Last Call For Trumpster Dumpsters

So there are quite a few Republicans who aren't so much "upset" with Trump's rampant racist, misogynist and Islamophobic garbage as they are "convinced he's going to lose".  Republicans are okay with racism, misogyny and Islamophobia, that's why Donald Trump won their primary easily. What they really hate however is a loser, so the "Dump Trump" long knives are out.

Some lawmakers, senior members of the Republican National Committee and delegates to the party’s convention next month in Cleveland acknowledged in interviews this week that another disruptive self-inflicted crisis would force the party to begin seriously looking at ways to deny Mr. Trump the nomination.

So far, discussions of a renewed dump-Trump drive have taken place only among the factions of the party that are openly opposed to Mr. Trump, and they have failed to gain much support.

But Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel’s Mexican heritage should disqualify him from hearing a lawsuit against Trump University has reawakened talk of hatching a convention coup — a complicated and nearly impossible measure of last resort that has no precedent in modern Republican politics.

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and one of Mr. Trump’s most unapologetic backers on Capitol Hill, suggested this week that Mr. Trump had “a crucial two- or three-week period” to smooth out his rougher edges or put his nomination in jeopardy.

Stopping Mr. Trump at this point could prove additionally difficult, however, because he has quietly filled the most important convention committees — those that will determine the rules and platform — with delegates loyal to him.

Initially seen as not having a strong delegate whip operation, Mr. Trump can now count on about half the seats on the platform and rules committees, according to Republicans who have been tracking delegate selection. This is a major turnaround from two months ago, when Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign was sweeping the delegate contests.

The bottom line is that Trump has until the end of the month to show he can be coached and that his people can get a handle on containing his toxic waste dump of a mouth, otherwise the Republicans are apparently going to try to depose him.

I'm all for an ugly convention and I'll tell you why: the Republicans out there who supposedly see Trump as a problem have one last chance to save their party or be consigned to the dustbin of history. They are going to have to decide which is worse: the immediate amputation of the Trump wing of the party, or the soul cancer of him taking over as head that will slowly wipe them all out.

The first option will cost them 2016. The rough beast slouching towards Cleveland will not abide being starved, and they will turn on each other, coughing up either a badly weakened nominee with Trump as a serious third party threat, or a perhaps a Trump with no support in the general and the GOP simply taking a dive to clear the decks.

The second option however will cost them the country for a generation, it will be their McGovern moment. For even the notion of dumping Trump to be in print is either sign of the RNC throwing a Hail Mary or so utterly incompetent in the message discipline department now that they are doomed in November anyway (and probably a long time after that).

Do I think the Republicans are smart enough to save themselves from Trump?  Possibly. But are there enough of them with the courage to do so?

Don't make me laugh.

The Next Bundy Ranch

Armed insurrection against the federal government only seems to happen when there's a Democrat in the White House, and I doubt that will change under Madam President.  However, let's not forget that there's still seven months left in the Obama administration, and it looks like we're going to have another episode of Bundy Ranch/Oregon Wildlife Sanctuary idiocy on our hands this summer, this time in Utah's Cedar Mesa.

Now, President Obama is weighing whether and how he can leave his own permanent imprint on history by designating about 2 million acres of land, known as the Bears Ears, as a national monument. 

And despite the uniformly acknowledged historical significance of the area, some people regard the conservation efforts by the White House as classic federal overreach. In the current-era conflict between Washington and rural Westerners, the idea of a Bears Ears national monument has produced warnings of a possible armed insurrection. 

In a state where the federal government owns 65 percent of the land, many conservatives already resent existing restrictions because they bar development that could generate additional revenue. Out-of-state militias came to San Juan County two years ago, when Commissioner Phil Lyman helped lead an all-terrain-vehicle protest ride through a canyon the Bureau of Land Management had closed to motorized traffic in 2007. Lyman is appealing the 10-day jail sentence he received in connection with the protest, and he argues that his case shows how BLM officials place the priorities of environmentalists over those of local residents.

