For Mike Rogers, politics has always been pragmatic; principles were merely for performance points, and always negotiable.
Thus, the onetime critic of Donald Trump’s extremism eagerly became his lapdog, licking his boots as he realized the MAGA man was the ticket to returning to Michigan to reclaim political glory by running for the U.S. Senate.
Two years ago, it almost worked. He ventured from his Florida mansion to accurately claim Michigan roots – and spuriously claim residency – only to fall tantalizingly short.
Now, thanks to another unexpected open Senate seat, he’s at it again, mostly using the same strategy of spouting vapid slogans, demonizing Democrats as un-American, carefully straying from anything that looks like a policy or a solution, and always slavishly praising the Great Leader.
It wasn’t always so.
After winning perhaps the closest congressional race in the nation, Rogers spent 14 years in the U.S. House where he distinguished himself as a spectacular fundraiser, but also chaired the vital House Intelligence Committee where he earned bi-partisan praise for reversing years of dysfunction and infighting among the panel’s staff.
Then, he surprisingly walked away from the House, cashed in on lobbying opportunities, and frequently appeared on news programs where his comments were certainly conservative but often reasonable.
His criticism of Trump back then was notable. After the 2020 election, perhaps believing that the Trump Era was over and the party would welcome a new sanity slate, Rogers wrote in the Detroit News that Republicans should reject Trump’s attempts to alter the election’s result. “It is well past time,” he wrote, “that the president accepts that he lost and begins the peaceful and orderly transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.”
Then in a Washington Post article he charged Trump with baselessly “sowing doubt and conspiracy” about the results. “This was an election,” Rogers wrote, “that multiple independent observers, the courts and both parties have found to be free and fair. To imply otherwise is self-serving and stokes further discord in our country.”
That was published on January 5, 2021.
Times have changed. Now Rogers is recycling Trump’s trash by claiming that a mysterious early-morning van carrying tampered ballots played a role in his 2022 loss. It’s stupid on its face. For the conspiracy to be true, Democrats would have to be diabolical and skilled enough to pack 20,000 or more fake ballots in a van in order to defeat Rogers, but dimwitted enough to leave unaltered the ballots that allowed Trump to carry the state.
Or, in the words of Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, “Mike Rogers has either lost every last photon of sanity or he’s a lying prick who is cynically exploiting mushy MAGA minds in his desperation and thirst to be liked by them rather than normal American Michiganders.”
Rogers isn’t insane. But he can count. He didn’t lose in 2022 because Slotkin out-polled him among independents and/or moderates. He lost because those MAGA minds may be mushy but they aren’t forgetful. They remembered what Rogers said and they didn’t trust him. Many who voted for Trump didn’t vote for him, either skipping the senate race or choosing a protest candidate.
Rogers lagged 110,000 votes behind Trump in Michigan. He lost the senate race by 19,000 votes. The punishing MAGA voters doomed him.
This time around, Rogers has amped up his Trump gushing even more. It seemed to be the most logical path to victory. Then last week, ever wary of the wind’s directional flow, he held up his finger and, while carefully not criticizing Trump, posted concerns about a MAGA-backed movement to pay for the Iran War by cutting back on government healthcare funding.
Rogers has a dilemma. His voters might ignore the bombing of school children in Iran, the murder of American citizens in Minneapolis, the unprecedented graft in the White House, and the utter incompetence of the Cabinet.
But $4 gas, rising food prices, and slashing of government healthcare benefits are another matter.
Rogers has to thread a narrowing needle because his adopted hero stupidly started a war that he didn’t know anything about. Then Iran shut down the Straits of Hormuz (which everyone but Trump and his toadies knew would happen) while simultaneously hurling drones every which way.
Now, the U.S. and Israel are running out of the more expensive interceptors while Iran has plenty of drones (and help from Putin in targeting US sites). The U.S. is also running out of Tomahawks and Israel is running out of soldiers. American boots are treading on Middle East soil. But Trump has a plan, which he’ll reveal “in two weeks.”
With unqualified lapdogs at the helm, Team Trump started bombing Iran. Yes, he’s killed a lot of people and, yes, the regime is evil. But Trump is not winning and the Iranians know it. Trump is flailing and Mike Rogers is getting nervous. Gas prices are up, food prices are up, the Dow is collapsing, and Republicans want to cut healthcare benefits to pay for this expensive, immoral, unconstitutional war. Geeze, that might not look so good in November.
So, Milquetoast Mikey is looking to change colors again and hope that people forget that he has wholeheartedly endorsed everything that Trump does. It’s a pipe dream, but maybe that Florida sun is getting to him.
To read more of Rich Perlberg, check out his Substack.
