Monday, November 13, 2017

THE GUY HAVING THE SECOND-WORST NOVEMBER IN POLITICS IS STEVE BANNON

It was all going so well for Steve Bannon. He'd latched onto Roy Moore, who was already on his way to a likely victory over incumbent Luther Strange in the Alabama GOP Senate primary, and by the time Moore won, Bannon had persuaded much of the political world that he was the key to Moore's victory, that he embodied Trumpism more than Donald Trump (who endorsed Strange), and that he was going to take down incumbent after establishment incumbent in 2018.

Then, in early November, this happened:
Right-wing billionaire Robert Mercer ... is resigning from the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and selling his stake in Breitbart News....

... Mercer cited “personal reasons” for wanting to sell his stake in Breitbart News, and took issue with the idea that he “marches in lockstep” with Bannon. Mercer also repudiates Milo Yiannopoulos in the letter. The former Breitbart News tech editor and professional troll “caused pain and divisiveness,” Mercer wrote, “undermining the open and productive discourse that I had hoped to facilitate.”
This came after BuzzFeed reported on Yiannopoulos's efforts to launder white supremacist content for mass consumption while at Breitbart, and after a campaign to urge institutions to divest from Mercer's hedge fund began.

Then Roy Moore began to be accused of pedophilia (the latest: a woman named Beverly Young Nelson today accused Moore of sexually assaulting her when she was 16 and he was in his thirties, and both The New Yorker and the Alabama news site AL.com are reporting that Moore was known to prowl a local shopping mall in search of teenage girls around that time). Even D.C. Republicans who seemed likely to stand by Moore -- Ted Cruz, for instance -- are abandoning him, and it's possible he'll be expelled from the Senate if he's elected (and his election is not at all certain).

And now Bannon suffers another rebuff:
Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the GOP’s most prominent mega-donor, is publicly breaking with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon over his efforts to oust Republican incumbents in 2018.

“The Adelsons will not be supporting Steve Bannon’s efforts,” said Andy Abboud, an Adelson spokesman. “They are supporting Mitch McConnell 100 percent. For anyone to infer anything otherwise is wrong.”
How humiliating is this?
The former White House chief strategist appeared before the Zionist Organization of America annual dinner on Sunday night. ZOA is heavily funded by Adelson.

During the dinner, Bannon described himself as a “Christian Zionist” and lavished praise on the billionaire.

Bannon had been slated to introduce Adelson and his spouse, Miriam, at the event, according to a copy of the program. The Adelsons, however, did not make it to the event, one person close to the couple said — in part because Adelson was concerned that appearing publicly with Bannon would be seen as a tacit endorsement of his efforts.
Bannon went to the dinner to kiss Adelson's ring -- and Adelson blew him off. That's gotta hurt.

Well, all this couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

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