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Believe it or not, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago will not be the titular head of the Republican Party forever. His ideas will live on after him like pesticides in the groundwater, but he himself will be gone. Which is why it's important to consider who and what comes after him, which is why we keep an eye on folks like Senator Tom Cotton, the bobble-throated slapdick from Arkansas. Cotton is a complete product of the wingnut welfare candidate manufacturing plant. He is so firmly convinced of his own inherent genius that he kicked off his first term in the Senate by undermining an elected president's primary foreign policy initiative. Watch this guy. His ambition is a breeder reactor in him.

He has a book now, evidently. It is a benign-sounding tome about the Old Guard, the Army unit responsible for the ceremonial duties at Arlington National Cemetery. (Politico calls it "apolitical," as if anything Cotton's done in the past decade has been apolitical.) But, judging by his early promotional efforts, it's also a vehicle for the elevation of Tom Cotton, presidential timber.

In a long interview during a run on the National Mall in 2016, during which he discussed his service, future ambitions and time at Arlington National Cemetery, Cotton said that respect for veterans unites the country but also has a common thread with politics: “The American people have consistently elected veterans from foreign wars to serve at all levels." “From president down to local city council, I think most Americans respect the service and the sacrifice that veterans have made, the service and the skills they bring. The tangible skills are good, sometimes your tangible skills aren’t very marketable, like mine or most infantryman, but the intangible skills: mission focus, leadership, boys under fire, discipline, teamwork, are things that can apply to every setting," he said.

Cotton, you will note, is not asked how many of these virtues have been displayed in his life by the president* Cotton has served so slavishly in the Senate. Anyway, Cotton kicked off his book tour on CBS by trotting out a straw man the size of an elephant on the CBS Morning News on Monday.

"There will be some sacrifices on the part of Americans, I grant you that, but I also would say that sacrifice is pretty minimal compared to the sacrifices that our soldiers make overseas that are fallen heroes that are laid to rest in Arlington make," Cotton told "CBS This Morning" when asked about the impact of tariffs on farmers in his own state of Arkansas.

Certainly sounds like he's putting his "apolitical" book to "apolitical" use there. What's he suggesting for the farmers who are getting screwed in Arkansas? "You're all going broke because the president* is a dunce, but that's OK because you're not being machine-gunned at Passchendaele?" He should be watched, especially if a Democratic candidate wins in 2020. This one has a lean and hungry look on him.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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