“I would hope that my fellow Utahans would not use violence, but there are some deeply held positions that cannot just be ignored,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, the veteran Republican lawmaker, said in an interview.

Well, that's certainly comforting.  And once again, the President clearly has the law on his side.

But some lawmakers have suggested that unilateral action by the president, under the 1906 Antiquities Act, could provoke the same sort of resistance that led to the 41-day armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon earlier this year. 

“There is a lot of conflict that has escalated into being on the precipice of violence that is unnecessary and unwarranted,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who opposes the designation. 

Obama has approached the designation of national monuments as a way to bolster the country’s defenses against climate change and as a way to make the national narrative more inclusive, in addition to his obligation to safeguard the country’s national treasures.

Please note that Utah Republicans aren't saying that the President doesn't have the authority to do this, note that they are saying if he does designate the national monument that he will provoke possibly deadly violence and it will be his fault.

That's insanity.

President Obama is attempting to protect Native American culture (and more than any other president in memory he has done quite a bit in that regard) as well as land vulnerable to climate change and the response from the "loyal opposition" is "Oh, well you can do that but *I* wouldn't, you're likely to get somebody shot."

Can Republicans not be awful, even for a moment?

Liz Laser Lights Up Lame Loser

It amazes me that with all the opponents that went after Donald J. Trump in the primary that the best man for the job of taking him down turns out to be a very intelligent, very qualified woman: one Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

He has personally — personally! — directed his army of campaign surrogates to step up their own public attacks on Judge Curiel. He’s even condemned federal judges who are Muslim on the disgusting theory that Trump's own bigotry compromises the judge’s neutrality. You just can’t make this stuff up. 

Now, like all federal judges, Judge Curiel is bound by the federal code of judicial ethics not to respond to these attacks. Trump is picking on someone who is ethically bound not to defend himself — exactly what you would expect from a thin-skinned, racist bully.

These are the words that Republicans should have used a year ago to stop Trump. They chose not to (something about racist, thin-skinned glass houses and several metric tons of palm-sized rocks perfect for throwing) and the result is a huge target on the GOP presumptive nominee that Sen. Warren and other Democrats will be hitting on a regular basis for the next six months.

Expect it.

By the way, if you think this is a hell of an audition for Hillary's veep pick, you would not be the only one.

StupidiNews!

• President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have all formally endorsed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic party nominee for President.
• The US military will now be allowed a greater role in assisting Afghan forces against the Taliban by joining regular Afghan troops into combat and not just special operations forces.
• Russia says it will respond the the entry of a US naval ship into the Black Sea ahead of a July NATO summit in Poland.
• The success of recent Broadway musicals like Hamilton is spurring the theater industry to push for the same tax deductions that television and movie productions get from Congress.
• The names of four heavy elements on the periodic table have been formalized by scientists as the world officially meets Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson.

Last Call For Becoming A Target

The wingnut "backlash" against Target stores and the company's trans-inclusive bathroom policy just stopped being "funny".

A small bomb exploded in the women's bathroom at a Target store in Evanston on Wednesday, and officials are investigating whether it’s connected to the company’s policy allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice. 

Commander Joe Dugan says no one was inside the bathroom when the small explosion happened a little after 4 o'clock. It caused minor damage and no one was injured. Early indications are that a plastic bottle was used but no projectiles like nails or tacks were inside it. Investigators are gathering evidence including examining store security camera video. 

Target has been criticized recently for its stand on allowing people in the LGBT community to choose whichever bathroom they identify mostly with, either male or female, stating the company welcomes, "transgendered team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.” 

In response, 700,000 people signed an online petition promising to boycott Target. Evanston police say they have not ruled out the explosive device planted here may somehow be connected.

