine excels. Goodwin is staler than Bill Cosby's alibis, which is a damned shame because I well remember when his prose was frequently compelling. He simply has been doing the same thing for too long. Generally speaking, no matter who the writer happens to be, the-same-old-same-old lulls his words to sleep. Readers are likely to follow suit.
05/08/26: When Dan Rather finally (if ever) keels over, Rove slides right into the vacated designated-driver seat driving the Bellevue Hospital "Happy Rainbow" bus.
If you want to win the title, you've got to have a contender in the ring.
"I coulda been a contender" types need not apply.
Queensberry Rules Republicans every time. They believe being reasonable, finding compromise, seeking the middle ground is the principled path to pursue in politics.
Being aggressive with demands, working hard--fighting, even--for the interests of their constituents, doing the basic blocking and tackling of politics: making the proposition, asking for the vote, getting the vote out--is beneath them. It's too much like breaking a sweat and getting your hands dirty doing a messy, difficult, back-breaking job.
Isn't the best candidate the one that will perform to the task, as opposed to the one with self-seeking platitudes?
The perfect cartoon for this piece would have Trump in an African hunting pose (à la TR) over a freshly bagged rhino.
Or six of them.
I hope it does become six. Pretty sure a vote margin of 3 ballots (wasn't it?) can be challenged.
Never put it past Karl Roves minions to cheat.
Rove learned 10% of Lee Atwater…
Steph_gray A recount is underway in that race.
Good! I wasn't sure it was going forward yet. Thanks.
We are way past thinning the Herd of RINO Fraudsters! Open season should remain Open until the last of these Unconstitutional criminals are removed!
https://www.infinito-safaris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Rhino-banner.jpg
Oh that's a GOOD ONE!
Was that Christie in front of the camophlage ?
Pence is a weak, pusillanimous excuse for a man whom is still trying to justify his stabbing of his boss in the back over five years ago. He needs to just go away for good.
Had to look up ‘pusillanimous‘. I’m guessing that’s the long version of p*ssy.
Pusillanimous pipsqueak works for Pence and Rove. Dr Smith directed this admonition to the robot on TV show "Lost in Space' which I never missed as a kid.
BTW, Not seeing Pence and Rove lately on news programs, but I'm not complaining.
"pusillanimous pipsqueak..." love it!
That was one of the late Bob Grant's favorite words - used it often to describe the lefties.
Other than on his radio show, I never heard that word anywhere else.
I was a word geek even back then, so I remembered what I just verified:
"Spiro Agnew, the 39th Vice President of the United States, famously used the word pusillanimous in his scathing attacks on political opponents during the early 1970s. He is best known for the alliterative phrase "pusillanimous pussyfooters" (or "pusillanimous pussyfooting"), which he used to criticize those he viewed as lacking the courage to enforce law and order and support the Vietnam War."
Well done, Steph. However, you could also have mentioned another one of Agnew's greats in describing the "mainstream" press: "The Nattering Nabobs of Nihilism." True then, still true today.
I have used nattering nabobs at a few functions and it was easy to pick out patriots.
Didn't Rush use that expression sometimes... nattering nabobs?
Oh I think Agnew would laugh at that twist!
Cowardly or weak. I think it was used to describe the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz when The Wizard was handing out the medal to the lion. Pence is worse than the cowardly lion. He’s just a lying coward.
Wonder how he feels now with the whole world knowing he was played the fool by Nancy Pelosi. One would be hard pressed to find a lower form of life.
Exactly! That was the first time I heard it, oh so many years ago.
I had to look up who talked Trump into picking Pence for his VP:
Donald Trump was convinced to pick Mike Pence as his vice-presidential running mate primarily by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, along with key campaign advisers such as Paul Manafort and Kellyanne Conway. Kushner reportedly believed Pence would help secure the evangelical Christian vote, a crucial bloc skeptical of Trump due to his personal history and lack of political experience.
