When I am Right, I am Right
Earlier, I predicted that the New Republic would attempt to use to their advantage the fact that Republicans are decent enough to follow EXISTING election code in Montana. In fact, here are my exact words:
Nothing yet from The New Republic, although I am willing to bet that they will continue to defend the Lautenberg/Toricelli switch using this exact case as evidence that candidate switching will not happen frequently. Of course not- Mark Racicot believes in the rule of law.
Here are the New Republic hacks today, justifying the unjustifiable:
Then later in the day came word that the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Montana, state Senator Mike Taylor, was dropping out of the race after his opponent, incumbent Democrat Max Baucus, aired a commercial so hard-hitting it quickly expanded Baucus’s lead from 19 to 33. Surely these developments undermine our earlier bloviating about the trivial precedential value of the New Jersey case.
Actually, no. At the time, we confidently predicted that there would be almost no situation in which a party would find it worthwhile to substitute one candidate for another after the state’s deadline for doing so–usually only a couple of weeks out from election day. That prediction remains perfectly intact today. While some rank-and-file Pennsylvania Republicans have indeed floated the idea of a Fisher-Schweiker substitution, it’s turned out to be entirely idle chatter. As The Washington Post reported yesterday, “Republican officials emphasize that nothing of the kind is being contemplated”–presumably because the disadvantages (i.e., looking like you’re trying to hijack an election) outweigh the advantages. Meanwhile, in Montana it appears that Taylor dropped out of the Senate race completely of his own volition–and not under pressure from the party. And while Montana Republicans are considering putting forth another candidate as a write-in–and even that probably won’t happen–there is basically zero chance they’ll follow New Jersey’s example and replace Taylor on the Senate ballot.
Predictably, the party of Clinton marches ever onward. The nerve of these people.