Deplorables of the Year, Part I
The Undercard
George Santos, Ken Paxton, Stephen Miller, Matt Gaetz, Tucker, Rudy, Elon, Vivek, Kanye, Nick Fuentes, Fox News, James Comer, Kari Lake, Tommy Tuberville, Alex Jones, Nancy Mace, Mike Johnson, J.D. Vance, My Kevin, Lauren Boebert, Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, Jared, Sidney Powell, RFK, Jr., Elise Stefanik, Lindsey Graham, the pro-Hamas left, Jim Jordan, Steve Bannon, Kenneth Chesebro…
So. Many. Choices. (Hat tip: Drudge)
As you know the list is incomplete, because there are some Deplorables — Donald Trump, MTG, and the rest of the wretched refuse of MAGAdom — who are Lifetime Designees. But after much sifting and winnowing of the rest of the worst, here are our picks.
The Undercard
Christian Ziegler
Along with his wife, Bridget, the Florida GOP chairman apparently put the libertine back in “Moms for Liberty.”
The woman accusing Republican Party of Florida Chair Christian Ziegler of rape told him over Instagram messages that she was distraught and “terrified” of him after their encounter and unable to work, according to a search warrant affidavit.
The affidavit also revealed that Ziegler’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, who co-founded the conservative parents group Moms for Liberty, acknowledged to police that she, the victim and her husband had consensual sex together over a year before the alleged crime occurred, per an interview police conducted Nov. 1.
**
Cleta Mitchell
The veteran election denier isn’t trying to hide the whole voter suppression thing anymore. “Top GOP lawyer decries ease of campus voting in private pitch to RNC.”
You remember Cleta, right?
Mitchell advised Trump and was on the call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 when Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the result.
“All we have to do, Cleta, is find 11,000-plus votes,” Trump said on the call, which is now under investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of a broader inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 result in Georgia.
**
Lauren Boebert
Ironically, her signature moment did not involve any of her shambolic “work” in Congress. Instead, Boebert’s 2023 will best be remembered as the handsy-heard (and seen)-round-the-world.
“Rep. Lauren Boebert and Date Grope Each Other's Crotches in New Theater Video.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert's night inside a Denver theater was way more handsy than it initially appeared -- new video shows her groping her date's crotch as he aggressively paws at her breast.
In the new surveillance video clip -- recorded Sunday night during a performance of "Beetlejuice" -- Boebert's date first reaches over to fondle her right breast, and almost immediately she puts a hand in between his legs.
The groping of her chest continues throughout the clip, and eventually the U.S. Congresswoman puts her other hand in his crotch as well.
At least it wasn’t Drag Queen Story Hour.
**
Mike Lindell
The My Pillow guy made a deal and then tried to welch on it. Like Fox News, though, he got busted. “Mike Lindell ordered to pay $5M for losing his own election data challenge.”
Mike Lindell has to pay $5 million for losing his "Prove Mike Wrong" 2020 election challenge, an arbitration panel has ruled.
In a decision dated Wednesday, the panel found software developer Robert Zeidman had won Lindell’s 2021 contest challenging experts to prove that data he had was not from the 2020 election, and directed the MyPillow founder to pay him the reward money he'd promised in the next 30 days.
**
Matt and Mercedes
The power couple had some notable fumbles this year, which may explain this: “Matt Schlapp Held an Exorcism at CPAC Offices After Junior Employees Resigned.”
When a group of employees resigned in protest from conservative activist group CPAC last year, the organization’s power couple—Matt Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes—felt it was time for a new beginning.
As part of the reset, the Schlapps turned to a priest to evict satanic spirits from the D.C.-area offices, according to multiple people with knowledge of the exorcisms.
**
Dan Bongino
Our collective IQs just edged a bit higher with the news that we will be hearing less from Bongo.
Fox News has ended its relationship with Dan Bongino, who hosted the Saturday night show Unfiltered with Dan Bongino. “Folks, regretfully, last week was my last show on Fox News on the Fox News Channel,” Bongino said on his podcast Thursday. “It’s tough. It’s tough to say that. You know, I’ve been there doing hits and working there for ten years...so the show ending was tough.”
Sad.
**
Kandiss Taylor
“Georgia GOP Chair Goes Full Flat-Earth, Says Globes Are Part of a Conspiracy.”
Kandiss Taylor, a recently elected GOP District Chair in Georgia, would like to know why Big Globe won’t stop shoving round-Earth propaganda down our throats.
In an interview with David Weiss (AKA “Flat Earth Dave”) and Matt Long on her “Jesus, Guns, and Babies” podcast, Taylor and her guests discussed biblical “evidence” that the Earth is actually flat as a pancake. “The people that defend the globe don’t know anything about the globe,” said Weiss. “If they knew a tenth of what Matt and I know about the globe they would be Flat Earthers.”
“All the globes, everywhere” Taylor said later in the discussion. “I turn on the TV, there’s globes in the background … Everywhere there’s globes. You see them all the time, it’s constant. My children will be like ‘Mama, globe, globe, globe, globe’ — they’re everywhere.”
Her kicker: “More and more I’m like, it doesn’t make sense.” We concur.
