MAGA Was Only the Beginning of Mitt Romney’s Worries
Like numerous other folks who did not support Mitt Romney’s election when he was challenging then-President Barack Obama in 2012, I think he looks a lot better to me now than he did then — and not just because he decided to retire from the Senate.
Compared with what came after his candidacy — Donald Trump’s victory for the GOP in 2016 — Romney’s failed bid looks like the last days of polite politics.
But, as more than a few hardball politicians have said over the years, what good does politeness get you?
These days in Washington, it’s tit-for-tat time, often in brutal ways.
One prize target these days is Hunter Biden, the president’s son, who has been charged by federal prosecutors with lying about his drug use on a government form he was required to complete when he purchased a handgun in 2018, which he also is charged with possessing illegally.
And his case potentially could come to trial during the president’s reelection campaign.
Coincidence? I think not.
Before his indictment, House Republicans already were ramping up their efforts to use the younger Biden’s work abroad to build a case for the impeachment of his dad, whom the right-wing media have hyped relentlessly as boss of the “Biden crime family.”
As scandals go, Hunter Biden’s sad saga hardly matches the scope of the four indictments lodged against Trump. Biden publicly has acknowledged struggles with addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol, along with trips in and out of rehab at the time of the gun purchase.
Yet, any negative headlines are grist for the political mill, especially when they coincide with the Biden Justice Department’s prosecution of the president’s predecessor, Donald Trump. When confronted with Trump’s scandals, his defenders easily can retort, “Well, what about Hunter Biden?”
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