Jared Kushner played a central role, advocating for Pence over alternatives like Chris Christie, whom Kushner resented due to his father’s prosecution by Christie.
Paul Manafort, then-campaign manager, orchestrated a "tryout" meeting between Trump and Pence in Indiana and at Trump’s golf course, helping solidify the choice.
Trump’s adult children, particularly Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, also endorsed Pence after meeting him, calling him "deferential" and "polished," which influenced Trump’s final decision.
The reasons listed in your first paragraph were indeed good and logical reasons to pick Pence, and it probably DID help with the evangelical vote, which may have been crucial. Imagine how different our world would look today if Trump had not won in 2016. And, I would imagine Pence's actual depth of spirituality was felt when the Trumps met him in person. So the choice of Pence is actually very understandable. But it's hard for a vetting process to predict how someone will respond in a crisis.
And American politics in this era has become cutthroat, and the weaponization of a virus (the Covid debacle) and the outright theft of an election (2020) were unprecedented levels of evil attack. Some people recognized some of this immediately at the time, but many Americans (especially on the Left) still haven't gained clarity on what's been going on.
Perhaps Pence played his role in history by helping to get Trump elected in 2016. If he was a factor in that election, we can be very grateful to him. He just turned out to not be a clear-headed warrior in a vicious fight.
But it's not too late to change! Pence could have an epiphany, and go public in his turnaround, and spend the rest of 2026 campaigning hard for Republicans and making speeches to help wake up independents and receptive Democrats to what's at stake. Maybe Trump could extend an olive branch to Pence, in hopes of precipitating such an epiphany. Or maybe Pence could draw deeply on another Christian quality--forgiveness, and forgive Trump for being angry at Pence. Or draw on the quality of humility, in admitting he was wrong. Actually, if Pence could make a turnaround, he would be a Wayshower to the many people on the Left that also need to make a turnaround.
The true weasel was Pence’s “chief of staff” Marc Short. Apparently Short was behind many leaks and other skullduggery to undermine Trump during his first term. And Short is young enough (56) to turn up again like the proverbial bad penny. Head on swivel for any R employing Short.
I would have a hard time feeling Pence is sincere if he were to start touting MAGA/MAHA now. jmho
jmho means what??? I am not understanding "initials speak."
Just My Humble Opinion
Thank you.
Lately, whenever I see Pence's name show up on a story - it's never good. He takes the opposite position on Trump's initiatives.
Just think how horrid Chris Christie would have been, that just makes me shudder!
Maybe he polishes his little Wiener Schnitzel once in a while but that's about it.
But -- but he looks dignified!!!
And he not only looked dignified, but at times he conveyed what seemed like a deep Christian tone. Once I happened on a video of Pence greeting a long stream of Congresspeople of both parties to some event, and I was transfixed by his definite and sincere graciousness and even loving-kindness showed to each one. There can be a real transformative power in that depth of Love.
I do believe Pence has a genuine spiritual depth, but the problem was he could not grasp that in certain situations there are crucial political realities that require some “flexibility” in your “moral purity”.
In this respect, Pence is like Rand Paul, who won’t bend his “political purity” even an inch to vote for urgent Republican bills that NEED his support.
Pence failed to make a key discrimination in thought when he had the power to challenge the Democratic theft of the 2020 election and failed to exercise it.
Religious and moral and political principles are generally good things, but a refusal to bend them when certain dire circumstances require is not actually “principled”. It is perhaps a fear that ANY compromise would be a “slippery slope” to losing your principles, which may indicate a lack of confidence in your own self control.
Or maybe it’s an inability to properly synthesize an aspiration to purity with the realities of human experience, which is nearly always a blend of good and bad. It’s definitely making the perfect be the enemy of the very good.
Pence will never be able to “square this circle”. He should admit his mistake, and seek redemption by joining the fight against the Left that is attempting to destroy America.
Very well said, TPG! The only thing I might add -- though you hinted at it -- is that he has the LOOKS of a very dignified clergyman.
