The incompetence among Trump's competitors has been breathtaking. Only after Jeb Bush is gone and Rubio and Cruz are slated for Super Tuesday slaughter have the GOP establishment and the billionaire's primary opposition — what little is left of both, that is — realized they should have taken Trump down when they had the chance.
Republican pols have, of course, stunk at governing for decades; but throughout, they always shined at raw, dirty, degenerate politics. It was the one thing Republicans could do, and do well. Now, even that artistry is gone, along with Jeb. As Politico notes, only this week has Boy Wunderklutz decided "to bury Trump in an avalanche of opposition research about his business failures and apparent hypocrisy of hiring undocumented foreign workers." This decision came only after his campaign had detonated into irrelevance.
Last night, Chris Hayes pointed to a HuffPost piece that characterizes — via a former Democratic opposition researcher — Republicans' anti-Trump incompetence as nothing less than political "malpractice." As the former DNC operative observes, "[I]f a Republican had committed six recent college grads to power through a Nexis dump in November and December, by January they'd have been able to compile a powerful narrative amplified by names and quotes that they could have put in ads by now."
By now might indeed have been too late, yet much earlier is much more than mere hindsight talking. As early as 2015's late summer it was clear that Trump was far more than a passing novelty and that something and something big needed to be done. And yet, Republicans failed to do it. Democrats did not:
One Democratic opposition researcher said that they’ve spent the past eight months compiling material on Trump as he’s risen up the ranks…. That researcher estimated that of all the material they’ve compiled — court and property records, newspaper clips and videos — approximately 80 percent of it has yet to surface in this election cycle.
A myth has grown up — one born, I suppose, of Trump's persistent dominance in polling — about the billionaire's indestructibility. He is not merely indestructible now, says the myth; he has always been indestructible, and there was nothing his internal opposition could have done about it. No amount of anti-Trump slashing would have cut the demagogue down.
For those who believe in the myth, I have only one reality-check to offer: Just wait until the Clinton attack machine — armed with Bushlike super-PAC cash and piles of dirt — starts unloading on Donald Trump. You'll then see what raw politics can accomplish.