There’s a certain brand of Republican who ticks all the right boxes and then gets to, say, the Senate, and the magic of the Special Boys Club goes to their heads, be they male or female.
A little more of that campaign fire in the belly seems to be extinguished every year and every new term they spend there, even as their own ambitions might grow.
Now, the Susan Collinses of the world don’t count – they were already different animals from peculiar habitats with a wildly diverse, interesting electorate of their own.
I’m talking about places you’d traditionally visualize as more middle-of-the-road, traditionally conservative, like Texas or Iowa, for instance. How does fire-eating-red Texas produce a senatorial suck-up like John Cornyn? And worse – keep them?
That sort of thing.
I’m not sure if that’s exactly what’s happened with Iowa senator Joni Ernst, but she’s…