And as to the legitimacy of the 2020 election -- that despite Biden not bothering to campaign, the voter turnout was several millions more than in all previous elections PLUS the one in 2024 should have spoken volumes to Pence. But then, statistics may not be a required course in seminary.
Well said. Kudos!!
Just be sure he doesn’t have dinner with any women…lol
Maybe he can get Indiana to take back its favorite son, Mark Warner, currently U.S. senator from Virginia. And while he's at it, send the other senator - Tim Kaine - back to Minnesoooooota and alleged governor Abigail Scam-berger back to Noo Joisey. Can we please get these carpetbaggers out of the Old Dominion?
Out of Virginia and into federal prison
Sorry - you are cooked. You did not get enough of your fellow Virginians (I was one for a while) to vote against those fools and for a Veteran, Naturalized Immigrant, Black (oh there is that word), Female - oh geez, did it again. You should have all known that, "the ends justify the means" crowd with hammer and sickles would lie to you - just like a Mohammadan (Churchill's name for Islamists).
The problem is that, even excluding certain and ongoing vote fraud in NOVA (Northern Virginia), as the gub'ment Leviathan expands with gub'ment workers/voters - a very high percentage of whom were not born in the United States - about 5% of the geography controls the over-95% of the state that is sane.
We have been trying to get NOVA to secede and form its own state, but the real answer is available: In 1846, to prevent DC from banning slavery, the DC gub'ment "retrocessed" Alexandria and Arlington BACK to Virginia. As I understand it, PDJT has the authority to give it back to DC, taking it out of Virginia permanently. I'd back that....
I am fully in support of an Electoral College at the State level. You would no longer having metro NYC forcing NY State to follow their insanity; Orlando/Tampa/Jacksonville in FL getting so much power; San Fran/LA in CA; etc., etc.
That would be the true equalizer for the Governors Mansions.
Islamists? They're satanists. BTW, so are most Democrats.
You are correct - Islamists are Satanists. Their "religion" is NOT a true Religion but a murderous CULT. Let us not forget that our first overseas endeavor was to stop the Barbary (Islamists) Pirates from taking our Sailors as slaves. The Marines earned the term "Leathernecks" fighting them as their swords were shaped for the cutting of heads from the bodies of those that did not capitulate. WAKE UP 'Merica.
Yup, and even back then the peons were capitulating and paying them bribes. Today they want to pay the Iranians for passage through UAE waters in the Straits of Hormuz.
And people think it's only the Fwench who are spineless.
Thanks for the reminder about those Democrats!
I sure would like to send Warren back where she would be "OK."
(Kidding - she'd be miserable anywhere. Sourest pickle in the bottle.)
But at the bottom of the Marianas trench, the only ones she'd make miserable are plankton
Too deep for plankton - but whale doody would be upset.
They have discovered some sort of life at those depths, I'm just not going to research it now. Besides, they aren't going to demand we take her back.
I hope.
Okay, I took a few minutes to find out what inhabits those depths. She'd make a lantern fish extinguish it's light.
Maybe she'd find a friend among the sea pigs.
No need to insult delicious sour pickles!
05/08/26: The research on Louise Lucas, whose offices were FBI-raided on May 6, 2026, suggests that she's a goner. "Red line" dates include today, May 22nd, and June 7th, 2026.
Interesting this investigation started under AG Garland but PDJT is being accused of lawfare over it.
05/08/26: Their lawfare (inaugural) was "righteous." PDJT's is automatically "fascist."
Saw that. I know corruption is everywhere, but from my admittedly very biased POV, it looks like Democrats have raised it to an art form. They remind me of a kid I knew in college; he insisted in setting his pitiful little pot plant on the roof where it was in plain view. Everybody had got so complaisant about marijuana that they weren't all that careful, but in those days IT WAS STILL ILLEGAL AS HELL. Poor boy went to jail for one scrawny, spindly plant.
