Newt Gingrich is mentioned often as a running mate for Donald Trump, with Gingrich himself doing the mentioning. But last week, he also spoke highly of U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee. As Gingrich described him, Corker is a “very stable guy, in some ways would balance Trump.”
Now, balance is a common criteria in crafting a ticket. If your nominee is from the Northeast, you might want a veep from the West or South. If your candidate is conservative, you might want a moderate as running mate. And as Gingrich suggests, if you nominate Trump to be president, you might want to balance that pick with someone who is, you know, stable.
I get the idea. In addition to being stable, Corker serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which means that as vice president he might be expected to offer competent foreign-policy advice to Trump. The problem is that Trump could also be expected to ignore it. Asked to whom he speaks for guidance in foreign policy, Trump has already said that “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”
So there’s that.
Gingrich isn’t the only one trying to ease voters’ concern about the danger that Trump poses. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that he too backs Trump, but you don’t hear him lauding the Donald for his experience and wisdom. He also doesn’t praise his party’s nominee for his policy ideas or character. Even in this day and age, there are limits to what people will believe.
Instead, McConnell proposes the novel argument of “Hey, how much damage could he really do?”
“What protects us in this country against big mistakes being made is the structure, the Constitution, the institutions,” McConnell said on CBS Sunday Morning. “No matter how unusual a personality may be who gets elected to office, there are constraints in this country. You don’t get to do anything you want to.”
McConnell continued that theme in an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Monday. Acknowledging that Trump may not have bought into the “historical limited government theory,” McConnell argued that it didn’t matter.
“I think Donald Trump will understand when he’s sworn in the limits of his authority. He’ll have a White House counsel,” McConnell said. “There will be others who point out there’s certain things you can do and you can’t do.”
Let’s first acknowledge how much of the argument McConnell concedes. He admits that his party’s nominee respects no boundaries and is liable to go off the deep end, but no worries, he says, we’ve got the system to save us! I’m just not sure that’s as comforting as McConnell might wish. Yes, Trump will have a White House counsel to guide him. But Trump is much more likely to appoint some pliable two-bit real-estate attorney from Queens to the post than someone with the guts to tell him no. People who tell Trump no don’t stick around long.
Basically, McConnell and Gingrich are asking voters to bet the country’s future on the hope that when the time comes, they and other GOP leaders will have the backbone to stand up to Trump and tell him no. They won’t admit that their chance to take on Trump has already come and gone, and that they surrendered.
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