All Trump needs is his Don Imus "N.H.H." moment to cement his fate, and it's coming.
I used to leave the TV on all night...went to sleep with it in the background, and since my "body clock" has gone off around 3 AM for most of my adult life, I'd wake up to MSNBC and ease into the news. In 2007, waking up to MSNBC meant waking up to their feed of "Imus In The Morning." Imus hated Howard Stern, Stern had TV at his disposal, MSNBC wanted to capitalize on that. Imus was seldom if ever "funny," and his "sidekick" Bernard McGuirk was much like Fox News' current "funny man" Greg Gutfeld...smug, arrogant, self-satisfied, irritating, secure in his "position."
I very clearly remember the morning of April 4, 2007. The show had Martina McBride as a guest. I'm a fan of her music. Yeah, I know she's as Republican as Republicans get, as well as being a close friend of Hannity, but I love her voice. She was also scheduled to perform a song from her new "covers" album, Charlie Walker's amazing "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down." So rather than just let the show drone on in the background as I normally did, I got up, made coffee, and got ready to watch her perform.
At some point, it happened. Imus and McGuirk were discussing the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team, and that mumbled little snickering produced the three words that killed Imus' career on the spot..."N.H.H." Most of you know what that abbreviation stands for. If you don't, you can Google it...I'm not reposting it here. Suffice it to say that the outrage was fast and furious. Imus ultimately lost both the radio and TV gig. He made a number of failed attempts to "atone," including apologizing to Reverend Al, who had nothing to do with the situation, but I'm assuming he felt that if he got three Our Fathers and Three Hail Marys from the Rev that the women on the team, and society at large, would forgive him. He also had a "sit down" face-to-face meeting with the team and apologized again. You could see the hurt still on these women's faces. The apology was accepted, but it was "forgive but not forget," because racist, misogynistic, hate-filled comments like the one made by Imus can't be forgotten.
He came back at some point on a different radio station and got the TV feed back on Fox Business Channel, way down at the bottom of the standard cable "packages." In 2016, I have no idea id he's still on anywhere. I assume he is, but maybe not, and he's just never discussed, in praise or criticism, anywhere. I'd be willing to bet that I'm the first person who's brought up his name on DU since 2007.
He'd simply gotten away with it for too long. He thought he was invincible...kind of like Trump saying that he could shoot someone on the street and get away with it. He was always a mean, bitter, hurtful guy who never seemed to cross the line because of the wide path he'd "enjoyed" for so many years.
Then he crossed it. All of this ridiculous, "I can't believe he gets away with it" garbage has come out about Trump, but his followers...and the RNC...turn their heads the other way.
Then something happened.
The "Mexican Judge" comments, rapidly followed up by his Orlando "victory lap" comments, started to seriously anger the community at large. It was no longer the Donald snickering like an 8th grader about some showgirl's breasts. These comments showed a level of cluelessness, a complete inability to censor himself and obscure even the smallest portion of the very, very small man who inhabited his body, and people reacted.
So far, none of this has added up to his "N.H.H. Moment." Yesterday, he pretty much told the entire leadership of what's left of the Republican party to get bent ("Be quiet. Please be quiet. Just be quiet."
And that staunch bastion of All Things Republican, Paul Ryan, called him on it, and immediately back pedaled with "We know we are going to agree to disagree." So Trump got another "pass."
But I think...and I could be wrong, I know...that Trump's "N.H.H." moment is coming. I think a few ill-advised words are going to roll off his lips and he will no longer need to test the limits of what he can get away with. Whether those words will drive away his followers remains to be seen, but the RNC will cut him loose at the convention, no matter how much legalese and red tape it takes, and Trump will then go on to make good on his threat to run as a third party candidate, or he'll start pitching a new reality show.
He really is Don Imus...it's just that his luck hasn't run out yet.
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