Last Call For Like A Kansas Tornado, Con't

What better way for the worst senator in the GOP to show he's all for deep austerity cuts than with the endorsement of the most despised governor in America?

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has become the first sitting governor to endorse Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for president. 

The Rubio campaign announced the endorsement Monday. “Just like Governor Brownback, Marco has consistently defended life, small government and free enterprise throughout his career in public service,” Rubio midwest spokesman Jeremy Adler said in a statement. 

Kansas Republicans will caucus Mar. 5. 

Brownback, a Republican who once ran for president, endorsed then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2011. Perry was a candidate for the 2016 GOP nomination but withdrew. 

“Marco Rubio has a proven track record of protecting life, defending religious liberty, and undoing Obamacare,” Brownback’s statement said. “He will be a wonderful president, and I am proud to offer him my full support.” 

Brownback’s decision is a mild surprise. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is a favorite of many religious conservatives like Brownback. Jeff Roe is the campaign manager for Cruz, and he has had some influence in Kansas. Kansas is a caucus state, like Iowa, where Cruz prevailed. 

He might have also endorsed fellow Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, or former Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush has appeared in Kansas with Brownback. 

It’s possible Brownback may consider Rubio the most electable Republican in the GOP field. Brownback will be looking for work after the 2018 election, and may have an interest in a position with the federal government. A Republican in the White House would be a prerequisite for a federal job.

Quite the job resume there, especially the part where Brownback drove Kansas into a hole. And Marco Rubio thinks that's going to help him in Kansas next month?

Sure thing, Marco.  Keep telling yourself that.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article60470866.html#storylink=cpy

The Mask Slips Again

...and again Republicans reveal their cards, accidentally telling the truth.  Today's contestant: Sen. Marco Rubio, who gets into an argument with the Sunday shows and gives the game away over Scalia's replacement on SCOTUS.

On Meet the Press, Rubio again insisted that there should be no nominations from a “president nearing the last few months of his administration.” 

“Do presidential terms end after three years?” NBC host Chuck Todd shot back at the candidate. 

“There comes a point in the last year of the president, especially in their second term, where you stop nominating,” Rubio said. “You basically say, at this point, with a few months left in your term, no accountability from the ballot box on the appointment you’re going to make — on a lifetime appointment.” 

“Eleven months!” Todd interrupted. 

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Rubio if he believed no president should be able to make second term Supreme Court appointments. 

“I’m not saying it’s illegal,” Rubio replied. “I think we should wait until after November before we move forward on confirming any justice to the Supreme Court.” 

Wallace reminded Rubio that President Ronald Reagan appointed Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court in his final year in office. 

“It doesn’t really matter what Reagan did back in ’87,” Rubio opined. “I think the president should allow the next president to appoint the justice to the Supreme Court, and if it’s me — and I anticipate that it will be — I’m going to look for someone in the mold of Justice Scalia, who while irreplaceable, I think is a model jurist and one of the great jurists in American history.”

Of course Marco Rubio is going to insist he gets the opportunity to nominate another Scalia in 2017. He working the refs here to make sure that this happens. Unfortunately, he and Ted Cruz are in position to make sure no confirmation vote happens, and there's little that Obama can do about it.

There is a lot, however, that voters can do about it in November.  The question is will they finally decided to punish the GOP?

I wouldn't hold your breath on that.

You Won't Have Ol' Gil To Kick Around Anymore

The Guardian's Ben Jacobs comes not to praise the Jim Gilmore GOP presidential campaign which ended last week in a cloud of pathos, but to rightfully bury it as a sloppy, embarrassing mess.

The one-term governor of Virginia ran a narcissistic, quasi-delusional campaign, under the premise that a virtual unknown last elected to state office in 1997 could somehow be elevated to the presidency.

Being a quasi-delusional narcissist is not a necessarily a flaw in American politics. No entirely normal person can devote years of their lives to the proposition that they are the most qualified person in more than 300 million to lead the free world. The odds are always long.

After all, what could have seemed more narcissistic than Rick Santorum running for the White House in 2012 after a blowout defeat for re-election to the US Senate? Or, this cycle, what could have appeared more delusional in early 2015 than Bernie Sanders’ belief that a septuagenarian socialist who had never been a Democrat could seriously challenge Hillary Clinton for that party’s nomination.

Gilmore’s sin was not an excess of ego. It was a total lack of a work ethic. He barely campaigned, he did not raise money and he had no political organization. As the Washington Post noted in September, for more than a month after declaring his candidacy he did not hold a single campaign event.

In state after state after state, his campaign missed ballot deadlines. The most press coverage he generated outside of debate appearances was when bored political reporters spearheaded a drive to get him verified on Twitter.

And yet the former governor could not be accused of being a political neophyte. He had also been Virginia attorney general and chair of the Republican National Committee. He had already mounted a presidential campaign, in 2008, a year in which Mark Warner dealt him a crushing defeat for the US Senate. He knew what he was getting himself into.

What he wasn’t doing was running for president.

It's nearly impossible to view it as anything else other than a small man with grand dreams and no real chance.  At least Ben Carson has a book to sell. Gilmore didn't even have that. I'm not sure how much money he wasted, but I feel sorry for anyone who donated to the guy.

Having said that, it's the other Republicans still in the race who represent a real threat to the country.

StupidiNews!

• Saudi Arabia and troops from 20 Arab and Muslim countries are conducting military exercises dubbed Operation North Thunder as Russian forces close in on the Syrian town of Aleppo.
• The Mexican border wall that Donald Trump proposes to build if elected President would cost the US nearly a half a billion yearly in lost wildlife tourism.
• The foreclosure crisis in Nevada has had a direct effect on the 2016 primary races, as keeping track of voters through the mess has led to out of date voter information for the campaigns.
• The US is signaling increasing concern with China using non-naval ships to stake its claims to the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
• A new app aims to crowdsource using smartphones as a network of earthquake detection devices that could detect quakes in real time and notify first responders.