So yeah, now we have open domestic terrorism in public bathrooms, and even if this is somehow not connected to Target's inclusiveness, somebody is still blowing up bathrooms.  If I'm one of the people boycotting Target for having a soul, I would want this case solved in milliseconds. Hell, I want this case solved regardless because it's a terrible thing to do.

Jesus.

Getting The Sharap(ova) End Of The Stick

Tennis star Maria Sharapova now faces a two-year suspension from the sport after testing positive for doping.  She's appealing her suspension to the sports world's governing body, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Sharapova tested positive for meldonium, a World Anti-Doping Agency banned substance, following a January 26 urine test. Sharapova admitted to the ITF and to the press in March that she had used the substance. 

Sharapova said she had been taking a medicine known to her as mildronate, which she said she did not know is also called meldonium, for 10 years, and that the WADA had only added meldonium to the list of banned substances starting January 2016. She characterized the doping as unintentional. 

The tennis player had a hearing in May in front of an Independent Tribunal, after which it was determined she should be suspended for two years retroactive to January 26, and have the results of her Australian Open “disqualified.” 

On Facebook, Sharapova said she will appeal the suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, calling the two-year suspension “unfairly harsh.”

I have to wonder about anyone using a "medicine" for ten years to improve her performance and then saying "Oh gosh, I didn't know". We're not talking Flintstones vitamins here, guys.

In the Independent Tribunal’s report on Sharapova’s suspension, it said she is the “sole author of her own misfortune”:

The contravention of the anti-doping rules was not intentional as Ms Sharapova did not appreciate that Mildronate contained a substance prohibited from 1 January 2016. However she does bear sole responsibility for the contravention, and very significant fault, in failing to take any steps to check whether the continued use of this medicine was permissible. If she had not concealed her use of Mildronate from the anti-doping authorities, members of her own support team and the doctors whom she consulted, but had sought advice, then the contravention would have been avoided.

In other words, Sharapova was using this stuff for a decade and got away with it because she was using it secretly.  If she had asked any of her doctors or WADA, they could have helped and settled the matter privately. She didn't, and she's paying a heavy price for it.

The WADA doesn't screw around.  Ask Marion Jones or Lance Armstrong sometime.

TrumpIng Kentucky Republicans

Here in Kentucky, Democrats are barely holding on to control of the State House as the last line of defense against increasingly unpopular GOP Gov. Matt Bevin's austerity regime, and November could very well hand over control of the House to the Republicans.  But along came Donald Trump...

Kentucky Republicans say they have years of momentum and that a big voter turnout in November for a presidential election will help them seize majority control of the Kentucky House of Representatives for the first time since 1921. 

“A fantastic chance,” said Tres Watson, spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky. “We have good candidates. And the demographics of a presidential year combined with how Kentuckians are voting more and more Republican at the federal level make us highly competitive.” 

But Democrats survived an GOP aggressive challenge in 2014 and say that momentum swung back their way in March when Democrats won three of four special elections for vacant House seats. 

“I feel very strong about our prospects to hold onto our majority,” said Rep. Sannie Overly, of Paris, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus and the Kentucky Democratic Party. “We’ve heard this from those folks (Republicans) before. And we have consistently out-recruited, out-worked and out-performed their candidates. This year is no different.”

Democrats now hold a 53-47 majority in the House, which remains the only legislative chamber in any southern state in Democratic control. 

The stakes are extremely high. Republicans are sure to retain a big majority in the Kentucky Senate in November, and flipping the House would allow the GOP and Republican Gov. Matt Bevin to pass much more of their conservative agenda. 

Many Republicans believe the presidential race pitting Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton will help many of their candidates – particularly in Eastern Kentucky, where Clinton’s March comment about putting miners out of work resonates loudly despite her efforts to say the comment was a mistake and taken out of context. 

But Overly said, “The Trump campaign appears to be imploding on a daily basis. Who knows what it will look like in November? He may well be a drag on their ticket.” 

