SOUNDS OF SILENCE

The civil war within the Republican Party is escalating.  Oddly, unlike most conflicts the silence on the Hill is deafening.

Bob Corker is a serious guy.  Unlike Cruz, Cotton and some of the other more vocal members of his caucus, Corker has the good since to choose his words carefully.  It is in part for that reason that he serves as the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  It is why he was under serious consideration as Trump’s Vice President and Secretary of State.  When Trump sought to add a modicum of legitimacy to his “outsider” campaign and administration he turned to Corker.  In other words when Bob Corker speaks, people listen.

So when Bob Corker says that Donald Trump is treating the presidency like a reality TV show…that his rhetoric and behavior are leading the country down the path toward WWIII…that Tillerson, Kelly and Mattis are the only thing standing between the country and chaos…people listen.

Bob Corker said publically what every other Republican politician has been saying privately for months.  Yet not one member of his caucus had the courage to come and support his statement in kind.  The few that did manage to find their voice vomited up the usual “we all need to get along for the good of the country” pabulum.  Demonstrating once more their lack of political courage, they neither criticized nor praised Corker for his comments.

Nor did they speak out in defense of the president…the leader of their own party.  A silence that is as telling as it is damning.

The powerful chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee states publically that he believes the President of the United States is leading the country down the path to a global war and all his caucus can do is choke on the bile of their political fear.

Unlike Corker, former presidential senior advisor Steve Bannon IS very much a bomb thrower.  In light of Corker’s comments, Bannon has demanded that Corker resign immediately.  So incensed is Bannon by the lack of support for this Republican president from within his own caucus that Bannon has promised to primary every Republican seeking re-election save Ted Cruz.  Backed by the bottomless money pit owned by the Mercer family, Bannon will no doubt make good on his threat.

Faced with the prospect of defending a distinguished member of their own party…or the party leader who resides in the White House…it is would seem that someone facing a re-election campaign might want to get ahead of this and take a stand.  Especially when it is clear that the party leader has demonstrated time and time again that he is unfit to serve.

Silence!

Republicans promised that if given control of the government they would end the gridlock and govern effectively.  The voters bought in and handed Republicans the keys to the kingdom.  Republicans now control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, 90% of the state legislatures, 35 0f 50 governor mansions and the White House.  Yet the gridlock and dysfunction in government is worse than ever and the Republican Party is on the verge of destroying itself from within.  All because the leader of their party is categorically so unfit to serve that he has single handedly destroyed their efforts to govern effectively.

Yet all the cowards on the Hill can give us is silence.