Amazing.
But typical.
So the news emerges that with the forced retirement (for health reasons) of Georgia GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson, the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, is set to replace the conservative Isakson with financial executive Kelly Loeffler. In fact, by the time you read this, the appointment may already have been made.
And what, exactly, does Kelly Loeffler believe?
As noted over here at Breitbart, conservatives in Georgia are up in arms about the idea of the appointment. Breitbart reported this:
Conservatives across the Georgia Republican base have sounded the alarm over Gov. Brian Kemp’s potential appointment of Kelly Loeffler as an interim Republican senator. Georgia conservative activist Debbie Dooley called her a “country club Republican” in an interview with Breitbart News.
As evidence the article includes the wealthy Loeffler’s contribution history, which has two notable examples:
Dooley said Loeffler “gave $750,000 to Mitt Romney in 2012; she gave zero to Donald Trump in 2016.”
Got that? Here you have a prominent wealthy Republican who went out of her way to give a cool three-quarters of a million bucks to establishment GOPer Mitt Romney in 2012. But in 2016 when Donald Trump was taking on the establishments of both the Republican and Democratic parties, Loeffler “gave zero to Donald Trump in 2016.”
Say again? That figure was — zero.
Worse, now that she is suddenly on the verge of a Senate appointment — there is this:
A few weeks ago, she gave $100,000 in contributions to Donald Trump, but that was only because her political consultants said, “You need to do this.”
Let’s get straight to the point here. This is exactly the reason Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in the first place. Republican voters were — and are — sick and tired of establishment Republicans who fold like a cheap suit when it comes to standing up for conservative principle.
And oh, yes, there’s this from that Breitbart story:
Loeffler is the co-owner and co-chairman of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Atlanta Dream.
After the Trump administration announced plans in 2018 to cut family planning funding from abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood, WNBA President Lisa Borders said that she and the league “stands with Planned Parenthood.”
Yes indeed. You read that right. Loeffler stood with Planned Parenthood.
The surprise here comes in the news that the idea of appointing conservative champion and Georgia Republican Congressman Doug Collins has been resisted by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Yes, that would be the self-same Brian Kemp for whom conservatives rallied in last year’s touch-and-go gubernatorial election against left-wing Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Apparently the president himself has made the case for Collins directly to Gov. Kemp — to no avail. Recall that when Kemp himself was campaigning for governor, the president showed up at a rally in Georgia saying this: “I know Brian. He will take it to new heights, heights you will never believe.”
Now? Now Kemp is lashing out at conservatives, tweeting this:
Frankly, I could care less what the political establishment thinks.
Say what? Clearly the governor is confused. It is the governor who has apparently switched sides and signed up with the RINO Republican team — the GOP political establishment. It is no small thing that Collins has support from not only the president but grassroots Georgia conservatives — plus Sean Hannity and the American Conservative Union’s Matt Schlapp.
This is exactly the kind of game-playing that infuriates grassroots conservatives. It has been going on for a very long time. And clearly it is happening again in Georgia.
It is the Swamp personified, with Gov. Kemp as the new swamp creature.
