They’re for free and fair elections — unless they lose.
By Kevin McDermott
Editorial Board
St. Louis-Dispatch
To hear Democrats and left-leaning pundits tell it, Herschel Walker’s abortion scandal has practically sealed his fate in Georgia’s Senate race. The former NFL star turned staunchly anti-choice Republican nominee is accused of having paid for one abortion for an ex-girlfriend, then unsuccessfully urging her to get a second one, and then all but abandoning the resulting child.
On its face, Democratic glee is merited by the fact that the story is both credible (though Walker vehemently denies it) and clearly at odds with stated Republican principles opposing abortion and supporting family values — all of it infused with that most toxic of political poisons, hypocrisy.
But that’s where Walker’s critics look almost adorably naïve. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that Republicans no longer consider shameless hypocrisy in their politicians to be a bug. In fact, in today’s win-at-all-costs GOP, it’s a feature.
Walker is one of a string of shady Republican midterm nominees who have been essentially forced upon the party by that sterling judge of character, Donald Trump. The former president relishes the role of kingmaker, and his first, second and only criterion for lending his support to candidates is how utterly they bow and scrape to him and imitate his noxious brand of politics.