Last week, in the aftermath of the release of the so-called whistleblower complaint alleging wadded panties in conjunction with a call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky, one senator broke ranks with his colleagues and led the charge condemning President Trump. Mitt freakin Romney.

By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling. — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 4, 2019

There are two parts that play into this.

We know that Bill Kristol is intelligent enough to realize that the low wattage, low energy, low appeal troika of Bill Weld, Mark Sanford, and Joe Walsh are much more of a laugh track than they are a challenge to Trump. Not only does no one know or care who Bill Weld is, his snooty, elitist New England version of the GOP took is last gasp some years ago. Mark Sanford, at one time, could have been a viable candidate but getting your butt kicked in a primary in a state where you have been governor and then not helping the GOP candidate simply underscores that fact that, at best, he’s a cynical opportunist who has been rejected by his own state. Joe Walsh probably needs some way to pay child support payments.

The second part is that Romney has made this statement:

The former GOP presidential nominee and current U.S. senator from Utah said Thursday ahead of the third Democratic debate that he does not intend to endorse anyone in 2020.

On Friday, this began circulating:

BREAKING: Senator Mitt Romey has been calling conservative donors asking about a potential 2020 primary run against President Trump — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 4, 2019

If you put the Kristol piece, the attack on Trump, and the declaration he won’t endorse in 2020 together with the rumor that Romney is touching base with his donor network you can see a possible Romney challenge to Trump in the nascent stages. I don’t consider this to be far fetched. No one thinks Romney and Trump exchange Christmas cards. Romney has never made any secret of his disdain for Trump and for Trump voters. With the Omidyar funded primary challenges looking more and more like the Three Stooges than an existential threat to Trump, it isn’t hard to see where at guy with Romney’s massive ego could convince himself that the he’s so beloved in the GOP that he’d be an instant front runner.

My theory would be that it was the Posobiec tweet rather than the Romney criticism that set off President Trump today:

Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics. If Mitt worked this hard on Obama, he could have won. Sadly, he choked! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019

Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous “ass” who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019

I’m hearing that the Great People of Utah are considering their vote for their Pompous Senator, Mitt Romney, to be a big mistake. I agree! He is a fool who is playing right into the hands of the Do Nothing Democrats! #IMPEACHMITTROMNEY — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019

No Kevin, Jeff Flake is better! https://t.co/IyENBffEjp — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2019

Factually, most of what’s in the tweets are true, if inartfully worded. I mean, who can forget with the improbably named Candy Crowley pushed Barack Obama out of the way so she, as the debate moderator, could boatrace a hapless, befuddled Mitt Romney.

And the Vichy-cons are bewildered:

I've been off Twitter for a bit. Have any Republican Senators publicly come to Mitt Romney's defense against Trump, yet? — Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) October 5, 2019

In 2012, I opposed him in the primary and focused on attacking Obama in the general because I was (an am) convinced that he’d leave the national GOP in the same shambles that he left the MA GOP. As John Nolte wrote at Breitbart (and this is the first time I’ve ever quoted him) says: “When he does run for president again, the same media that relentlessly tarred him as a sexist, racist, plutocrat, job-killing corporate raider who tortures dogs, bullies gays, and gives women cancer, will appreciate him this time.”

No. We’ve had our fill of Romney. I’ve never believed that he believed in anything much more substantial than his own self-aggrandizement. His actions over the past week only make that belief much more firm.

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