Last weekend, Republican presidential frontrunner and all-around classy guy Donald Trump said some things about former POW John McCain that most (respectable) pundits predicted would mark the end of Trump-mentum.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Mexican border—at least from the perspective of Democrats (not so much from the GOP's point of view).
Trump defiantly refused to apologize for his disparaging remarks, and stuck to his guns; in fact, he actually dialed up his rhetoric even further.
And, through it all, he's continued to lead in the polls.
Meanwhile, the other 15 clowns competing with Trump for the GOP nomination have been forced to resort to increasingly desperate stunts just to gain media coverage.
Fonzie would be proud.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT); Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R); Roundtable: Former White House Political Director Sara Fagen, Ron Fournier (National Journal), Amy Walter (Cook Political Report) and José Díaz-Balart (MSNBC).
Face the Nation: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R); Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV); Roundtable: John Heilemann (Bloomberg Politics), Jamelle Bouie (Slate), Gerald F. Seib (Wall Street Journal) and Nancy Cordes (CBS News).
This Week: Attorney General Loretta Lynch; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); president of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards; Roundtable: "Independent" Strategist Matthew Dowd, Republican Strategist Ana Navarro, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Maggie Haberman (New York Times).
Fox News Sunday: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); Roundtable: Brit Hume (Fox News), George Will (Washington Post), Sheryl Gay Stolberg (New York Times) and Juan Williams (Fox News).
State of the Union: Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R); Roundtable: S.E. Cupp (NY Daily News), Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), Former South Carolina State Rep. Bakari Sellers (D) and Neera Tanden (Center for American Progress).
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: a report on the 16-year search and eventual capture of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger (preview); a report on "Wikipedians," the editors of Wikipedia (preview); and, an interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (preview).
On Comedy Central...
Jon Stewart returned from a two week vacation to discover that Donald Trump had overshadowed everything else that happened in the world.
The Daily Show:
Monday: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX); Tuesday: Actor Tom Cruise; Wednesday: Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; Thursday: Filmmaker J.J. Abrams.
Elsewhere...
Rick Santorum made some nonsensical claims about what our children is learning.
"I know in the schools in Massachusetts, in the grade school, they teach — there are books in place that say 'Suzy has two moms,' it's okay to put a book that says 'Suzy has two moms' but you can't put a book in there saying that moms and dads and marriage is important and tell people how important it is to be married before you have children, then you're moralizing," Santorum said. "It's okay to say, 'Suzy has two moms' or 'Johnny has two dads,' but you can't say that marriage is an important part of having a stable and healthy economy." [...]
He added that government policies discourage women from marriage and instead boost cohabitation: "That's the most dangerous place for children in America, it's a mother and a child living with a man who is not the father of that child. We're creating dangerous homes, we're creating barriers to marriage and family formation all because of our welfare policies."
Meanwhile...
Sen. Ron Johnson blamed liberal elitists for his impolitic remarks about inner city kids ... or something.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said on Thursday that he regrets using the phrase "idiot inner city kids" while discussing education during a Monday radio interview, the Washington Post reported. [...]
"It's unbelievable to me that liberals, that President Obama, of course he sends his children to private school, as did Al Gore, and Bill Clinton and every other celebrated liberal," Johnson said. "They just don't want to let those idiot inner city kids that they purport to be so supportive of ... they just don't want to give them the same opportunity their own
kids have. I think it's disgraceful."
Johnson then told the Post on Thursday that he was being sarcastic and trying to express how liberals think of inner city youth.
And, speaking of idiots...
Sheriff Joe Arpaio refused to take the bait and answer Jake Tapper's gotcha questions.
Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio insisted on Thursday that President Barack Obama had used forged documents for proof of U.S. citizenship, but he told CNN's Jake Tapper that he was not "stupid enough" to answer questions about the claim. [...]
"You have both trafficked in this rather preposterous notion that President Obama was not born in the United States, and that he may have forged his birth certificate that he released," Tapper noted. "Why would you risk your credibility on issues that you care about — like illegal
immigration, like law enforcement — by getting involved in this?" [...]
"I don't care where he was born," Arpaio replied. "I'm talking about a fraudulent government document, a birth certificate."
Arpaio, however, said he would not "get into all the technical details" because he only owned a typewriter and employed experts who knew about using computers to forge documents.
"I've been around a long time. I'm not stupid enough to even talk to you about it," he quipped.
Stupid is as stupid does.
- Trix