This is E.J. Dionne, Jr., on the sudden rush by Republican politicians to take down blowhard wig-stand Donald "Rump" Trump, a gas giant they once courted assiduously:
The problems that bother us most are the ones we bring on ourselves. This is why Republicans are so out of sorts with Donald Trump. The party created the rough beast it is now trying to slay.Like Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry Butchmeup" Graham (R-Secessionland):
“Hey, didn’t this guy call me, like, four years ago?” he [Trump] asked about Graham. According to the Republicans’ provocateur-in-chief, Graham wanted a “good reference” to “Fox & Friends,” a show on the network that conservatives revere, and then to know whether “he could come and see me for some campaign contribution.”How about future Lenscrafters spokesmodel Rick "Oops" Perry:
Trump struck again on Wednesday, tweeting a picture with another of his Donald-come-lately critics, former Texas governor Rick Perry, “in my office last cycle playing nice and begging for my support and money. Hypocrite!”Then we've got Republican "Elder Statesman" Millionaire Mitt Romney:
... When he accepted Trump’s endorsement during the 2012 Republican primaries, Mitt Romney was giddy about how cool it was to be with the man who emblazons his name on gaudy hostelries.
“There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life,” Romney enthused when he got Trump’s backing at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. “This is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight. I am so honored and pleased.”As Dionne notes, this kissing up was going on at a time when Rump was in full birther mode, continuing to question President Obama's citizenship long after definitive proof had been provided. Dionne concludes it's hard to be sympathetic when the beast starts biting the hands that have fed it for so long:
Sorry, but the real Donald Trump has been in full view for a long time, and Perry’s new glasses can’t explain his newfound clarity. I don’t credit Trump with much. But he deserves an award for exposing the double-standards of Republican politicians. They put their outrage in a blind trust as long as Trump was, in Perry’s words, “throwing invectives in this hyperbolic rhetoric out there” against Obama and the GOP’s other enemies. (our emphasis)Rump's impact on this and future election cycles may well be that, in voicing the ugly id of the Republican Party, he shows what a collection of craven hypocrites the party "leaders" are.
