Donald J. Trump’s campaign on Thursday reaffirmed its extraordinary embrace of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, signaling a preference for the leadership of an authoritarian adversary over that of America’s own president, despite a cascade of criticism from Democrats and expressions of discomfort among Republicans.

Trump’s To Russia with Love act is forcing the Republican Party to march toward Moscow. Where winter is always coming.

Loyal toady Mike Pence is right there with the Putin love.

“I think it’s inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country,” Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Mr. Trump’s running mate, said on CNN, defending Mr. Trump by echoing his latest praise for the Russian leader, offered Wednesday night in a televised candidate forum.

Strong, yes, like his statement made about killing journalists who say something you don't like. Which Donald Trump would never, never do. Believe him.

And the Trump/Pence/Putin ticket—or is it Putin/Trump/Pence?—has put other Republicans in the chilly positions of admitting that Putin is a monster, BUT...

Hugh Hewitt takes the same tack: “Putin’s an evil man. POTUS a good but incompetent man. Putin has served his country’s national interests better.” Making the analogy, Hewitt went on to defend Mao as “the greatest murderer of post-WW2 era, but most historians rank him effective leader.”

Republicans are going way past “he made the trains run on time” here. They may even have passed “he made the trains run on time … to Buchenwald.”

​This is far from the first time that Trump has gone out of his way to mention Russia and the Russian leader. Trump has applied sunscreen to the Russian leader’s shirtless shoulders throughout the campaign. Though he’s been a bit less vocal about other connections between his campaign and Russia. All in addition to the personal appearance Trump made on Russian TV to complain about the United States.

Trump’s constant Putin love has put other Republicans in a bit of borscht. Traditionally, Republican leaders don’t exactly thrill to saying how very, very fond they are of people who like to do in opponents with Polonium-210 pellets. And many Republicans are being forced to display the stories of political courage of Paul Ryan, who said:

“I’m not going to stand up here and do a tit-for-tat on what Donald said last night.”

A vow of silence may do for many Republicans, but while Pence drives on Stalingrad and Ryan wanders the steppes, there are a few elephants unwilling to slip on a bear suit.

“I think Vladimir Putin is a thug, a dictator, an autocratic ruler who has his opposition killed in the streets of Russia. He has dismembered his neighbor.”

But that’s Lindsey Graham, and Trump has already declared him both weak and a loser. Still, Graham isn’t completely alone.

“Look, I have tremendous policy disagreements with President Obama, but Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian thug who is accountable to no one.”

That’s from Little Marco Rubio, and it actually sounds like a firm statement … until you remember that Rubio is supporting Trump in any case, so this is just a convenient piece of bluster as Rubio tries to ride the boundary of endorse, support, whatever. Besides, Rubio expects Trump to get better.

Asked by the Guardian if he was concerned that Trump had a penchant for commending Putin, despite those facts, Rubio said he was hopeful the candidate’s posture might evolve. “My sense is those views will probably change once he understands better who Vladimir Putin truly is – that’s my hope,” responded the senator, who is backing Trump.

Rubio’s Trump-sense is tingling because he can point to a long list of issues where once Trump learned more about the details, he changed his reckless early opinion. Here is that list.

OK. And among the things that Trump doesn’t regret?

... Trump, since becoming the nominee, has both continued to extol Putin’s leadership and even called on the Russian government in July to hack Clinton’s emails. While drafting the GOP platform at the Republican national convention in Cleveland, the Trump campaign also fought to eliminate language around arming Ukraine in its fight with Russia – bringing further scrutiny to the ties between Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, and pro-Russian interests.

Manafort may be off the official roles, but then Paul Manafort is used to being paid under the table. So maybe it’s not that strange that his pro-Russia, screw everyone else spirit lives on in the Trump campaign.