NATIONAL AFFAIRS:...Mitt Romney Calls It Quits, MAGA Rejoices...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | They might just be leaving one by one - those old-line, non-MAGA Republicans from the party of Ronald Reagan. Mitt Romney isn't leaving just yet, but he has announced plans to leave the U.S. Senate and retire after his term ends in January 2025.

His pal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, may beat him out of Washington, D.C. The 81-year-old McConnell's health has not been good lately. Two episodes of "freezing at the microphone" during news conferences point to serious physical problems for the senior senator from Kentucky.

Their other friend in the senate, John McCain of Arizona, died in 2018.

Those are only three, but brave Republicans willing to take-on MAGA foghorn Donald J. Trump are not common in current national politics. Candidates opposing him for the party's 2024 presidential nomination may rant and rave about him, but that's elections politics.

Romney, McConnell and McCain had the party at heart; Trump does not. Neither do his followers, who further separate themselves by being angry, boisterous and threatening violence.

That is not Romney and McConnell, nor was it McCain.

This excerpt from an article at thehill.com: [ Romney highlighted his age (77) as he announced his decision. "I’ve spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another. At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80s," Romney said.

"Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders," he went on. "They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in."

Whether intentional or not, those remarks drew an implicit contrast with some of Romney’s even older colleagues, including 81-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California.

Both have suffered recent public health scares that have raised concerns about whether they are able to perform their duties.

Romney was elected to the Senate in 2018, a return to elected office for the former governor of Massachusetts who mounted a failed bid to unseat then-President Barack Obama in 2012.

In Congress, Romney distinguished himself as one of Donald Trump’s few outspoken Republican critics. He was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump following his first impeachment trial in early 2020, a decision that drew a scornful response from Trump and his allies.

Romney joined six other Republican senators in 2021 who voted to convict Trump following his second impeachment for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. ]

And as could be expected, Trump, 77, tore into Romney in an all-caps social media post celebrating his decision to retire as "fantastic news for America."

You get the distinct impression that MAGA Republicans want lifelong party stalwarts like Romney and McConnell to either die or fade from the political scene.

It's a loss for civilized America, but there you are...

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