Karl Rove Suggests Disregarding Millions of Republican Voters, Nominating--

[sofa king]

7. A throwaway chump to let Paul Ryan in.

Here is a disjointed collection of out-loud thoughts. Some are not as insane as they sound. Some are.

Rove sees the writing on the wall: no candidate can beat either Democrat; all of them have savagely ruined each others' chances for a credible run in the general, and they probably haven't dished all the dirt on each other yet, either. With Trump I know that for sure.

I think the idea now is to run a third party spoiler. They can either steal it from Trump and he'll run as a third party for sure, or run a well placed "fresh face" as a pure spoiler if they can't steal it from Trump.

The spoiler has to be someone really well known, because there won't be time to sell the person. It has to be someone capable of getting close enough to steal states from the Democrat and Trump. Big states, too, like PA, VA, NC, OH, TX, FL.

If they can steal states from both candidates, the election gets kicked into the Republican House, and they can do what they do best--nothing--and Speaker Paul Ryan inherits the office without a single vote.

It probably must be a person more widely known on television than in political circles. Maybe a television journalist? Maybe Sean Hannity? Maybe someone just as criminal, but less insane. Colin Powell? No. Too competent, too black. Jesse Ventura might have legs in the midwest, but can he take Pennsylvania? Christie would have been a good choice, a gangster's gangster, but Trump already got to him. Who's that psycho from The View?

Money isn't a problem. They have infinite money and infinite ability to channel it to the spoiler and to Trump and to the Democrat, in case one of the other two is doing too well.

If they're going to steal it from Trump, they can't wait until the week before the convention. They have to make their move at the rules meeting in mid-April, otherwise Trump won't get on the ballot as a third party in the states they want him to win.

Similarly, the spoiler has to launch before the convention, to be on the ballot in states they need to steal.

It can't be Mitt Romney, as much as Romney is angling for it. Romney can't take the states they need to make it a toss-up. He's proven that already.

It can be a criminal, because they'll have time to stall the press with the honeymoon phase and the access gambit. Sarah Palin's criminal behavior didn't fully come to light until the year after she ran. Look how long it took to bust Cruz, and there must have been hundreds of people who knew about his philandering for years.

It can't be Paul Ryan, because he's the one they've already positioned to win it all. It also means they have to win the House (a safe bet), and they have to make sure there is no dissent against Ryan's reelection as Speaker in January (a very unsafe bet, because by then every weasel in the House will see their shortcut to the White House).

One way to throw a wrench in the oligarchs' plans would be to front a powerful opposition candidate against Ryan in his home Congressional district. Do we have that person?

Another way to fuck up the contested election-theft is to run a candidate in every House district, no matter how much of a lost cause. Republican money is infinite but staff talent in the GOP is exceedingly rare. A lot of talent is placed on loan from safe districts, but if those districts suddenly face a challenge, the talent gets pulled back. The ultimate hilarity would be for the GOP to kick the election into the House, delay the vote, and then accidentally elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker with the help of pissed-off Republican moderates.