The Pecker Solution: Commentators who say Paul Ryan can’t steal the GOP nomination in Cleveland point to the intensity of feeling among Cruz and Trump supporters — any attempt to wrest away the prize would be seen as unfair and undemocratic, splitting the party, etc. But commentators too often lack a robust paranoid imagination. What about this scenario: Trump fails to win on the first ballot. Pre-planted establishment delegates quickly abandon him. Cruz takes the lead by the third ballot. But suddenly something appears that makes a Cruz choice impossible–something that forces him out of the race as surely as if he’d been vaporized by a laser from space. The convention has no choice but to turn to a new face … Cue Ryan, who has been transparently plotting for just such an eventuality.

What might that vaporizing something be? One obvious possibility currently lurks in the undernews: the (unproven, and very possibly untrue) Cruz adultery scandal being promoted by (among other places) the National Enquirer. Conservatives suspect the liberal MSM is slow-walking its inquiries into this seedy allegation until the general election, at which point (if Cruz is on the ticket) the muck will descend on him. But what if it’s the GOP Establishment that is holding back on the story– holding back until the convention, when a clean takeout of Cruz will open the door for Ryan (something that wouldn’ have been the case during the campaign, or during the first ballot, when a campaign-ending Cruz scandal would simply usher in Trump). Seedy sex scandals have broken during conventions before. Just thinking out loud here.

Never underestimate the undernews. …