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said Democrats plan to run against Bevin on the funding cuts he initiated to universities and his veto of a budget provision that would have expanded preschool eligibility. 

“I don’t believe the governor’s message is popular," he said. "We ran against it in the special elections, we’ll run against it again this fall.”

If Trump isn't a drag on the ticket for KY state races, Bevin may very well be.  His education cuts are becoming more and more of an issue here along with his Medicaid cuts and across-the-board cuts to many state cabinets.  I don't have any illusions that Clinton will win here, but it doesn't mean that people won't keep sticking with Greg Stumbo and the Democrats this fall, either.

We'll see.

StupidiNews!

• Thousands are expected at the funeral service for boxing legend Muhammad Ali today in Louisville, the city continues its three-day celebration of the Champ's life and legacy.
• A House bill to help bail out Puerto Rico from its $70 billion debt crisis is set for Thursday as final amendments were set in the House Rules Committee.
• Israel has revoked work permits for tens of thousands of Palestinians after two gunmen opened fire on an Israeli shopping center in Tel Aviv Wednesday, killing four before being captured.
• As the US solar power industry had a record quarter, for the first time the majority of new power capacity in the country came from solar.
• The nation's internet security companies are hoping that they can help automakers secure "connected car" wi-fi code at a conference in Detroit this week.

Last Call For Golden State Blues

As John Nichols reminds us, the only thing more dysfunctional than the Party of Trump at the national level is the Party of Trump in California, and Trump may finish them off for a second generation.

Fifty years ago, California was a reasonably Republican state—with a Republican named Reagan on his way to being elected governor, two Republican senators representing the state in Washington, and the pieces in place to back the GOP nominees in the next six presidential elections. Republicans did not always win California, but they had the upper hand.From 1952 to 1988, only one Democratic presidential candidate won the state—and that was Lyndon Johnson in the Democratic landslide year of 1964. 

As recently as 1988, Californians voted for Republican George H.W. Bush for president and Republican Pete Wilson for the US Senate. But that was the end of it. California has not voted for a Republican for the presidencyor for the Senate since that year. 

This year, the California GOP looks to be headed for disaster in the presidential race, with some recent polls showing Donald Trump gainingless than one-third of the vote. And that’s not the worst of it. The GOP won’t even have a Senate candidate on the ballot.

Yep, that's right.  Sen. Barbara Boxer's replacement will be a Democrat, because Republicans are so pathetic in the state they couldn't even finish second in the state's primary.  And let's not forget what started the end of the decline for the GOP in California: immigration.

Two decades ago, Republican Governor Wilson championed California Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative designed to discriminate against undocumented immigrants. The initiative’s proposed restrictions on access to education, healthcare, and social services were draconian, and unconstitutional—as the federal courts eventually determined. 

The Republican push for the measure proved to be political folly in a state with a growing Hispanic population and a substantial Asian-American community. The Proposition 187 fight identified California Republicans with anti-immigrant policies, while Wilson’s veto of legislation that sought to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation fostered additional concerns about the party’s intolerance in a state with a large and active LGBT community. 

Wilson was certainly not the sole source of the California GOP’s image problems. But when he left office in 1998, Wilson’s tenure was recalled by The Washington Post as an era of “divisive politics” in which the California governor and his party “championed voter propositions to end affirmative action, social services for illegal aliens and bilingual education.”

Demographics crushed the Republicans in the state, and the rest of the union is headed California's way.  The fact that Republicans are toast in the most populous state in the country should have clued them in years ago, but then again, these are Republicans we're talking about.  They've lost the state since Clinton and will probably not win the state again in my lifetime.

Mitch The Turtle Meets Don The Con

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is watching GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump destroy the Republican's Senate control in real time, and he's scrambling to try to put The Donald's racist toothpaste (whitening formula!) back in the tube.

At an event promoting his memoir Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was “stupid” for Donald Trump to single out a judge’s Mexican heritage and said the Republican presidential candidate should apologize and “get on script.” 

