Well, the lawsuit Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) filed against Vice President Mike Pence is over. A judge dismissed it today. It was one of the many legal avenues Republicans have used to challenge the results of the 2020 election. The lawsuit pretty much was filed in the hopes of repealing the 1877 Electoral Count Act. The hail Mary result here was that it could give Pence the authority to pick the electors (via WaPo):
A federal judge in Texas has dismissed a long-shot lawsuit by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) that sought to overturn the presidential election, saying neither the congressman nor his allies have legal standing to pursue the case.
The judge’s Friday night ruling tosses out what many election law experts considered a far-fetched theory to challenge the formal mechanism by which President-elect Joe Biden will be affirmed as the winner of the race for president.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle issued an order dismissing the case because, he found, neither Gohmert nor his fellow plaintiffs have a sufficient legal stake in the process to justify the lawsuit. Kernodle was nominated to the federal bench by Trump.
On January 6, Congress votes to certify the 2020 Electoral College results. The vice president had asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, citing that he was an improper defendant. In the meantime, 140 House Republicans have joined the effort in opposing the certification of the results.
This is going to be a lingering election issue for the GOP and the base. Tens of millions of Republican voters feel that this election was not free or fair. The allegations of voter fraud and other funny business are numerous, but the initial legal challenges were not the best with regards to argument and execution. This is the last stand right here. The chances are very slim—but Trump has already acknowledged that he could run again in four years if things don’t turn out his way. He should. If that’s what he wants to do, Trump should declare during Biden’s inauguration. The field would be cleared immediately. And any Republican who is crazy enough to mount a challenge to Trump should he run again would be destroyed completely.
Trump is the GOP. His strength among the base is just overwhelming. If he doesn’t run, there will be a race to fill that void. Who could replace him? And it will take his blessing to make it official. Again, the squish crowd isn’t going to like this, but whatever. The more worrying part is that it might not be enough. Coalitions are seldom transferable. The Hillary Clinton campaign made that gross miscalculation in 2016.
Yet, in the meantime, we have the 2022 midterms and the GOP can and should promise congressional probes into the 2020 election. We had a three-year Russian collusion circus where there was zero evidence to back up any of the liberal media’s claims about the 2016 election, so now it’s our turn.
This is going to become another car on the Trump train for people to climb onboard, so the more squishy members should take notice because, without a doubt, those who balk or mock the moves to object to the certification of the 2020 results next week could find themselves on a list of primary targets when 2022 truly gets off the ground.
You can find this to be appalling, sure. Right now, I’m indifferent. There are many changes occurring at the GOP on the base level. This is the trajectory. Let’s see how it plays out. Yes, there are some who think the 2020 race was outright stolen, but I think there’s a sizable group of Republican voters who, after seeing the nonsense in Philly and elsewhere, just want to know if the election was fair. They have questions. They want answers.
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