Peter Skurkiss at American Thinker asks whether “anti-Trump RINO Rep. Anthony Gonzalez [can] survive a primary challenge?” Gonzalez represents Ohio's 16th congressional district, which includes part of Northeast Ohio including Wayne County and parts of Cuyahoga, Medina, Summit, Portage and Stark Counties. Mr. Skurkiss begins:
You may recall that Rep.
Anthony Gonzalez (RINO-Ohio) is one
of ten Republican House members who voted to impeach President Trump after he
left office on the bogus charge that he had incited the riot in the nation's
capital on January 6. For this, Gonzalez was formally
censured in early May by the Ohio Republican Party and asked to
resign.
Far from being chastised,
Gonzalez continued
his vendetta against Trump and by extension MAGA
supporters. He next voted for the Democrat resolution to establish a
commission to investigate the January 6 fracas. Nancy Pelosi,
chief proponent of the commission, says the commission will be
"independent and bipartisan." Who in his right mind could
believe Pelosi on this? Was there anything remotely fair or honest
in the way Pelosi's House of Representatives held its two Trump impeachment trials?
In reality, the January 6
commission will function as a red herring designed to advance the Democrat
agenda going into the 2022 election. The commission will be to focus
media attention on the false Democrat argument that the events on January 6 constituted
an insurrection. By any objective standard, it did
not. All the ensuing kabuki theatrics will be a
replay of the Russian collusion hoax, with the corporate media aggressively
pushing the Democrat agenda. This will be done with the intent to
take the spotlight off the mounting failures of the
Harris/Biden administration. And for this, Gonzalez voted
"yes."
It is interesting to hear
Gonzalez's spurious argument as to why he shouldn't be purged from the
Republican Party or primaried. It's the usual trite blather: we need
to be a big tent party; we can't chase voters away; dissent is
healthy. There is some truth in all those sayings, but they miss the
point. Gonzalez conflates his treason to the GOP with legitimate
dissent. Nobody would have thought ill of Benedict Arnold if he had
merely disagreed with George Washington on tactics or strategy. But
Arnold went beyond the pale. He gave aid and comfort to the enemy,
just as Anthony Gonzalez has done. Gonzalez seemingly lacks the
wisdom to heed the words of Abraham Lincoln ("a house divide cannot
stand") or Jesus (Mark 3:25: "and if a house be divided against
itself, that house cannot stand").
Gonzalez is
in survival mode. He's throwing self-serving excuses
around in the hope that some might stick. Just as likely, he's also
auditioning for a lucrative post-political career in the
arms of those who first recruited him to come back to Ohio from California
to run for office. Gonzalez is angling to be the poster body purged
by the narrow, mean-spirited Republican Party. His big-money backers
will lap that up.
Skurkiss closes with a comparison to Jane Timken’s candidacy
for Portman’s Senate seat in the 2022 election:
As to Gonzalez's vote to impeach
President Trump, Timken was
initially soft on Gonzalez. . . . But now that [Josh] Mandel, a
MAGA man, has sharply criticized Timken for supporting Gonzalez, she has
abruptly changed her tune. She now is reported to favor Gonzalez out
of office. Some profile in courage that Timken is. .
. .
Anthony Gonzalez and Jane Timken
typify all that is wrong with the established Republican Party. The
sooner they and their ilk are driven from power, the stronger and better the
party will be. To be a big tent party does not require that
back-stabbers be tolerated.
That’s most of Mr. Skurkiss’s article, but click here for
the entire article.
Update from David M. Drucker at the Washington Examiner:
Republican Max Miller is poised
to ride an endorsement from Donald
Trump to victory over Rep. Anthony Gonzalez in a GOP primary in Ohio,
a contest unfolding as a clear test of the former president’s influence with
grassroots conservatives.
Miller, a 32-year-old former
Trump White House aide, was endorsed by the former president soon after announcing
for the Cleveland-area 16th Congressional District. Trump was intent on getting
revenge on Gonzalez, a second-term congressman among the 10 Republicans who
voted to impeach him in the waning days of his administration for allegedly
inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s swift endorsement of
Miller has, so far, kept other Republicans who might want to challenge
Gonzalez, 36, out of the race. Party insiders are skeptical that will change,
setting up a one-on-one contest between pro-Trump and anti-Trump candidates on
track to reveal how much punch the former president has in GOP primaries
post-White House.
More here.
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