Today's Republican anti-Trump plan comes from John Boehner:
Former Speaker John Boehner said Paul Ryan should be the Republican nominee for president if the party fails to choose a candidate on the first ballot.
"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference here. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."
Except that Ryan is not on board with this plan:
Speaker Paul Ryan said in an interview there is "no situation" in which he will accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination this year, his firmest rejection of the fanciful notion that he'd be drafted during a contested GOP convention.
"I've been really clear about this," Ryan told POLITICO Wednesday. "If you want to be president, you should run for president. We should select our nominee from among the people who are running for president. Clear and simple. So no, I am not going to be the president. I am not going to be the nominee."
Ryan added, "I am not going to become the president through Cleveland."
Yesterday, this was the plan:
Three influential leaders of the conservative movement have summoned other top conservatives for a closed-door meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C., to talk about how to stop Donald Trump and, should he become the Republican nominee, how to run a third-party “true conservative” challenger in the fall.
The organizers of the meeting include Bill Wichterman, who was President George W. Bush’s liaison to the conservative movement; Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and longtime conservative convener; and Erick Erickson, the outspoken Trump opponent and conservative activist who founded RedState.com.
Wichterman was on Mitt Romney's "Faith and Values" steering committee in the 2008 campaign; he was recruited away from Fred Thompson's campaign because Romney was supporting an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Constitution and Thompson wasn't. Wichterman was involved with the Values Action Team, a religious right group in Congress that was linked to the Family Research Council. Fischer also has FRC ties. And Erickson increasingly mixes faith in Jesus with his usual political smashmouth.
So these guys are looking for a third-party candidate rather than a brokered-convention candidate, presumably a Christian-y one.
Meanwhile, Bill Kristol is also having a range third-party fantasies, mostly involve neocons, political ingenues, and even a Supreme Court justice:
Who might the Independent Republican ticket be? Mitt Romney-Gen. John Kelly? Ben Sasse-Nikki Haley? Clarence Thomas-Mike Pompeo?
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 16, 2016
General Kelly gets props from Kristol, presumably, for his critique of the move to open combat roles to women, or maybe because he's taken to hiding Guantanamo priaoners from journalists. Pompeo is on Kristol's list because he's suggested that the military defy a direct order from commander in chief Obama regarding transfer of prisoners from Gitmo.
E-mail from serious guy:
"Sasse or Cotton as Ind Rep/constl conservative? If either jumped in I’d be tempted to take leave to help them."— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 16, 2016
Cotton, of course, is freshman Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, a Kristol and Sheldon Adelson favorite who was the driving force behind a treasonous open letter to Iranian leaders that was meant to undermine the recent nuclear deal. Hes's 38 years old.
Kristol retweets this:
@RobertKYarbro @BillKristol Governor Greg Abbott.
— Randy Barnett (@RandyEBarnett) March 16, 2016
Pompeo? Kelly? Cotton? Clarence Thomas? Greg Abbott? Kristol and the rest of these guys are playing fantasy football. They're not serious-minded, and they'll never knuckle down and settle on a plan they can all agree on, either for a brokered convention or a third-party alternative, any more than they could settle on an establishment favorite for the primaries.
So forget it -- it doesn't matter whether Trump falls short of a delegate majority. He'll be the GOP nominee, and no party-favorite Republican will get a ballot line to run against him.
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
