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Mitt Romney

Why Romney's 'Centrist Third Party' Is Such A Very Stupid Notion

One can sympathize with Mitt Romney for deciding not to run again in Utah for the U.S. Senate. The traditional Republican has found himself isolated in a party where majorities still revere Donald Trump.

Romney had apparently discussed the idea of forming a new centrist party with West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin. It would "endorse whichever party's nominee isn't stupid," Romney told biographer McKay Coppins.

That sounds sensible, but it actually might hurt the cause of peeling away the curse of Trumpism. Here's the problem:

A designated centrist would drain votes from Democrats as well as Republicans — and in the very swing districts that Democrats need to win if our politics are to return to normal. The far more effective strategy is to simply support Democrats running against the crazies.

The end game must be to make the Republican Party lose power. When that happens, the GOP may fix itself or another conservative party could rise from the ashes.

We know there are attractive Republican moderates who are not stupid — but who recently replaced Democrats in purple districts. They may denounce the lunacy of the authoritarian right, but their positions are of no consequence if their very presence in Congress empowers the worst of the worst.

And the worst of the worst are running the House of Representatives. Ever since the pathetic Kevin McCarthy sold his soul for the speaker's gavel, a handful of mephitic self-promoters have taken control. They now threaten to shut down the government for some stupid reason or another. They get away with their stunts because McCarthy has the slimmest of majorities.

Without the Republican moderates, he'd have no majority at all. The Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would almost certainly be in charge. (Jeffries is so moderate that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez contemplated having him primaried by a left-winger.) The day may come when the Hatfield-McCoy approach to politics is replaced by a more cooperative rivalry, but it won't under the current Republican leadership.

The most admirable Republicans are those who choose to run bravely facing the tsunami of Trumpian sludge. We speak of Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who sought reelection knowing she would almost certainly lose the primary to one of Trump's flying monkeys. The same goes for Peter Meijer, the Michigan Republican who voted for Trump's impeachment.

Cheney has said that if Trump again becomes the GOP nominee in 2024, she will campaign for Democrats running against Republicans spraying election lies. Her idea is simple and could be effective.

Helping Cheney's cause are Republican donors now hiding their checkbooks from the current party leadership. Consider the example in Michigan of real estate mogul Ron Weiser, who gave Republicans $4.5 million in the 2022 midterm. He's now had it. He can no longer stomach the "ludicrous" claims that Trump won Michigan in 2020.

"I question whether the state party has the necessary expertise to spend the money well," he told Reuters. Translation: They've joined the grifters.

By the end of March, the Arizona Republican Party had less than $50,000 in cash reserves. Why so little? It had spent over $300,000 on lawsuits intended to throw out Arizonans' votes for Joe Biden. And it blew more than $500,000 last year on an election night celebration for Trump-backed candidates, every one of whom lost in the midterms.

A third-party candidate might attract Republicans loath to cast a ballot for a Democrat. We get that. But rather than risk dividing the electorate in a way that could help the toxic election-deniers, disaffected Republicans would do well to partner with Cheney.

In this country one party or the other wins power. And that's why a third party could boomerang on its sponsors.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Margie Greene Mails X-Rated Images Of Hunter Biden To Voters

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is under fire from Democrats after using an appearance at a congressional hearing to display stolen images of a naked Hunter Biden. Greene also included the images of Biden engaged in sex acts in an email newsletter to her constituents.

Greene warned, “Parental discretion is advised” before she held up enlarged images of President Joe Biden’s son with a black box obscuring his penis, which she claimed were evidence that he was engaged in human trafficking. Greene then sent video of herself at the hearing showing off the explicit photos in an email newsletter, which could have been viewed by minors. The video she sent had a warning that said it included “disturbing” images and counseled parental discretion.

The images were explicit enough that Fox News, which aired the hearing live, blurred the images on its feed.

Greene, for her part, has accused the LGBTQ community and Democrats of “grooming” and “sexualizing” children.

The hearing where Greene displayed the explicit images was about whether the charges Biden faces for failing to pay his taxes on time were too narrow.

Republicans have claimed Biden received preferential treatment over the charges, which amount to a misdemeanor. Yet legal experts say that Hunter Biden was actually treated too harshly and that average citizens wouldn’t have been charged under the same set of facts.

Democrats were aghast at Greene’s behavior and called her out during the hearing and afterward.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) interjected as Greene held up the explicit photos, asking Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, “Should we be displaying this?”

“In an effort to own Hunter Biden, they’re assembling nude photos of him, having some intern have to sit in a room and blow up these photos and put it on poster boards and figure out, Oh, which ones are beyond the pale?” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said at the hearing.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said, “Today also marked a new low when pornographic images were paraded in this hearing room.”

“I don’t care who you are in this country. No one deserves that,” she said. “It is abuse, it is abusive.”

According to a tweet posted by Max Cohen, a reporter for Punchbowl News, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) criticized the hearings, calling them “a malignant clown show that are not designed to address issues that impact the health, safety and economic well being of the American people.”

