During the height of the Cold War, a fabulous editorial cartoonist named Herb Lock (who always signed his work as “Herblock”) drew a dandy cartoon that to me encapsulates the current GOP dilemma that the Party has made for itself. The subject was the odious Senator Joseph McCarthy, R-WI, who had tripped himself up in his crusade to destroy the careers and lives of anyone he could accuse of being a Commie. When he was revealed to be a fraudster in having made up his accusations, the jig was up and he was a ruined man.
The cartoon depicted McCarthy, jumping up and down, sweating like a Rubio, entangled in electrical cords. He was screaming, “I can’t do this to me!”
In the same way, Republican elites thought they had it all figured out: “Let’s bunch up Southern state primaries and design the process to make sure one of our chosen ones — Bush, Rubio, Perry — gets the nod for the nomination. Just like always — we can decide who’s turn it is and we’ll be in control.” Alas, they didn’t think anyone would be clever enough to figure out their plans and one-up them.
Now, the powers-that-be are scrambling to amend their strategy to select one of their own. It is hysterical to see these smug elites, desperately jockeying to get ahead of the curve to beat back the madding crowd and its leader, Donald J. Trump.
The scramble is on for Republican Party leaders: What do we do now? How could it be that an inexperienced, bombastic billionaire could get this far? How do we stack the deck again to make sure the “right” delegates are picked for the convention? Who can we select now as the shepherd to wrangle those docile sheep of Republican voters who now won’t do what they always do — vote in our anointed one? If this Trump dude gets in, how can we go on doing the bidding of our interest group benefactors? Even worse, this idiot could bring doom to Party candidates up and down the ballot, not only for Congress but state legislatures and gubernatorial slots.
Oh, the humanity! Oh, what fun to witness this fiasco!