At NOLA’s craft cocktail bar Cure, our old-fashioned prankster nurses an Old Fashioned:
Speaker Mike, heed these words:
Republican Fergus Cullen (former chair, NH Republican Party) says, in order to move forward, the G.O.P. must reckon with three things:
One: The 2020 election was not stolen.
Two: What happened on January 6 was a bad thing.
Three: We shouldn’t be nominating somebody facing 91 criminal indictments.
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=139415
and, Roger Stone added:
We must repent.
Yes, Speaker Mike, we must repent: From our overweening pride. For our populist drivel, parading as divine wisdom. For our brown-shirted buggery of elections. Our endless castigation of the vulnerable, whom we so casually malign.
Just look, damn you! This TicTok meme perfectly captures it all. And trust me, it’s no caricature - a mirror, really. Holy Jesus!
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8BPkw9k/
You gotta reverse our slide to rock bottom, Speaker Mike.
Extol America once more as “the shining city upon a hill.” Advocate politics of human flourishing. Forget the Bannon model - no more Viktor Orban brownshirts and Ayatollah informants. And no more vying, like little children, for Boss Trump’s inane attention.
But brother Roger, Speaker Mike gasped, you too are complicit. Lordy, good sir, you were chief cheerleader, co-architect, and, some people say, Trump’s on-the-ground orchestrator of the Jan. 6 assault. And how Boss Trump loves you for it!
In his tiny soul, Stone faltered for a moment. For the first time in Speaker Mike’s political career, this youngling from Louisiana had gotten something right. Who better than the trickster himself to recognize the dangerously tingling thrill of another striving so very hard to please insatiable Boss Trump?
Quickly recovering, Roger Stone, long captive himself to overweening pride, felt free, free at last. Tomorrow he would be a rock, projecting virtue in action - and provide Speaker Mike a lesson in authentic moral leadership. Stone would bid adieu to overweening pride, say bonjour to true humility, and sign Jack Smith’s affidavit.
But first our trickster would call former NH G.O.P. chair Fergus Cullen - to say thank you, Fergus, for your courage and call for moral reckoning. Our Nation salutes you.
*****
Postscript: Prankster Stone has long supported gay (LGBTQIA+) rights so abhorrent to unctuously sanctimonious Speaker Mike. Roger has, however, remained silent as pal Trump so shamefully exploited evangelical disdain for sexual preference and gender identification, notwithstanding a scientific and broad societal consensus that human authenticity is the basis for a community’s respect and equal protection under law, a beatitude Jesus surely would proclaim today.
So it seems reasonable to conclude that Stone wouldn’t give a damn how errantly, unctuously and sanctimoniously Speaker Mike chooses to interpret Biblical wisdom, so long as Speaker Mike keeps such beliefs to himself and out of politics and policy making. And imagine what a big step it would be toward making the G.O.P. grand again.
*****
President Reagan: “Voting is a precious right that for two centuries Americans have fought and died to protect. Let’s all honor that sacrifice this election day. Whether you’re Republican, Democrat, or Independent, circle November 4th on your calendar and then show that you care about America’s future and get out and vote.”
President George Herbert Bush: "We know what works: Freedom works. We know what's right: Freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life for man on Earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state."
President George Walker Bush: “The right of ordinary men and women to determine their own political future lies at the heart of the American experiment.”
*****
Vote.
Here’s your morning shot of Blackjack, featuring our Card Deck of 54+ Trump Enablers: