The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Lincoln Project Implodes

Posted on | February 13, 2021 | Comments Off on The Lincoln Project Implodes

Once the “useful idiots” of #NeverTrump were no longer useful to their Establishment benefactors — once Trump was vanquished, and the rationale of #NeverTrump was over — suddenly the “open secret” of John Weaver’s predatory homosexual behavior became newsworthy.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Everything is now collapsing in #NeverTrump land, where the real scandal was how the founders used the reported $90 million they collected as their own personal piggy bank, paying their own consulting firms far more than was ever spent on actual campaign operations.

The exit of creepy Steve Schmidt from the Lincoln Project was particularly weird. Schmidt has always exuded an aura of sadism, as if he were restraining an urge to inflict violence on others. During his numerous appearances on MSNBC, Schmidt’s unblinking emotionless stare — his “flat affect,” as a psychologist would say — seemed either a tough-guy pose calculated to intimidate others or, if genuine, the mannerisms of a cold-blooded killer. Steve Schmidt struck me as a man thoroughly convinced of his own inherent righteousness, and such personalities are dangerous. The apparent absence of self-doubt, a lack of awareness of one’s own flaws and weaknesses, is always a troubling trait.

From the Wikipedia entry on Schmidt:

Schmidt voiced his support for gay rights at a meeting of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group. He said: “I just wanted to take a second to come by and pay my respect and the campaign’s respect to your organization and to your group. Your organization is an important one in the fabric of our party.”
Schmidt said about his lesbian sister and her life partner: “On a personal level, my sister and her partner are an important part of my life and our children’s life. I admire your group and your organization and I encourage you to keep fighting for what you believe in because the day is going to come.”

This is rather interesting, and perhaps relevant, now that Schmidt has made his Lincoln Project exit by telling a tale of being molested at summer camp and, bizarrely, announcing his conversion to Judaism.

And people said I was crazy?

Schmidt went from being de facto manager of a Republican presidential campaign at age 38 to being an ex-Republican pariah at age 50 and yet seems to think he can still count this in the “win” column by (a) telling his adolescent summer-camp story and (b) playing the Jew card.

See, if you criticize Schmidt — an ex-Catholic gentile — now he can turn around and accuse you of anti-Semitism. “Political strategist”!

Ed Driscoll has a rundown of the rats fleeing the Lincoln Project’s sinking ship, and I commend this brief summary from Professor Reynolds:

Remember, the Lincoln Project was supposedly a bastion of decency fighting against the depraved Donald Trump. Also, as with Harvey Weinstein, everyone knew and everyone kept quiet until the usefulness of keeping quiet ended. Because decency!

“Heh,” indeed.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! My colleagues John Hoge, Dianna Deeley and I discussed this (and much other news of the week) Saturday night on The Other Podcast.




 

Category: Republicans, Scandal

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