Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

All Politics is Local

Tip O’Neill

I noticed this piece concerning the aftermath of the Donald Trump endorsement of Larry Hogan in Maryland.

The former Maryland governor did not seek the endorsement or know about it in advance, according to a person familiar with the campaign. And the campaign’s response to the endorsement didn’t embrace or even acknowledge it — instead saying in a statement: “Governor Hogan has been clear he is not supporting Donald Trump just as he didn’t in 2016 and 2020.”

Hogan has one of the toughest challenges of the cycle, winning a federal office as a Republican in such a blue state. He’s widely popular in Maryland and seen as essentially the only Republican who could potentially flip the Senate seat, and national Republicans are supportive of his effort to win the state without embracing Trump.

There are a few places, for example Citizen Free Press who are upset at the Hogan reaction, here is the line:

Trump endorses Larry Hogan in Maryland, then Larry disrespects Trump.

But it doesn’t seem to bother Trump all that much and I suspect the reason why is something Tip O’Neill used to tell pols back in the days where there was such a thing as conservative democrats who were practicing Christians who really believed in God and didn’t support abortion, you know in the days before the Democrats drove such working class people out of the party.

O’Neill followed Rayburn’s rule that a congressman’s first duty is to get re-elected and was very blunt in saying to his fellow democrats that if it helped them to run against him, that’s fine with him.

Trump knows that a GOP majority in the Senate will be necessary to do what he wants to do and also knows he has only four years to do it with so if it means that there will be one member of the GOP who attacks him in the senate on MSNBC while giving him the critical vote on leadership and on all those priorities he wants to get done, well that’s fine with him and if he loses him on a vote or two that he wins, he won’t care, think Pelosi on the final Obamacare vote, she let every dem she didn’t need vote against her (didn’t save them, but she let them do it).

That’s the way to do it, and Trump is not only old enough to know that way works, he, unlike Biden is still competent enough to remember that it does too.