He did not, though, back away from supporting the New York real estate magnate.
Instead, McConnell criticized Trump for statements the Republican presidential candidate has made about Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over a court case involving his defunct real-estate training program, Trump University. 

“I worry about these gratuitous shots at a variety of Americans,” McConnell said in a discussion of his book, “The Long Game,” at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington policy group. “Basically, we’re writing off Hispanic Americans.” 

Trump has said that Curiel is biased against him because Trump has proposed to build a wall at the Mexican border to curb illegal immigration. Although Curiel’s parents are from Mexico, he was born in Indiana and is known for his tough approach to Mexican drug cartels. 

“Even if you thought that was appropriate in any way, which I don’t,” McConnell said of Trump’s singling out of Curiel’s Mexican heritage, “it’s stupid to do that.” 

McConnell and many prominent Republicans have criticized Trump’s remarks but continue to back him. Trump should apologize and “get on script,” McConnell said. 

“It’s time for him to look like a serious candidate for president,” he said. “This could be a winnable race.”

And by "get on script" he's saying "please use the more acceptable racist dog whistle terms for Hispanic voters rather than your overt foghorns, you're killing us in the polls."

It seems Sen. McConnell has discovered that Donald Trump may in fact have coattails of negative length, and are suprised that after a couple decades of treating (non-Cuban) Hispanic immigrants like an infestation that people are less likely to vote for the guy who wants to deport millions and build a giant wall to keep "them" out.

The real problem is that Trump is just saying out loud what the GOP has been implying for years, and there's a lot of increasingly uncomfortable Republican voters who are finding out that there's not a whole lot you can do to avoid being labeled a racist when you've nominated an unapologetic racist nationalist popular with white supremacist groups as your party's standard-bearer.

Oh and Mitch: you wrote off "Hispanic Americans" a long time ago.  Pay attention.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article82431632.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article82431632.html#storylink=cpy

The Last Days Of Bern-peii

With Clinton taking California and New Jersey, Bernie Sanders is now over and done, and he knows it.

Senator Bernie Sanders plans to lay off at least half of his campaign staff Wednesday as his battered presidential bid continues despite Hillary Clinton’s being declared the presumptive Democratic nominee, two people close to the campaign said Tuesday.

Many of those being laid off are advance staff members who often help with campaign logistics, as well as field staff members who have been working to garner votes for the senator, according to a campaign official and a former campaign staff member, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Some campaign workers may move into jobs at Mr. Sanders’s Senate office, but others will be terminated, they said.

Word of the layoffs came on a night that Mrs. Clinton declared that she had captured the majority of pledged delegates needed to capture the Democratic nomination, despite a spirited fight from Mr. Sanders, who has showed no signs of ending his campaign.

Mr. Sanders insists that he is prepared to challenge Mrs. Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in July, holding out hope that his lobbying of superdelegates — party officials and state leaders who cast their final votes at the convention — will siphon support from Mrs. Clinton as he makes his case that he is a stronger candidate against Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Mr. Sanders’s spokesman, Michael Briggs, said Tuesday that Mr. Sanders planned to travel to his home in Vermont on Wednesday and then head to Washington on Thursday. Campaign aides say he plans to hold rallies in Washington, which holds the last nominating contest on June 14.

And as a reminder, the continued sour grapes coming from the defeated Sanders camp comes from Sanders himself.

There’s no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders.

It was the Vermont senator who personally rewrote his campaign manager’s shorter statement after the chaos at the Nevada state party convention and blamed the political establishment for inciting the violence.

He was the one who made the choice to go after Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz after his wife read him a transcript of her blasting him on television.

He chose the knife fight over calling Clinton unqualified, which aides blame for pulling the bottom out of any hopes they had of winning in New York and their last real chance of turning a losing primary run around.

And when Jimmy Kimmel’s producers asked Sanders’ campaign for a question to ask Donald Trump, Sanders himself wrote the one challenging the Republican nominee to a debate.

