The secret (no more) meeting of Republicans took place at this resort.
If you are losing sleep over the prospect of Donald Trumpf as president, you ain’t feeling half as bad as the leadership of the Republican Party.
The prospect of either Trumpf or Cruz heading the ticket is causing a major boost in GOP Xantax sales.
They are terrified that their fractured party will end up with huge losses all the way down the ticket. It may take decades to recover. Maybe never.
Huffington Post reported that these captains of Republican corporatism met secretly a few days ago.
Although how secret could it be if neo-con Billy Kristol was tweeting that he was on his way to the meeting?
Heading to AEI World Forum. Lots of interesting guests. It’s off the record, so please do consider my tweets from there off the record!
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 3, 2016
Okay, Billy. That Tweet was just between you and me. I won’t tell a soul.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster creator and Facebook investor Sean Parker, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX honcho Elon Musk all attended. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), political guru Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan, GOP Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Ben Sasse (Neb.), who recently made news by saying he “cannot support Donald Trump.”
Along with Ryan, the House was represented by Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (Mich.), Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas) and almost-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), sources said, along with leadership figure Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.), Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and Diane Black (Tenn.).
Philip Anschutz, the billionaire GOP donor whose company owns a stake in Sea Island, was also there, along with Democratic Rep. John Delaney, who represents Maryland. Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, was there, too, a Times spokeswoman confirmed.
“A specter was haunting the World Forum–the specter of Donald Trump,” Kristol wrote in an emailed report from the conference, borrowing the opening lines of the Communist Manifesto. “There was much unhappiness about his emergence, a good deal of talk, some of it insightful and thoughtful, about why he’s done so well, and many expressions of hope that he would be defeated.”
Ha. Billy Kristol quoting Karl Marx.
It’s all just too good.
Although the meeting was explicit about Trumpf, these card-carrying members of the bourgeoisie are not overwhelmed by Ted Cruz either.
Their dismay was spelled out in today’s New York Times by the effete conservative columnist David Brooks.
Well, Republicans, have your standards really fallen so low so fast? Are you really that desperate? Can you remember your 8 p.m. selves, and all the hope you had about entering a campaign with such a deep bench of talented candidates?
Back in the early evening, before the current panic set in, Republicans understood that Ted Cruz would be a terrible general election candidate, at least as unelectable as Donald Trump and maybe more so. He is the single most conservative Republican in Congress, far adrift from the American mainstream. He’s been doing well in primaries because of the support of “extremely conservative” voters in very conservative states, and he really hasn’t broken out of that lane. His political profile is a slightly enlarged Rick Santorum but without the heart.
On policy grounds, he would be unacceptable to a large majority in this country. But his policy disadvantages are overshadowed by his public image ones. His rhetorical style will come across to young and independent voters as smarmy and oleaginous. In Congress, he had two accomplishments: the disastrous government shutdown and persuading all his colleagues to dislike him.
There is another path, one that doesn’t leave you self-loathing in the morning. It’s a long shot, but given the alternatives, it’s worth trying. First, hit the pause button on the rush to Cruz. Second, continue the Romneyesque assault on Trump. The results on Saturday, when late voters swung sharply against the Donald, suggest it may be working.
Third, work for a Marco Rubio miracle in Florida on March 15. Fourth, clear the field for John Kasich in Ohio.
Poor David.
The only thing he can come up with for saving the Republicans is Marco Rubio and John Kasich.
Fred Klonsky 
We can only hope for a huge Repug defeat in November. Then, maybe Dems can finally get things done instead of using up valuable time cleaning up the mess made by a previous Repug.
DT is just the open mike on what they’ve been subliminalizing all along …
Hey Fred, The reason for Trumpf is surely that a substantial portion of the American public is an almighty clueless ass. Nobody outside the USA would give the DT the time of day. Aren’t US schools in some way responsible for that? I mean Critical Thinking, Bullshit Detection, etc, etc, or even just plain old thinking. Blaming the press is not an option. If people can be told what to think then they’re lost.
Last comment says it all. This crowd doest care about racism…beck it is party policy since….southern strategy. What they fear is the collapse of their Koch brothers economic iideology because Trump and their base don’t believe the crap like say Rauner. Trump polls better than the others. They would rather lose with Cruz than win with Trump. But of think they will split their stupid party and either Trump is GOP nominee and Romney a third party or visa a versa. As a result Trump will probably urge a no vote in downballot races where there a no Trump supporter.Same with Romney. If dems win it all including a super super majority here…we have to keep in them so they don’t piss it away like 2008.
Kasich is done after Ohio
“They are terrified that their fractured (Republican) party will end up with huge losses all the way down the ticket. It may take decades to recover. Maybe never.”
One would hope… Good riddance!
“Huffington Post reported that these captains of Republican corporatism met secretly a few days ago.”
Another Caucus Room Conspiracy or worse?
You really felt it necessary to describe David Brooks with a right-wing anti-gay bigotry dog whistle such as “effete”? What does that say about you?
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=effete
Tsk. Fred! Check the full page of definitions and examples at http://www.Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary/effete. If you need a better understanding, I suggest that you watch “The Celluloid Closet,” which discusses the cultural coding of gays and lesbians in the movies. This isn’t so much about dictionary definitions as code words.