Quick Hits: Volume CCXXXIX

 - With the 2020 elections barely in the rear view mirror, apparently it's not too early to talk 2022. 

Since a Republican has not won a statewide race in Minnesota since 2006, speculation abounds as to whom the GOP is considering running against Gov. Tim Walz. 

A personal friend of Trump's, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has openly mulled a gubernatorial bid. Several members of Congress and the Legislature are testing the waters after spending the past year bashing Walz's measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. And an ex-Minnesota Viking is considering a play for chief executive, too.

Lindell told the Star Tribune last week that he is "90 to 95%" likely to run for governor next year, offering Minnesota Republicans the biggest test of Trump's ongoing traction. The honorary chairman of Trump's campaign in Minnesota, Lindell remains among the highest-profile figures still pursuing legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election amid evidence-free claims of voter fraud.

Lindell said he has so far poured more than $1 million of his own money into such endeavors, and that he has been working closely with former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn on probing allegations of election fraud.

He said he would make a decision on 2022 "once we know Donald Trump is our president" and added that he doesn't feel pressure to announce anytime soon "because people know who I am."

"I think I would bring common sense and unity," Lindell said. "It's a business, where you run things like a business. I look at problems and solutions and what it's going to manifest into."

If the MyPillow guy ends up being the most formidable candidate to declare, then let me be one of the first to say "Congratulations on your reelection, Gov. Walz."

- I'm guessing the Babylon Bee needs to sue for copyright infringement, posthaste. 

A prayer opening the 117th Congress concluded, "Amen and a woman."

"Amen" translates to "so be it." pic.twitter.com/SIGBtgLk5v

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 4, 2021

Actually, shouldn't it be "Amen and An individual with a cervix?" 

-  If the Republican U.S. Senators out of Georgia, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both lose in the runoff elections Tuesday, the Dems will have captured a 50-50 majority in the upper chamber. As such, there would be more than a slight possibility that President Trump's legacy could be completely wiped out with Democrats controlling all three levers of power in Washington, D.C. And while Trump would no doubt blame Republican losses on GA GOP officials not fighting back against "massive fraud," he would actually need to look no further than the man in the glass. 

President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that legal scholars described as a flagrant abuse of power and a potential criminal act.

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”

Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate.

Trump dismissed their arguments.

“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” he said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.”

People will read this as Trump encouraging Raffensberger to commit outright fraud in an effort to swing the election his way. But if the President really, really believes he won Georgia (and I'm convinced he does believe it, delusional as he is), then he's merely pushing to right a wrong. But the problem here is Trump's woeful lack of understanding in regards to Georgia's constitutional order. Raffensberger has fulfilled literally every obligation he's legally bound to and thus has absolutely zero authority to do what Trump is asking. 

Part of me is convinced Trump is OK with sabotaging the GOP in the runoffs. His massive ego just can't handle the fact that all right-of-center candidates in Georgia this past cycle got 50+% of votes with the lone exception being the presidential race. As such, he has no desire to be the "lonesome loser." Sadly that appears to be more important to him than his legacy. So much for "America First."

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