(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . From Puck, Florida Republican Insider Points Out How Absolutely Screwed DeSantis Is Against Trump. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-04 Digby has excerpts from an interview that Puck’s Tara Palmeri had with Florida GOP insider Peter Schorsch on the subject of Governor Ron DeSantis, and while Schorsch doesn’t say this explicitly, you can stick a fork into DeSantis’s presidential run for 2024. According to Schorsch, Trump’s indictment has “closed the door” on any frontal assaults that DeSantis could have thrown at Trump. The lunatic Republican base has closed ranks around the orange leader. And Schorsch throws a lot of shade at DeSantis that most major media outlets are ignoring about the Great White Hype of establishment Republicans. There is plenty of inside baseball, but Schorsch paints a picture of a cardboard candidate who refuses to adapt his campaign “strategy” to the present realities. And it ain’t pretty. On dealing with Trump’s indictment and any possible attacks on Trump: Tara Palmeri: How do you think DeSantis handled the Trump indictment news? Peter Schorsch: Not well. It’s his second or third walk-back in 10 days. He used to be Mr. Rule of Law, now the rule of law is not what matters? Of course, it’s extraordinarily difficult to run against a person and then be supportive of them at the same time. I think that’s why you still see people like George Conway and Tony Fabrizio saying maybe DeSantis isn’t going to run in the end. I talk to Desantis world and they do not see a problem with their campaign right now. There is no re-tool. The campaign is operating in a vacuum, external influences be damned. It’s still book tour, travel the country, set up the super PAC, etcetera, no matter what is happening outside of their very tight bubble. They’re not concerned about it… Speaking of embarrassments, can he handle more attacks on Trump? He better batten down the hatches because it’s only going to get worse. A quote I got from a Trump aide was “DeSantis brought a mercenary army to a holy war.” This person was responding to how Disney owned him. Do you think he’ll still wait until June to announce his candidacy? Will he ignore Trump till then or will he have to eventually engage? I think they have a plan. I see no evidence that they’re going to change from it. I think it’s going to be book tour and out-of-state travel from here until Memorial Day. Will they actually attack Trump in the meantime? The window to attack Trump is now closed because of the indictment. It would have been one thing if Trump had not been indicted, but the G.O.P. has so circled the horses around Trump right now that any lack of enthusiasm for him is treason. DeSantis can’t say anything but this double negative that he would not extradite Trump. But nobody is asking him to do it. And I think that Schorsch is correct with regards to “rally around our crooked messiah!” at least from what I have seen of recent opinion polls among Republican voters. No, I think the response from the lunatic base is delusional (redundant I know, but you can NEVER underestimate the ignorance, stupidity, and insanity of Republican voters), but it is what it is. I have argued that for Republican voters to reject Trump is to admit they were were wrong and shatter their sense of self, and how many Republican voters have you met that have admitted they were wrong? Damn few to be honest. And that is the part where Schorsch has essentially said, “DeSantis is burnt toast.” How can any candidate win against a bully when you cannot throw a punch in defense? Trump will just keep punching DeSantis, and if DeSantis decides to fight back, Republican voters will HATE him for it. And that is IF DeSantis throws any punches in self defense. According to Schorsch, DeSantis HAS A PLAN, and he and his staff refuse to deviate from THE PLAN: I talk to Desantis world and they do not see a problem with their campaign right now. There is no re-tool. The campaign is operating in a vacuum, external influences be damned. It’s still book tour, travel the country, set up the super PAC, etcetera, no matter what is happening outside of their very tight bubble. They’re not concerned about it. I know that is repeating from the above, but Schorsch further states that DeSantis and his team are playing a two dimensional game when they need a three dimensional game. Its just write a book, make tours, travel the nation, and meet donors. And push culture wars. And there is no one to challenge DeSantis’s flawed thinking. In fact, DeSantis wholeheartedly believes that his culture wars issues will play in the rest of the country or cause him no grief: There are some really red-meat issues that were just approved today by the Florida legislature, like the six week abortion ban and permitless concealed carry. Even Rick Scott said the six week abortion ban is too extreme. Does DeSantis see these topics as politically perilous in a general election? I don’t think he views it as politically perilous. I don’t think he views any of these positions as politically perilous at this point. I think there is a deeper, larger effort by them to transform Florida into a place where anyone other than the center right, and anybody to the left of the center right, are not welcome here: artists, teachers, educators, academics, anybody in the meritocracy, the consultant class, the work-from-home folks, creative intellectuals, the people who fuel Disney. All of that is to make Florida unwelcome. That is why Florida has tilted so hard to the right. If you are a gay couple in Des Moines and you have a job offer at the University of Florida, you’re not coming here, you’re just not going to do it. I think Ron is playing the long game to transform Florida into this incredible Texas-like state, where it’s just off the board as a swing state. He has no hesitation about any of these policies. In his view, abortion would be outlawed, you would have complete open carry. You would have very little regulation of industries. He would go to the full absolute view of modern conservatism. Even if it ends up hurting him in the general election with swing voters? I don’t think he views these as going to hurt him in a general election. I think he just got done running a general election and he won big. Even Rick Scott thought the six week ban on abortion was too extreme. What the hell does that tell you about DeSantis? Why I think this article is important is it is from a Florida Republican insider. It’s not some dirty hippie like me reporting this. It’s not someone from the evening MSNBC line up. It’s from someone who knows DeSantis and his crew. When I read this article, all I coudl think of is some guided missle with a malfunctioning guidance system and a bomb that is a dud landing in the middle of the ocean. Couldn’t happen to a nicer fucking fascist. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/4/4/2162098/-From-Puck-Florida-Republican-Insider-Points-Out-How-Absolutely-Screwed-DeSantis-Is-Against-Trump Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/