In that same way, the Dems have got so used to flouting the law and being protected by Democrat judges that they have become careless. What they don't realize is that everybody knows their party is one big crime syndicate and they are salivating at the prospect of seeing somebody finally go to jail.
05/08/26: I once knew someone who in the 1970s became so careless, he placed his pot plants on a quite-visible-from-the-street-below window sill for sunlight. Big mistake. Sixty years later, he would probably be elected Senator.
Back to NJ?? NOOOOOOO! We have enough problems already with Mikie Mindless, thank you! Another evil witch but with a smattering of brains and we are finished forever!
05/08/26: How the h*ll did we end up with the entire cast of "Beverly Hills 90210," 20-30 years later, as the governors of East Coast states?! Mikie beat out Tori Spelling for the gov job!
The thing that the Rove’s of the party never get, or more likely could care less about, is the disdain MAGA has for elected officials who promise real big and then do nothing but spew out excuses as to why they can’t deliver on those promises.
Trump flipped that script because he is not a politician but rather a successful, problem solving businessman. And we love him and respect him for it!
MAGA has to keep the pedal to the metal on kicking the losers to the curb. Every damn one of these RINO’s need to go.
Absolutely! RINO slugs aren't just incompetent windbags. They are actually double-agents who work for the Democrats to sabotage every thing we do. We need to completely extricate them from the gene pool.
The Trumpster is a problem SOLVER. To keep the grift going politicians will never solve any problems. Throw money at the problem and rake it back in through the back door NGO's. The Dems aren't the only ones doing it.
Including Cornyn in TX.
Those that believe that he is MAGA are beyond deluded. I should have saved the emails I rec’d from his office during Russiagate. They oozed smarm and condescension, and of course criticized Trump. A weak, compromised guy.
Crony Cornyn is a perfect example of someone creating problems and then campaigning on you have to re-elect me to solve the problems in D.C..
Don, that was the hardest choice in your polling in forever! There is not a single person on that list. There should be a selection E - all of the above (but in no order).
Karl Rove got Bush into office - one of my least favorite votes - EVER!!! Karl Rove gave us Obummer, McStain, Ryan, Romney...For decades I held me nose and voted for these people (Never Obummer), but as I use my hindsight, so many times the GOP has been feckless.
We have the majority - force OUR ideas on the Demonrats, they have never stopped pushing their Communist agenda on us. Let them "deal with it", "elections have consequences", whatever you want to add in there. We have the POWER WEILD IT!!!!!!
While we hate Bush today, we need to remember what kind of scum he beat. When compared to Gore, and later Kerry, he looked like a " ten" when in fact he was barely a tenth. Still better than the glowbull whore and the cowardly traitor.
Touche.
Today I hate him as well. His only good point is his love for our troops.
A number of years ago, a unit returning to Ft Riley was diverted due to weather and landed in Dallas late at night. W and his wife were there to greet them.
That was told to me personally by one of the soldiers from that unit.
I came to loathe Bush more than just about anyone else because I felt he was a two-faced traitor. I always knew that is who he was from the time he was governor and all of our establishment jerks told us, Bush was next. It was his turn. He showed us who he really was when Republicans lost control of congress in 2006. The stinking traitor said, "Good, now I have some people in congress I can actually work with!" And that was immediately after he had thrown Donald Rumsfeld under the bus. He showed me his true colors then and I have always henceforth referred to this jackass as The Chimpmeister, or Boo Boo Bush. And then the scumbag spends his time painting pictures of all of the servicemen he sent to die and be maimed for nothing. He can rot in hell as far as I am concerned
Boo Boo Bush, I like it, from the old Yogi Bear cartoon!
He's his father's son. Bush Sr was just as bad, maybe worse.
Agree Shrub was the better choice.
The evil of two lessers.
05/08/26: A much-needed and dead-on accurate perspective, so easily forgotten (I had). Thank you.
