Remember, Trump is a venal, vindictive prickToday, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the TPP, an executive order far more pleasing to progressives-- especially to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Sherrod Brown-- than to the Republican Establishment represented by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. The move is upsetting many in the Republican-controlled Congress, not the least, the two Republican senators from Arizona. Jeff Flake says he expects a Trump-backed primary from neo-fascist Republican politician and key Trump ally Jeff DeWit in 2018.
Pre-empting the threat of reprisal, Mr. McCain said he intended to be true to what he saw as his party and his voters: “Trump carried Arizona by four points. I carried my state by 14 points.”Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who like Mr. McCain has repeatedly clashed with Mr. Trump, said that he was preparing for the president to back his opponent in a primary next year-- but that it would not dissuade him from putting up opposition on some issues.“There are some of us who will be pushing to get back to the roots of the party: limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility, free trade,” Mr. Flake said. “Those are things that the party has stood on for a long time.”Mr. Trump and some of his closest advisers say such resistance is not just futile but foolish. And they are already pledging to harness Mr. Trump’s following in the states and districts of recalcitrant Republicans to sound warnings of their own.
Robert Reich posted this on his Facebook page over the weekend:
I had breakfast recently with a friend who's a former Republican member of Congress. Here's what he said:Him: Trump is no Republican. He’s just a big fat ego.Me: Then why didn’t you speak out against him during the campaign?Him: You kidding? I was surrounded by Trump voters. I’d have been shot.Me: So what now? What are your former Republican colleagues going to do?Him (smirking): They’ll play along for a while.Me: A while?Him: They’ll get as much as they want-- tax cuts galore, deregulation, military buildup, slash all those poverty programs, and then get to work on Social Security and Medicare-- and blame him. And he’s such a fool he’ll want to take credit for everything.Me: And then what?Him (laughing): They like Pence.Me: What do you mean?Him: Pence is their guy. They all think Trump is out of his mind.Me: So what?Him: So the moment Trump does something really dumb-- steps over the line-- violates the law in a big stupid clumsy way... and you know he will ...Me: They impeach him?Him: You bet. They pull the trigger.
Or maybe they'll have him eliminated in some other, more unpleasant, less traumatic/less unpleasant, more traumatic, way. One Republican vote for impeachment would likely be Jeff Flake, who denigrated him all through the primary and beyond and who has told people he expects Trump to carry through with his threats to help fund a primary against him in 2018. On Friday, Flake referred it the band of kleptocrats Trump picked for his cabinet as "stellar." When asked, he told some religious right station that "if the president governs like he has picked his Cabinet, then we’re in for a good four years. I think they’ll all get through. I look forward to supporting them." Many predicted that Flake would rally behind Trump's horrendous cabinet picks as a peace-offering to the short attention span, easily manipulated new president.Earlier this month, writing for Roll Call, Alex Roarty speculated that Flake is the most vulnerable GOP Senate incumbent to a primary. If he loses a primary, Arizona becomes the top possible 2018 Democratic pickup. Some Republicans don;t like him because he's been critical of Trump's extremis, on trade and immigration. His allies fear-- possibly expect-- a Trumpist to run against him.
To many GOP officials, no Republican senator is more vulnerable in a primary next year than Flake. The 54-year-old, according to one strategist who reviewed polling data last month, is less popular among likely GOP primary voters in Arizona than even John McCain, who for years has had a famously rocky relationship with his party’s base. The poll showed almost as many primary voters disliked Flake as liked him.And although he has already drawn a challenger-- former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who ran unsuccessfully against McCain last year-- his supporters are more worried about another foe, state Treasurer Jeff DeWit.DeWit was a strong Trump supporter, serving as chairman of his Arizona campaign before becoming his national campaign’s chief operating officer. And people close to Flake worry that DeWit could potentially exploit the senator’s adversarial history with Trump. Flake routinely criticized Trump’s conduct during the campaign, culminating in a tense showdown on Capitol Hill in July.An incumbent senator has many advantages in a primary, including institutional support, name recognition and money. But none of those things might matter if the combative Trump-- the leader of the Republican Party with an unrivaled bully pulpit-- becomes personally involved in the race, a possibility that scares Flake allies above all else.“Obviously, you hope Republican presidents support their incumbents,” said Steve Voeller, Flake’s former chief of staff. “But … that remains to be seen.”At the end of September, Flake had only $594,000 on hand. By comparison, GOP Sen. Rob Portman, who ran a model campaign en route to winning re-election last year, had $5.5 million on hand at the same point.Officials are confident that Flake, who they say makes a point of avoiding fundraising events before his re-election cycle begins, will raise a lot of money fast.Flake allies are also signaling that the lawmaker, who has frequently defied his party in the past, will look for areas of cooperation with the incoming administration. The first test comes this week, when Flake will have a chance to confirm Trump’s picks for his Cabinet....Republicans are also hopeful that Vice President-elect Mike Pence will help bridge the gap between the senator and the White House: Flake and Pence, who both previously ran conservative think tanks and served in the House together, are personal friends.
