The Never Trumpers are engaged in one frantic, last ditch effort to field a third party or independent candidate to challenge Donald Trump. While an increasing number of Republicans are now falling in line behind the presumptive nominee, efforts to derail him at any cost continue, even if it puts Bill and Hillary Clinton into the White House.

A key leader of the project is one Willard “Mitt” Romney who just refuses to go away after nearly single-handedly saddling America with an additional four years of the Obama nightmare. Romney snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by botching a winnable election in 2012 and now fancies himself as a king-maker despite his dismal track record. With the plan to block Trump at this summer’s convention in ruins, the last resort is to sabotage him by siphoning off enough Republican votes to deny him the presidency. Another prominent figure involved is the ubiquitous neoconservative intellectual William Kristol who despite his history of being on the wrong side of practically every major foreign policy issue of the past two decades continues to be treated with an undeserved reverence by the establishment.

The pro-Hillary Washington Post examines the project in an extensive piece, “Inside the GOP effort to draft an independent candidate to derail Trump”

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A band of exasperated Republicans — including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia — is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House. These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up major funding sources­ and courting potential contenders, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republicans involved in the discussions. The effort has been sporadic all spring but has intensified significantly in the 10 days since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination. Those involved concede that an independent campaign at this late stage is probably futile, and they think they have only a couple of weeks to launch a credible bid. But these Republicans — including commentators William Kristol and Erick Erickson and strategists Mike Murphy, Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson — are so repulsed by the prospect of Trump as commander in chief that they are desperate to take action. Their top recruiting prospects are freshman Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a conservative who has become one of Trump’s sharpest critics, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who withdrew from the Republican presidential race May 4. Romney is among those who have made personal overtures to both men in recent days, according to several people with knowledge of the former Massachusetts governor’s activities.

While Romney’s motives are clear – he is an embittered egomaniac- the WAPO

is far too charitable towards the others. Kristol, Wilson, Erickson, Stevens and their ilk are media and consultant class figures who fear losing their influence. None of them have been right about anything regarding the 2016 campaign up to this point and their “expertise” may no longer be in demand – in short, a Trump win is going to dislodge them from the gravy train once and for all.

According to the Washington Post article, one of the prospects being targeted by Team Romney is Ohio Governor John Kasich who for some mysterious reason toughed it out until he was Trump’s last opponent despite his winning of only one state. Kasich’s staying in the race for so long after being mathematically eliminated despite calls from the establishment to drop out and stop splitting the #NeverTrump vote was always mysterious and it has to be pondered whether he was more useful as an impediment to Cruz who most backers saw as a marriage borne of necessity rather than out of love.

Also on the short list is Nebraska’s freshman senator Ben Sasse who is hardly a household name and outside of his opportunistic opposition to Trump has zero real accomplishments to his credit. Now that state GOP leaders see the writing on the wall and are moving to unify against the Clinton restoration, the Nebraska GOP delivered a stern rebuke to Senator Sasse on Saturday at the state party convention. The WAPO story states that he will be giving a major address at the Washington think tank the American Enterprise Institute on Monday and with Kristol as his top cheerleader it’s a pretty safe bet that the speech will eschew any notions of Trump’s “America First” foreign and economic policies.

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The Never Trumpers also reached out to others including retired Army General Stanley McChrystal

, Bush regime figureCondoleezza Riceand evenMark Cuban, the flamboyant owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks franchise and a host on the reality television seriesShark Tankwho is seen as a perfect foil for Trump. The dead-enders are scrambling now because in order for any independent or third party effort to have a ghost of a chance at accomplishing its objectives it has to happen soon, probably no later than the end of May.

But at the end of the day Romney and Kristol’s efforts are ultimately doomed largely because both Mitt the candidate and the neoconservative principles that Kristol espouses have been rejected and discredited. The WAPO cites the venerable old warhorse Pat Buchanan as well who scoffs at the Never Trumpers and their knight in shining armor. According to Buchanan, “The career of the individual would come to an end, and he would have a difficult spot in history for being responsible for putting Hillary Clinton in the White House.”

More people should listen to old Pat who has some serious gravitas as well as an experience in politics and media that has spanned decades. He went to China with Nixon and served with Reagan and has seen it all save for the unmitigated idiocy of a renegade faction that is looking to sabotage its own candidate and turn the presidency over to a blood soaked vampire who is so crooked that she has to screw her pantsuit on in the morning.





