Maryland, My Maryland

Buck Throckmorton at Ace's THE MORNING RANT: #NeverHogan - Would Republicans Support Liz Cheney as a “GOP” Senator from Maryland?. Sorry I stole the whole thing, but it's worth it.

In the election for US Senator from Maryland this November, I do not want the Republican candidate to win. A Democrat senator from Maryland will do far less harm to the Trump agenda than Larry Hogan will do if he is elected as a Republican.

I am well aware of the Buckley rule (which effectively states that conservatives should support the rightwardmost viable candidate in a given race) and I still generally support that concept. I would gladly vote for Susan Collins if I lived in Maine. But the Buckley Rule gets thrown out the window if the “rightwardmost candidate” is running on a platform of sabotaging the presidency of a Republican with a conservative agenda.

Would any among us vote for Liz Cheney if she were the Republican senate candidate in Maryland? If you wouldn’t vote for Cheney, why would you vote for Larry Hogan? He is campaigning to be the Liz Cheney of Trump’s 2nd term.

Why is Maryland Governor Larry Hogan even running for the US Senate? He makes it very clear that his motivation to trade the Governor’s Mansion for the Senate is due to his hostility toward Donald Trump, and to stop Donald Trump’s agenda.

Hogan actually stated that the precipitating event that made him decide to run is Trump’s opposition to Biden’s border agenda as laid out in Biden’s border bill this past spring. (The bill was defeated by senate Republicans, who denied it the 60 votes it needed.)

“Hogan: Trump push against bipartisan border bill made me ‘angry enough’ to run for Senate” [The Hill 3/04/2024]

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) says former President Trump’s efforts to help to tank the Senate’s bipartisan border bill is the reason he decided to enter his state’s Senate race. “It’s why I decided to run for the Senate, actually,” Hogan said Monday.

An actual conservative governor, Ron DeSantis, had this to say about Biden’s border bill that Larry Hogan so passionately supported:

During a news conference in Miami Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called the Senate Bill a “farce” and a “dog and pony show” that will just exacerbate the border crisis. “People are starting to point out what a farce it is to basically say that you only shut the border down once 5,000 people a day come in illegally, which is about two million a year,” DeSantis said. “That’s basically legalizing illegal immigration.”

That is correct. Biden’s border bill would have enshrined in law the authorization for 1,825,000 million illegal aliens per year to enter and remain in the US. That is 1,825,000 more than are currently allowed under the laws that Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas are flagrantly ignoring. And Larry Hogan is so passionate about allowing 1.8 million illegal immigrants into the US each year that he wants to go to battle with Donald Trump to protect Biden’s open border when Trump is elected.

Beyond the border, Hogan has such an advanced case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that he can’t even condemn the political show trial against Donald Trump, an assault on our legal system that was so egregious that even most hardcore NeverTump conservatives objected to it. In fact, Hogan urges us all to “respect” the verdict, and to respect the legal process that is going to imprison Trump for his undefinable, victimless “crimes.” If that’s not enough, Hogan also states that we are engaging in “toxic partisanship” if we oppose the Biden administration and its allies for seeking to imprison Biden’s political adversaries.

What about judicial nominations? Hogan will almost certainly be siding with the Democrats in trying to defeat Trump’s nominees. Back in autumn of 2020, when Trump suddenly had the opportunity to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, Governor Hogan refused to join 24 other Republican governors in a letter of support for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.

"I don't think we should play partisan games with the Supreme Court," Hogan said on September 23. "I think it would be a mistake for the Senate to ram through a nominee before the election on a partisan line vote…”

Hogan could not make it any clearer that he wants to go to the Senate to battle Republicans and to sabotage any conservative victories…

“Hogan says Republicans can’t count on his vote in Senate” [The Hill 5/28/2024]

“I want to say this upfront: In the Senate, Republicans can’t count on my vote,” said Hogan, the former governor of the Old Line State.

It is human nature to cheer for “our team,” be it sports, politics, or war, thus we rally around individuals wearing our team’s uniform, and it’s especially exciting to try to pull off an upset, such as winning a Senate seat from a deep-blue state like Maryland.

But if an adversary is wearing our uniform and attacking us from within our own trenches, he is far more dangerous than the guy in the far trench wearing the other side’s uniform.

It is highly probable that Republicans are going to pick up a few Senate seats in the 2024 elections and gain control of that chamber of Congress. With 60 votes needed to pass legislation, it hardly matters whether the GOP ends up with 52, 53, or 54 Senate seats. It will have a small, weak majority, with or without Hogan. The main task for the Senate in 2024 and 2025 will be approving Trump’s various nominations, especially his judicial appointments. It is already expected that Hogan will be siding with the Democrats in opposing Trump’s nominations.

But here are the most critical reasons why it is imperative that Hogan not be elected as a Republican to the Senate:

1) Committee Appointments: The Senate rules result in each committee having one more member from the majority party than from the minority party. Even if the Republicans have a senate majority, any committee that Hogan is on will have become a de facto Democrat-controlled committee, and committees have the ability to stop full-Senate votes on important agenda items. What this means is that a Senate with 53 Republicans including Hogan will have several Democrat-controlled committees, whereas a Senate with only 52 Republicans, and excluding Hogan, will not have any Hoganized committees in which control has shifted to Democrats.

2) Bipartisanship: When Larry Hogan sides with Democrats to sabotage Trump’s agenda, he will bless the Democrats’ efforts with the glow of “bipartisanship.”

3) Hearings & Impeachment: Larry Hogan will be the prominent Republican voice in support of bipartisan hearings regarding the “scandals” that will be created to take Trump out. The Democrats stand a good chance at taking the Senate back in 2026. Donald Trump’s next impeachment in 2027 will be Larry Hogan’s shining moment.

If you wouldn’t vote for Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney for Senate from Maryland, then please think carefully about supporting Larry Hogan.

It's a very emotional and persuasive argument, but I'm still not buying it. If we elect Angela Alsobrooks, we'll get everything Buck fears in Hogan, and have absolutely no chances for support of anything conservative.