NYT: How the republican party is flailing and failing to stop Trump

[pampango]

Inside the Republican Party’s Desperate Mission to Stop Donald Trump

Addressing a luncheon of Republican governors and donors in Washington on Feb. 19, Rove warned that Donald J. Trump’s increasingly likely nomination would be catastrophic, dooming the party in November. In dozens of interviews, elected officials, political strategists and donors described a frantic, last-ditch campaign to block Mr. Trump — and the agonizing reasons that many of them have become convinced it will fail. Behind the scenes, a desperate mission to save the party sputtered and stalled at every turn.

Efforts to unite warring candidates behind one failed spectacularly: An overture from Senator Marco Rubio to Mr. Christie angered and insulted the governor. An unsubtle appeal from Mitt Romney to John Kasich, about the party’s need to consolidate behind one rival to Mr. Trump, fell on deaf ears. At least two campaigns have drafted plans to overtake Mr. Trump in a brokered convention, and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has laid out a plan that would have lawmakers break with Mr. Trump explicitly in a general election.

While still hopeful that Mr. Rubio might prevail, Mr. McConnell has begun preparing senators for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that, if it threatened to harm them in the general election, they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump to create space between him and Republican senators seeking re-election. Mr. McConnell has raised the possibility of treating Mr. Trump’s loss as a given and describing a Republican Senate to voters as a necessary check on a President Hillary Clinton, according to senators at the lunches.

The endorsement by Mr. Christie, a not unblemished but still highly regarded figure within the party’s elite — he is a former chairman of the Republican Governors Association — landed Friday with crippling force. It was by far the most important defection to Mr. Trump’s insurgency: Mr. Christie may give cover to other Republicans tempted to join Mr. Trump rather than trying to beat him. Not just the Stop Trump forces seemed in peril, but also the traditional party establishment itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-party.html?_r=0

How will this all end? Will there be a brokered convention? And will the party really run negative adds against its own presidential candidate if that is Trump? That seems highly unlikely to say the least.

[vadermike]

1. Lol

They may have no choice but to run against trump if they want to save the rmsenate they will have to ditch the presidency I love it !!!

[SylviaD]

2. Christie's endorsement was more about his hatred for Rubio than his liking of Trump.

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of the cesspool party knows that Christie loathes Rubio.

I sincerely believe Chris Christie will vote for Hillary over Rubio if he somehow gets the nomination.

[LonePirate]

3. Trump's poll numbers in the GE will dictate how Republicans handle him.

If he is trailing the Dem nominee, the Repubs will act as if Trump does not exist. They will attack the Dem nominee instead.

If Trump is leading in the polls, every Repub will cozy up to him like BFFs Repubs have absolutely no principles or shame.