The Turtle's Lament

Even Mitch The Turtle thinks the GOP keeping control of the Senate with Trump rampaging through the landscape is going to be a real problem for them come November.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that GOP prospects for keeping control of the Senate after the November elections are "very dicey," sounding an alarm amid mounting Republican concerns about presidential nominee Donald Trump, 

Speaking to a Louisville-area civic group in his home state, McConnell said Senate Republicans were going to be "on defense" in this year's election, regardless of who led the ticket as the party's presidential candidate. 

Twenty-four GOP-held seats are on the ballot this year, compared with 10 for Democrats, he noted. McConnell was promoted to majority leader two years ago when a Republican surge wrested Senate control from Democrats.

McConnell did not mention Trump as being a drag on Republican down-ballot races, but he chided Trump's campaign tactics. The Kentucky senator said he hopes Trump "settles down and follows the script."

When asked by a reporter about Trump's comments labeling President Barack Obama as the "founder" of the Islamic State group, McConnell replied: "I'm hoping that we can make this election about Hillary Clinton. I think if we do, we can win." 

With the election less than three months away, McConnell said Republicans are in "a dogfight," and listed GOP-held seats in New Hampshire, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Indiana as "very competitive." 

"I may or may not be calling the shots next year," McConnell said.

You're probably not going to be calling those shots next year, Mitch.  Let's be honest. And as far as telling Trump to settle down, well, good luck with that.

Donald Trump’s campaign and top Republican Party officials plan what one person called a “come to Jesus” meeting on Friday in Orlando to discuss the Republican nominee’s struggling campaign, according to multiple sources familiar with the scheduled sit-down. 

Though a campaign source dismissed it as a "typical" gathering, others described it as a more serious meeting, with one calling it an "emergency meeting." It comes at a time of mounting tension between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, which is facing pressure to pull the plug on Trump’s campaign and redirect party funds down ballot to protect congressional majorities endangered by Trump’s candidacy.
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The request for the Orlando Ritz Carlton meeting originated with Trump’s campaign, according to a source familiar with the broad details, and is being viewed by RNC officials as a sign that the campaign has come to grips with the difficulty it is having in maintaining a message and running a ground game. 

“They want to patch up a rift that just keeps unfolding,” one source said. “They finally realize they need the RNC for their campaign because, let’s face it, there is no campaign.”

Considering Trump lacks a ground game in Cincy, and in other key places in key swing states, maybe that's true.  I think it's far, far more likely that Trump truly believes his own ego-inflated press and that America will proclaim him leader for life through adoration, because he can't possibly conceive of losing an election. He's Donald Trump, after all.

His rude awakening is going to be lots of fun. Even Mitch is expecting it, and the closer we get to Trump's Waterloo, the more nervous Mitch is going to get about his chances of remaining in that big office in the Senate building.