The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that the primary fight between appointed Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and newly infamous Donald Trump ally Rep. Doug Collins, who is running to replace her in the Senate, is likely going to get much, much nastier, with "Loeffler's allies" forming "an outside group that will match anything [Collins] spends with attack ads.” The short version: Loeffler very much wants to keep her Senate seat, does not think much of the upstart Collins, and has enough friends with cash to make Collins' life as miserable as she wants to in coming weeks.
See there? And you thought there was no good news left in the world. Come for the Republican-on-Republican grudge match, stay for the AJC's reported Collins camp slap-calling Kelly Loeffler a "human-sized Mike Bloomberg spending the gross national product of Guatemala on her campaign."
It's fair to say that Rep. Doug Collins raised more than a few Republican eyebrows with his surprise announcement that he wanted to be a senator now. He appeared to believe that his aggressive, long-winded, and excruciating-to-listen-to defense of Trump during House impeachment hearings would result in Trump demanding that his loyal ally be given the Senate slot; unfortunately for Collins, Trump now has more lapdogs than the Westminster Kennel Club, and while Collins was able to get a bit of rote Trump praise, he does not seem to have stood out in Trump's mind as anything special.
Loeffler, however, has what Collins does not have: cash, and lots of it. Loeffler is a Republican mega-donor who claimed she would be spending $20 million of her own money to keep her seat. That made her a very, very attractive appointee for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to name to the seat while allowing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to devote his own Republican committee cash to other must-win races. Loeffler's appointment is part of the overall trend of big political donors getting impatient with the system and just demanding that they themselves hold the offices they have been paying others to hold.
Doug Collins can't compete with that. Also, Doug Collins is insufferable even at the best of times. Also also, Doug Collins appears to have peeved his entire party by inserting himself into a race that Republicans thought would be a nonissue this year, for no apparent purpose other than self-promotion.
And also also also, Doug Collins appears to have vastly overestimated the rewards he'd be getting for his ridiculous impeachment performance, in which he had a voluminous amount of things to say, none of which any of you remember because it was all rote, blustering nonsense. On the contrary, after the Senate voted to nullify the charges against Trump, it was Loeffler who got singled out for Trump praise. "She's been downright nasty and mean about the unfairness to the president," he gushed.
This is becoming a race to watch, if only to see how low two thoroughly terrible people can knock each other while their cherished Dear Leader watches on the nearest television set. Go, have fun with that. Spend as much money as you can while you're at it.