2016 June 6^th

We have a change in the likely Vice Presidential choice that Donald Trump will make. Up until yesterday the favorite, according to the British betting parlour, Paddy Power, was Newt Gingrich. That would have been (and it still might be) a truly remarkable choice. That choice would have meant that among the Republican Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, there would have been six different wives, four divorces and two divorce actions for infidelity. This would not have been a “family values” ticket even if it got the endorsement of James Dobson’s “Family Research Council.” What happened?

Gingrich had been an unequivocal admirer of Donald Trump. Then came Trump’s rant against the Indiana judge, a second generation American of Mexican decent, Trump claimed the judge could not treat him fairly. Trump claimed that Judge Curiel could not treat him fairly because the judge’s parents came from Mexico and Trump has announced that he is building a wall to keep the Mexican “murderers and rapists” out of this country. Now this latest Trump rant against a federal judge is too vile and biased for even Newt Gingrich to tolerate, and he has said so. He has said that Trump’s comments were a mistake and that they were unacceptable. Well, there go Newt’s chances of being Trump’s running mate.

The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell does not share Gingrich’s intestinal fortitude. When he was asked if Trump’s comments were racist, the best he could do was to say that, “he didn’t agree with them.” Chuck Todd asked McConnell three times if he thought the comments were racist. McConnell didn’t have the spine to answer “yes” or “no,” he just kept repeating, “I don’t agree with him.” Chuck Todd gave up!

Trump has a major problem: He needs an establishment insider to run with him as Vice President but the prominent insiders have all removed themselves from his consideration; they have eliminated themselves by criticizing the Donald. If he can’t find an insider maybe he’ll have to make do with someone who will not treat him “unfairly;” who could that be? Perhaps he’ll pick a woman. He would surely be comfortable with his daughter; she is also a graduate of the Wharton School and a “business person.” He also knows that she was born right here in the United States. Joking aside, the Republican Party knows now, if it did not know before, that it has a tiger by the tail and that tiger is about to turn around and chew them up. Oh dear!