Cawthorn's next job? any guesses?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

27. In all seriousness, he's probably going to end up on suicide watch.

He's in a downward spiral, which I recognize because ... um. let's just say, been there, done that. Not to his degree, but he is in big trouble.

He's 26, about to be 27. He's a high school graduate with a host of challenges that he wakes up to every day.

Fri May 13, 2022: 'He's Not OK': The Entirely Predictable Unraveling of Madison Cawthorn

Analysis, not news. Long piece.

Hat tip, Newser, the clickbait site

I wouldn't trade places with this guy for anything. Still, he's picking up a paycheck in return for ... what?

‘He’s Not OK’: The Entirely Predictable Unraveling of Madison Cawthorn

A string of embarrassing incidents has led many to question whether the young congressman from North Carolina was really ready for the job.

By MICHAEL KRUSE

05/13/2022 04:30 AM EDT

Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer at POLITICO and POLITICO Magazine.

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — In August of 2015, 16 months after the accident that nearly killed him and left him unable to walk, Madison Cawthorn exchanged text messages with the friend who had fallen asleep at the wheel and careened into a concrete wall. Brad Ledford was about to head off to college. Cawthorn was living with his parents in a house that had been renovated for his wheelchair. He was suing Ledford and Ledford’s father’s business for millions of dollars of medical bills. Phone to phone, the teens bantered back and forth about getting together, but after a while it was clear Cawthorn didn’t want to.

Ledford referenced “the tension” of the court case and lamented they couldn’t hang out “the way we used to.” ... “I miss everything,” Ledford said. ... “I miss everything too,” Cawthorn shot back, unleashing one long, raw message, screens and screens of anguish and loss. ... “I miss my life,” he said. “I miss being able to defend myself … being able to dress myself … being able to use the bathroom without someone helping me … I miss not peeing the bed because I have no control over my penis … not having to have pills keep me alive … being able to compete … being checked out by girls … I miss my pride as a man … the pride my father swelled with when he spoke my name … I miss,” he said, “not having to convince myself every day not to pull the trigger and end it all.”

Four and a half years after Cawthorn contemplated suicide, he was running for Congress. Turning a stirring story of conquering adversity into a shocking political victory, he achieved his most ambitious career goal at a staggeringly early age. And within weeks if not days of being sworn in — at 25 years old one of the youngest members in the history of the House — he had put himself on a short list of the chamber’s most known figures. Now, though, heading into his first reelection, Cawthorn is mired in controversy, facing the very real possibility that the end of his electoral career might come as quickly as it began. Emboldened by Cawthorn’s miscues, misdeeds and array of indiscretions, seven Republican challengers have lined up to try to take him out in Tuesday’s primary, party leaders have abandoned him, and other MAGA firebrands are keeping their distance what with the escalating storm of even just the past few months.

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The scope of Cawthorn’s troubles is broad, the implications transcending mere politics. More than 70 interviews with people who know Cawthorn, who have worked for him and against him, allies and enemies, activists and operatives and longtime watchers of politics here in the mountains of western North Carolina, paint a picture of a man in crisis. Cawthorn, they say, is an immature college dropout with a thin work resume, a scofflaw and serial embellisher who was neither qualified nor prepared for the responsibility and the scrutiny that comes with the office he holds. They describe him as a person whose ongoing physical pain and insecurities have made him unusually susceptible to the twisted incentives of a political environment and a Trump-led GOP that prizes perhaps above all else outrage and partisan attack.

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