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Justice Thomas' Billionaire Pal Displays Trove Of Nazi Memorabilia

Justice Thomas' Billionaire Pal Displays Trove Of Nazi Memorabilia

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' billionaire GOP donor, Harlan Crow, indulges in a "startling and strange" hobby.

Per Washingtonian, the megadonor and longtime friend of Thomas spends his time adding to a rare collection, which includes "Hitler artifacts—two of his paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and assorted Nazi memorabilia—plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century's worst despots."

This comes after ProPublica reported earlier this week, the SCOTUS justice, "for more than two decades, has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them."

A source who requested anonymity told the magazine, "I still can't get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia. It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room."

The source added there were paintings "done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler."

Washingtonian reports:

Crow, the billionaire heir to a real estate fortune, has said that he’s filled his property with these mementoes because he hates communism and fascism. Nonetheless, his collections caused an uproar back in 2015 when Marco Rubio attended a fundraiser at Crow’s house on the eve of Yom Kippur. Rubio’s critics thought the timing was inappropriate given, you know, the Hitler stuff.

Additionally, a Dallas Morning News reporter who visited Crow's home in 2014, told Washingtonian the megadonor was "visibly uncomfortable with questions about his dictator statues and Hitler memorabilia, preferring to discuss his other historical collections: documents signed by the likes of Christopher Columbus and George Washington; paintings by Renoir and Monet; statues of two of Crow’s heroes, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher."

The longtime conservative justice responded to ProPublica's report earlier this week, and "acknowledged joining the GOP megadonor and his wife on 'a number of' family trips over the past two decades but insisted that he was told such hospitality 'from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable.'"

Furthermore, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for "articles of impeachment against Thomas 'to be introduced' in response to ProPublica's revelations."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

How A Texas Primary Exposed Divisions Within The Democratic Party

How A Texas Primary Exposed Divisions Within The Democratic Party

It’s a race that has some Democratic voters scratching their heads: a young, progressive primary challenger versus a pro-life, conservative Democrat who received an A-rating from the NRA. The primary race between one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, Representative Henry Cuellar, and Jessica Cisneros has become a lightning rod within the Democratic Party.

Cuellar declared victory, but as of Wednesday morning, major media outlets have said the race is too close to call. He is just a couple hundred votes ahead of his Cisneros in Texas' 28th Congressional District primary. When neither candidate won a majority in the March 1 primary, the two highest vote-getters faced each other in Tuesday's run-off election.

Top House Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) backed Cuellar despite his status as the only self-identified pro-life Democrat in the Senate.

Cisneros, 29, was supported by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and the young progressive seized on the news of the Supreme Court leak to overturn Roe v. Wade. She closed the gap between her and Cuellar from two percentage points on March 1 to a photo finish on Tuesday.

Abortion, Gun Safety At Issue

Key issues for the Democrats this fall, abortion and gun violence, are central to Texas politics. Texas Republicans are leading the pack to peel back abortion rights, and on Tuesday a gunman killed 19 children and 2 teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Cisneros attempted to paint Cuellar as a conservative Democrat who would hurt the Democrats’ chance of passing key legislation.

“There's so many key issues where he's always siding with Republicans, and he could become the Joe Manchin of the House. We don't want Henry Cuellar to be the deciding vote on the future of our fundamental freedoms and rights in this country. We just can't risk that,” Cisneros told Meet the Press.

For his part, Cuellar tried to thread the needle, claiming he does not run on his pro-life views and focuses on other important issues.

Top Democrats like Pelosi have come under fire from the progressive wing of their party for directing significant resources to Cuellar’s campaign.

As reported by The American Prospect, a Super PAC with former consultants for President Obama, President Biden, and Senator Sanders donated $241,000 to Cuellar’s campaign. Cuellar also regularly highlighted his endorsements from Pelosi, Clyburn, and Hoyer,

Cuellar came under fire not just for his conservative political views, but also for an FBI raid on his home just a month before the March 1 primary. The FBI raided Cuellar’s home as part of an investigation related to Azerbaijan, but the FBI and Department of Justice have been tight-lipped about the status of the probe.

Democratic Discord

The race put divisions within the Democratic Party on display. And questions remain as to whether those disputes can be set aside before the general election in November -- and whether progresssives will line up with party leaders.

Ocasio-Cortez not only backed Cisneros, but she has spoken out harshly against Cuellar and Democratic leadership. She called the race “an utter failure of leadership," adding, “Congress should not be an incumbent protection racket.”

She continued on Twitter, “on the day of a mass shooting and weeks after news of Roe, Democratic Party leadership rallied for a pro-NRA, anti-choice incumbent under investigation in a close primary. Robocalls, fundraisers, all of it.”

Cisneros was seen as a potential new member of the Squad, a group of more progressive female representatives that has faced backlash from Democratic leadership. Nonetheless, the group has fallen in line with party politics more than conservative Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

But disagreement over primaries has been a regular source of discord between the progressive wing of the party and party leadership. At the end of the day, the story will likely be that Democratic leadership saved Cuellar’s political career. But, the battle between these two wings of the Democratic Party is far from resolved.