HE'S REALLY, REALLY PIVOTING THIS TIME! ... NO, I GUESS HE ISN'T (updated)

Well, I'm relieved:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has recently emerged as a finalist in the search for Donald Trump’s running mate, told The Washington Post in an interview Wednesday that he has taken himself out of consideration for the position....

“There are people far more suited for being a candidate for vice president, and I think I’m far more suited for other types of things,” Corker said in an extensive phone interview....

I don't think I could have endured a Trump-Corker ticket -- if only because the media narrative would be: Bob Corker? Wow, what a serious, respectable choice! Trump really is pivoting! He's so presidential now, just because he's chosen this person we like so much!

Trump will never change, but a Corker pick would have allowed Beltway journalists to continuing fooling themselves into thinking that he might. (Of course, some of them will anyway.)

Also apparently off the list:

Joni Ernst all but removed herself from Donald Trump’s vice presidential search, telling POLITICO in an interview that she wants to help Trump become president but that she’s focused on Iowa and the Senate, where the freshman senator said she's “just getting started.”

I read this news shortly after reading a bizarre (but possibly accurate?) tweet from Bill Kristol:

I'm told Trump's VP will be @GovPenceIN or @GenFlynn. One among several reasons: Trump is convinced one-syllable last names convey strength.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 2, 2016

Trump is just stupid enough to believe that.

Um, "Ernst" is one syllable -- and Senator Ernst served in the military (unlike Trump). But it's hard to imagine him wanting to run with a woman who's tougher than he is.

@GenFlynn, by the way, is this guy:

... in interviews with current and former U.S. defense and intelligence officials, one name continues to surface as a trusted Trump adviser and go-to man on intelligence and national security: Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a well-known and outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s campaign against ISIS and its foreign policy.

In Trump, Flynn may have found a kindred spirit -- a brash, candid provocateur who seems more interested in upending whole systems than in fine-tuning them....

“I think Flynn and Trump are two peas in a pod,” one former senior U.S. intelligence official who knows Flynn told The Daily Beast. “They have this naïve notion that yelling at people will just solve problems.”

Flynn, who was forced out of his post as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in August 2014 after clashing with other senior officials, has said that “political correctness” has prevented the U.S. from confronting violent extremism, which he sees as a “cancerous idea that exists inside of the Islamic religion.” Flynn has authored a forthcoming book that argues the U.S. government “has concealed the actions of terrorists like [Osama] bin Laden and groups like ISIS, and the role of Iran in the rise of radical Islam…” His co-author, Michael Ledeen, is a neoconservative author and policy analyst who was involved in the Iran-Contra Affair.

I have no idea if Kristol is right about the fact that Trump is seriously considering Flynn -- I haven't seen Flynn's name on anyone else's Trump VP short list -- but I'd love it if Trump picked him, because it would silence all the idiots who think Trump is going to run to Hillary Clinton's left on foreign policy.

Also:

Three former U.S. officials said that a trip Flynn took last December to Moscow -- where he was filmed sitting at the head table next to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a formal dinner—set off alarms within military and intelligence circles over whether Flynn had notified the U.S. government about his foreign travel, as his security clearance requires.

Perfect.

I'm guessing Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich, or Jeff Sessions. However, if it's none of these people, I'll remind you that Ivanka Trump turns 35 shortly before Election Day, and thus would be constitutionally eligible to be VP. Yeah, she and her dad live in the same state, but that just means New York electors can't vote for both of them. There's no way in hell Trump is going to win New York, so (apart from the fact that Trump thinks he could still in the state) why the hell not?

****

UPDATE: I was just kidding about Ivanka, but:

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker on Wednesday removed himself from consideration to become Donald Trump's vice presidential nominee. But that did not stop him from suggesting a possible alternative.

"His best running mate by the way would be Ivanka," Corker told NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell. "I know that wouldn't pass muster probably but I don't know if I've met a more composed, brilliant, beautiful in every way person."

Down, Senator? You seem to find her even more attractive than her father does.

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UPDATE, THURSDAY: From Politico:

Eric Trump says he agrees with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) that his sister Ivanka would be a great pick for his father's for vice president....

Appearing on "Fox & Friends" Thursday morning, Eric Trump remarked of the clip, "I agree, right? She's got the beautiful looks, right? She's got -- she's smart, she's smart, smart, smart. ... She's certainly got my vote."

I'm getting creeped out by all these Trump men calling her beautiful.