There are many divisions within the Sanders campaign—between the dead-enders and the work-it-out crowds, between the younger aides who think he got off message while the consultants got rich and obsessed with Beltway-style superdelegate math, and between the more experienced staffers who think the kids got way too high on their sense of the difference between a movement and an actual campaign.

But more than any of them, Sanders is himself filled with resentment, on edge, feeling like he gets no respect -- all while holding on in his head to the enticing but remote chance that Clinton may be indicted before the convention.

That's it.  Sanders's message of real progressive change to pull the country left to help the working class is now "I hope the FBI indicts Hillary." And it came from Sanders himself.

It's all he has left now, and it's an unfortunate end to his legacy.  Maybe he can turn it around and support Hillary, but the fact that there's major questions about whether or not he will is everything you need to know.

StupidiNews!

• With Tuesday primary wins in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and California, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton now moves towards the general election.
• However, Bernie Sanders told his supporters in Santa Monica last night that he will not concede and will continue to attack Clinton through next month's convention.
• Turkey's Prime Minister is blaming separatist Kurds of the PKK for a car bomb that killed 3 and injured dozens in the city of Midyat.
• South Africa's economy may be nearing recession as low global commodity prices continue to affect the country's mining and farming exports, leading to a 1.2% contraction in 1Q 2016.
• The NFL's official Twitter account was compromised after the account's password was discovered in an email by the league's social media staff.

Last Call For The First Of Many

In the battle of two Tea Party Republicans fighting it out for one seat in NC, it's Rep. Renee Ellmers who ended up without a chair when the music stopped.

Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) lost her bid for reelection Tuesday, becoming the first GOP congressional incumbent to lose their seat in 2016.

Ellmers, who was elected in 2010 amid the tea party takeover of the House, lost in the Republican primary to Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) in North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes suburban and rural Raleigh.

Holding won with over 53 percent of the vote with 96 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Ellmers was barely clinging to second place ahead of Greg Brannon, edging him by little more than 200 votes.

Brannon previously ran for Senate in 2014 — earning an endorsement from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — and lost to Sen. Thom Tillis (R). Brannon ran again this year, losing to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) in the March Senate primary.

Holding used to represent the 13th Congressional District but chose to run in the 2nd district after court-mandated redistricting took effect earlier this year, prompting an incumbent-versus-incumbent showdown.

It's important to note that in the case of this GOP primary, Ellmers had the endorsement of Donald Trump. Which is weird, because she's one of the handful of Republicans who realized that in an increasingly larger Hispanic voting population in NC, voting against the President's executive orders on immigration was a bad idea.

While Ellmers criticized Obama’s executive actions, saying she would “fight tooth and nail to put a stop to his amnesty plan,” she said in a statement that the bill was “overly broad in scope, as it has the potential to have a real negative and lasting impact on jobs and families in North Carolina.”

“There are businesses in the Second District who contract with Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and many of these jobs could be put in jeopardy with the passing of this legislation,” Ellmers said in the statement her office issued in response to questions.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article24778438.html#storylink=cpy

She forgot she's a member of the party that wants to deport millions, and it cost her with them.

A whole lot of Republicans are going to find themselves in similar positions this year.

I won't miss them when they are back home and out of Congress.

Trump Cards, Con't

And the septic tank that is the GOP continues to make excuses for Trump's overt racism.

This was probably not the interview that New York state Representative Lee Zeldin had in mind.

The Republican Congressman sat down with CNN’s John Bermanand Kate Bolduan Tuesday morning to address his support for Donald Trump head-on in the aftermath of the newest controversy embroiling the campaign. Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee for President, has been arguing that an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage can not fairly oversee a lawsuit involving Trump University given the candidate’s proposed southern border wall.

Shortly after House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump’s comments — but not the man — “textbook racism,” Representative Zeldin had a tougher time walking that razor-thin tight rope.