**
Pastor Tom Ascol
This guy: “[While] Ascol isn’t a household name, he is one of a number of figures with significant sway inside the evangelical world, and it’s no minor thing that he has portrayed DeSantis as a savior, much in the way other evangelicals have with Trump.”
Ascol had some thoughts about homosexuality, Leviticus, and Ted Cruz.
**
Tara Reade
Remember when Team Trump was all over the Tara Reade story? Back in 2020, Amanda Carpenter wrote in the Bulwark:
Over the past week, lots of Trump surrogates—from campaign manager Brad Parscale to daughter-in-law Lara Trump to communications guru Mercedes Schlapp—have tried to capitalize on the allegations lodged by Tara Reade against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But given how they’ve protected Trump from such allegations, why should anyone care what they have to say?
That was then. This year: Reade announced that she was officially defecting to Russia. Russian spy Maria Butina is helping her get citizenship. Because, of course.
BONUS:
**
Christopher Rufo
You’ll recall how Ron DeSantis tried to demonstrate his anti-woke educational chops by taking over New College of Florida and stacking its board with right-wing activists/charlatans like Christopher Rufo. It did not go well. At all.
“New College of Florida students, professors report chaos as semester begins.”
Months after what critics have decried as a conservative takeover at New College of Florida, students and professors say a sense of confusion and anxiety looms over the start of fall semester in Sarasota, Florida.
Amy Reid, a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, said course options have dwindled after nearly 40% of faculty members have resigned.
Reid said the situation is quickly becoming “untenable.”
**
David Sacks
Entrepreneur, crank, and Elon Musk buddy, Sacks had more thoughts about Ukraine, and we are all dumber for it.
It began with this bogus tweet:
As readers quickly noted, the story was fake. It was a Russian missile. And NATO has no troops in Ukraine. But Sacks still bit.
“Horrible,” he tweeted. “American troops should not be in Ukraine. Period, end of story.”
When he was called on his moronic take, Sacks refused to apologize, calling his critics “war mongers.”
**
Rick Scott
“Rick Scott Warns Communists, Socialists: Stay Out of Florida.”
Scott, who reportedly is considering a late entry into the race for the 2024 Republican nomination, attempted to throw out some performative red meat on Tuesday by “warning socialists and communists not to travel to Florida.”
“They are not welcome in the Sunshine State,” he condescendingly declared in a video posted on Twitter. “We’re the free state of Florida. We actually don’t believe in socialism…”
Because “freedom” means keeping out people with different opinions, amirite?
**
Elise Stefanik
Not to be outdone by her colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene, Stefanik introduced her own resolution to “expunge” Trump’s impeachments. The text of her resolution endorses some of Trump’s lies about the election itself, as a justification for his actions.
In one clause, she declares that Trump is the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1888 “to have increased his vote from his initial election and seemingly still not won reelection in the subsequent cycle.” [Emphasis added.] She also cites the votes in “bellwether counties” that Trump won.
Because she really, really wants to be veep, doesn’t she?
**
Federalist Founder Sean Davis
Not unhinged, reckless, and deranged at all. “Defunded and dismantled in its entirety.”
**
Mark Levin
Right-wing “legal scholar” and constitutional strict constructionist Mark Levin urges Trump to pardon himself (after saying that he didn’t think president had that authority.)
**
Kari Lake
Who needs to wait for the election? The Arizona fraudster wants Congress to “reinstate Trump to the presidency now.”
BONUS: Election denialist and fabulist Kari Lake also showed off her musical skilz. “Kari Lake Is Releasing Song Called ‘81 Million Votes, My A—’ With Team Behind Trump’s J6 Prison Choir Track.”
**
Brett Favre
Famous welfare fraudster and purveyor of dick pix wanted us to know that he’s all-in for a former Fox employee.
**
Matt Walsh
Uber-manly hero of the incel clan had some thoughts:
Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Gordie Howe would like a word.
**
Peter Navarro
Peter Navarro, a senior Trump White House aide and vocal election denier who has said he helped hatch a legislative scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race, was found guilty Thursday of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
It went downhill from there. “Peter Navarro's Press Conference Spirals Into Chaos; ‘He Just Stuck a Flag Pole Between My Legs!’
**
Scott Adams
The Dilbert cartoonist continues to beclown.
Tomorrow: The Worst of the Worst
My vote for Deplorable of the Year is for Elise Stefanik.
I say this because she really did not have to sell her soul. And by the way, Elise is from the same background as me and my family. She could be a niece. We are both from the Catholic melting pot. I am Polish and Irish, she is Czech and Italian. (My nieces are Polish, Irish and Italian).
We also were strivers like her. So I attended a top college, my nieces did too (one just earned a PhD from Sloan).
Neither of us live in the Bible Belt so we don’t have to oppose evolution or even oppose science. We both a socially moderate. So her prostituting herself for a leadership spot was a clear choice for power and the brass ring over principals.
It is a shame. She could have represented a way for the GOP to go.
But now… she has to go.
Even though they're no longer active players, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and Rush Limbaugh all belong here because they laid the foundations of where we are today. Gingrich and Limbaugh were particularly toxic for our politics and culture.