I chose Thune because he is the one that holds everything in his disgusting, RINO, quisling, hands. If he had the desire to win, and the actual willingness to win, Republicans could enact every single thing that has ever been on our wish list in less than TWO months. We could have it all. But we lack leaders who are honestly on our side and want to win. Thune sees his job as preventing us from winning while he runs the clock out on Trump. Thune is our enemy, not our champion, and that is why he is the Majority Leader. Look who the other one was as our choice, Cornyn! Our party sucks.
Unfortunately, as Tony Kinnet pointed out, he doesn't have the votes because Collins, Murkowski, Cornyn and Cocaine Mitch are voting with the communists. Get Fetterman to switch and it's possible.
But that's the difference between a leader and a poser. It would be his stinking job to cajole these recalcitrants into doing what they're supposed to as Republicans by publicly shaming them, initiating pressure campaigns against them in their home districts. You just don't throw up your arms and cry you tried but just don't have the vote. Alex Marlow from Breitbart said that Thune acts like a thermometer when we need a thermostat. He is intentionally impotent.
Susan and Lisa would leave the party, Cornyn don't give a shit and Mitch won't budge.
Thune should just tell them to walk.
Trust me, Cornyn is toast. I don't care even if the Trumpster eventually supports him. Mitch is gone soon too. It's MurCowski that needs to go. She is in no way shape or form an actual Republican. However, she can be bought. I wonder what her price is for her vote??
Which is exactly why he doesn't give a shit.
100% agree with you.
We need proof that Mitch is sentient. Or alive.
You also need a million dollars. Set a can in your closet for that million to be deposited in. Bet you get the million before you get proof Mitch is sentient.
He's a dickless grifter.
"Trump did not do this. Voters did." Pence, Rove, and the 'establishment' that only grifted can wither away...
I'd prefer to see them weeded out now vs later though.
Agreed. It is up to us.
If only there were as many DINOs as there are RINOs we wouldn’t be in the mess that we are in.
A mythical creature. Like a Jackalope.
Fetterman pretends.
I have come to believe that a fair amount of "party" discipline in the DementoRat crew could likely now be enforced through blackmail and threats to family, in addition to the traditional sacks of moolah.
And quite a few of the RINOs are de facto DementoRats now.
They’ve all been honey potted
steph, I sense that you listened to quite a bit of Dr. Demento on our old night time AM stations!
Andy Rooney would say, "I wonder why that is".
Being from Indiana and now finally a true bipartisan I have a slightly different take. We work in a bipartisan fashion in Indiana. It is why we are so sane compared to our sister state the fruit loops of Illinois. All of our healthy projects are put out in a bipartisan bidding fashion. There are 31 hospice groups and each has to go through a competitive bidding process so when Trump first admonished us to redistrict my first thoughts were if it ain't broke don't fix it. But as I saw the total insanity of the suicidal kamikaze Democrats I thought this actually might be a good thing and now I rejoice that the rhinos got primaried only because the rest of the nation is so stupid.
Bipartisan is easy when Republicans have a supermajority. Dems have to agree
Good point.
I voted for Thune, because he's still in office.
All the RINOs in the poll are the worst.
I chose Thune because he is the most immediate threat to the nation, doing the most current damage.
I moved to Indiana in 2019, so I missed all of this. But I remember in 2020 attending the 6 "Stop the Steal" rallies held after the election theft, and not one single GOP Senator or Representative attended. Not one for even one rally, even though we were outside the statehouse. They were either afraid to be seen, or they agreed with the theft, or both. Regardless, they showed their true colors.
As we've seen with Kash and other "firebrands" who went to DC, it takes very little time for newcomers to be captured by the system, to bend to the will of the Deep State. It will be interesting to see how these 5 newcomers vote in 2027 - to see how far down the corruption goes. Will they hold to their promises or will the carrot (money) and stick (extortion) work their Deep State magic and turn them against the people who elected them? Time will tell.
I'll be honest, I was not enthusiastic about Trump in 2016.