“I think that Mr. Trump made a regrettable mistake with his statement,” Rep. Zeldin admitted.

But as soon as Berman and Bolduan turned up the heat on Zeldin to hold him accountable for defending someone embattled in a controversy of racism, Zeldin seemed to buckle and squirm with discomfort.

His answer on Trump?

"There’s more than just words to define a person and, by the way, aside from words, there’s a whole lot more to define everyone, but you can easily argue that the President of the United States is a racist with his policies and his rhetoric."

Ahh, the ol' "prove the NAACP isn't racist" canard.  From a grown man and Member of Congress, no less.  But this is who they are, folks.  And they are proud of their hatred.

And in November, they will still control a hefty chunk of this country.

The Huckster Returns

With Trump now the presumptive nominee, his former opponents have of course been on his side against the Republican establishment since the beginning, right?

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said in a radio interview on Friday that establishment Republicans should be happy that they are not being executed by angry voters.

“Who made it possible for Obama to have the Iranian deal, full funding for Obamacare, Planned Parenthood funding? Republicans did that,” Huckabee, a Trump surrogate, said on the Sean Hannity Show.

“And they’re getting what they justly deserve, they’re getting spanked,” he continued. “And they need to be happy they’re only getting spanked and not executed because there is seething rage out in country for those who have fought to help some of these guys get elected. And they get there and they surrendered to Obama and people are sick of it. And I think that’s why we’ve seen the spirit of this election, and frankly Donald Trump gives me great comfort. I tell people, ‘I don’t have any hesitation going out there and genuinely supporting Donald Trump.’”

Now you can say Huckabee realized early on that Trump was going to win, backing The Donald well before he packed his own campaign in, appearing at Trump events as early as January, taking on the role of Trump surrogate.

The problem is of course that The Huckster's not a very good surrogate.

KELLY: When did he repeatedly disavow the Klan?

HUCKABEE: Well, he did it in his Twitter account. He did it on Friday --

KELLY: The Klan or David Duke?

HUCKABEE: Well, both. And I don't know of anybody who has ever suggested that Donald Trump is a racist. I'm not speaking as somebody who's out there advocating for Trump. I just want to say that I just don't think that Donald Trump has given any indication that he's supportive of the Ku Klux Klan. My gosh, who would be? --

KELLY: None except in that interview, is what his critics say. None except in that interview, is what his critics say. Because it was so strange that he would say on Friday, "I disavow David Duke," and then when specifically asked on Sunday, act like he didn't know who David Duke was.

HUCKABEE: You know, I can't answer that. You know, I really can't. You'll have to ask Donald Trump because I haven't talked to him about it. But the fact is --

KELLY: How do you explain that? What his critics say is the explanation is he heard very well and he was trying to give some sort of a dog whistle to people in the South who don't want to hear David Duke disavowed. That's what Mitt Romney is suggesting right there.

HUCKABEE: Sure. Mitt Romney wasn't on the ear piece. Neither was Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. And I wasn't either.

KELLY: But Trump heard, Trump heard David Duke in that ear piece. You know that. Because he repeated back David Duke to Jake Tapper.

HUCKABEE: Yeah. Look, here's the one thing I think is important. Is Donald Trump a racist? I don't think he is. Does Donald Trump support the KKK? Heavens no. I don't think anybody seriously is suggesting that he is giving a wink and a nod at the KKK. They're a deplorable, disgusting, abominable entity. Sometimes I'm amazed that they even still exist. I just don't know of anybody who embraces them anymore except a handful of crazy people.

KELLY: The very point you're making, that it's such a no-brainer, is what makes his response to Jake Tapper so confusing to many.

Of course, now we know that there's plenty of support among white supremacist groups like the KKK for Don The Con.  And Huckabee has backed him for months anyway.

Remember, the GOP establishment is "the enemy" because they haven't stopped the first black president.

Cleveland is going to be mighty fun in a few weeks, huh?