Senate Republicans find a bottom

When it comes to becoming part of the Trump regime, there’s been only one litmus test, at least until now: total loyalty to Trump. Pass that test and nothing else matters.

But Senate Republicans have now set a limit to how low Trump loyalists can go if they want to be confirmed.

At least five Senate Republicans just opposed the nomination of Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel — enough to block his confirmation.

Ingrassia was among Trump Republican operatives who have been exposed exchanging racist, sexist, Nazi-loving text messages — calling Black people “monkeys” and “watermelon people,” talking about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide, lauding Republicans who they believe support slavery, imagining putting political opponents into gas chambers and subjecting them to “the greatest physiological torture methods known to man,” calling rape “epic,” and writing “I love Hitler.”

JD Vance brushed off the messages: “Kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives.”

Jokes? Not funny.

Kids? Members of the group range from 18 to 40. One is a state legislator. Others are in their 30s and well-established in Republican politics.

Ingrassia, age 30, is now the Department of Homeland Security’s liaison to Vance and Trump’s White House.

In his text messages, Ingrassia described himself as having “a Nazi streak” and suggests Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.”

But because of his utter loyalty to Trump, Trump nominated Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistleblower complaints and allegations of political interference in the civil service.

Vance has responded quite differently toward anyone making negative comments about the late Charlie Kirk.

“Call them out,” Vance angrily demanded, “and hell, call their employer.”

Many who have expressed critical views about Kirk have now lost their jobs.

At least 21 teachers in school districts across the country have been fired, put on administrative leave, or placed under investigation by their employers for comments allegedly critical of Kirk. Firefighters, members of the military, a sports reporter, an employee of the Carolina Panthers, and a city council official in Indiana have faced similar treatment or calls to resign.

The State Department has even revoked visas of foreign nationals who have made slightly negative comments about Kirk on social media, including banal statements such as “Kirk won’t be remembered as a hero.”

Senate Republicans apparently don’t share Vance’s hypocritical tolerance for racist, sexist, and Nazi-loving comments by people Trump wants to confirm for positions in his regime.

Unlike Vance and the GOP operatives who feel that their loyalty to Trump allows them to promote the sickest and most hateful views imaginable, Senate Republicans have a bottom below which they won’t sink.

It’s low but, hey, it’s a bottom.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.