But as the primaries and debates went on, ONE THING STOOD OUT.
He's a fighter not a squishy, feckless politician.
Roves original last name was Quisling before changing it. Go away Karl, far, far away
I was a Cruz guy. My background on Trump was that of a tough New Yorker who was a fiscal conservative but socially liberal.
I was wrong. And I'm happy to have voted for him 3x and donated to each campaign.
I'm one of those who was on board pretty much overnight.
But I appreciate the fact that you took a closer look!
I was also on board immediately. My son, an MIT grad, never had any interest in politics before Trump. But he fell in love with Trump and his message and started finding ways to attend his rallies. He went to the one near us in Waterbury, CT. Once people "get" Trump, we can't get enough of him.
So true. His humor and work ethic are legendary, along with his courage.
Heard a clip from this week where Trump complained about spell check changing Melania’s name to “Melody” in emails and when Trump composes a “truth”. Hilarious! And expresses the frustration of many of us with that “helpful” IT hack.
Poll: Decisions, decisions! I have an entire Black Book devoted to Karl Rove.
He always reminds of the character Major Arnold Ernst Toht but with a whiteboard instead of a hanger.
DemBulbBush appropo named TurdBlossum Rove…
Tough poll today, Mr. Surber.
IMHO, Mike Pence is an afterthought, a non-entity. No one even knows his name;
Trump mistakenly trusted Elmer Fudd who, as we all know, is still a backstabbing weasel, bought and paid for by the ChiComs. NoDak’s John Thune is his hand-picked successor.
All it takes is five republicans to remove him from Senate Majority Leader.
Like Pence, no one would know MT-G’s name if it weren’t for Trump.
Which brings me to the truly evil, traitorous and arrogant Paul Ryan, who thought he was smarter than those of US in flyover country.
He and the milquetoast Romney lost an easily winnable election to the 3rd Worst President in American History.
Much of what is wrong in America was caused by Paul Ryan’s FAILURE as House Speaker..
I remember when Paul Ryan first came on the scene as a young Congressman. He seemed like a Golden Boy and a "straight arrow". He was a promoter of Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged, and IIRC was what first drew me to her. I cannot understand what has happened to poison him.
But it is not too late for him, either. Alot of these "fallen Republicans" need to have a turnaround, and quick, and do it publicly, and get to work to help in the midterms. Surely they must see what a lethal threat the Left has become.
That will never happen, TPG, because they think they are smarter than everyone else. Why? No one knows. Politicians create most of the problems we have, solving
TPG, you see the good in humanity, I don’t.
Being a veteran, I’ve seen the worst.
NEVER trust politicians, especially democRATs.
Republicans aren’t much better, but the two I trust most were Ronald W. Reagan and Donald J. Trump.
Grumpy, I see the POSSIBILITY For Good in people, and also I can envision the specific impact they could make if they had a turnaround.
When we just mentally bash on our opponents, in a way, we are pinning them tighter into their bad side. When we can envision the contribution they could make if their good side was to take the upper hand, I think we open a metaphysical door for them that supports the opportunity for a turnaround.
I just love the idea of turnarounds in general. I believe there is something instinctive deep down in everyone's heart, that they want to be good, and they want to experience good.
In some cases this instinct for good may have been hijacked because some organization or ideology seduced them into thinking that organization or ideology was "good", but it wasn't. But the possibility of "wising up" is always present for everyone at any time.
I won’t belabor the point, TPG, but narcissistic, vain and self-centered people, politicians and entertainers especially, can’t change. It’s not in their DNA. They’re right, you’re wrong and, in their mind, that’s the way it is and will always be
Back in 2010, Angelo Codevilla labeled the Republicans as "junior partners" to the Democrats in the Ruling Class. Too many of them still are, 16 years later--state and local as well as national level. But things are changing. Slower than we would like, maybe, but changing. And the Democrats keep going farther and farther left, and away from the mass of the people.