A RIGHT-WINGER'S SOLUTION TO THE HERSCHEL WALKER PROBLEM IS SIMPLE, ELEGANT -- AND DOOMED TO FAIL

The Washington Examiner's Quin Hillyer thinks Herschel Walker should effectively withdraw from the Georgia Senate race, while keeping his name on the ballot.

Here’s what Walker should do: Announce that he will stay on the ballot because it is legally too late to replace him. He should say if he wins, he will indeed be sworn in, in January, to make things official. He should pledge, though, that within two days of being sworn in, he will resign — under one huge condition. Whomever the governor is (it is likely to be Republican Brian Kemp), of either party, they must agree to appoint a person chosen by the Georgia Republican Executive Committee to replace him until a new election can be held. The committee should name its choice before the Nov. 8 election so voters will know exactly for whom Walker is essentially standing as a proxy.

This idea might appeal to political insiders who worry that the seat is lost and will take any warm body who's a Republican in good standing -- but Republican voters in the state would probably be outraged, because most of them probably still admire Walker and believe either that he's done nothing wrong or that he's received a Get Out of Jail Free card from the Almighty. I assume that nearly all of them would still vote for Walker, but a certain percentage would be angry that they'd been deprived of the candidate they picked (by an overwhelming margin) in the primaries.

They'd probably think this is part of a massive Democrat/media/RINO/Deep State plot to steal the election. I think they'd assume that Stacey Abrams, if she agreed to this (though I don't know why she would), would renege on the deal if she were elected.

And some GOP voters would be angry about losing the one pro-Trump candidate on the statewide ballot. Who would pick the replacement? they'd ask. A cabal of RINO anti-Trumpers? (I realize that, in choosing to renominate Kemp for governor and Brad Raffensperger for secretary of state, a majority of Georgia Republicans rejected Trumpism -- but just enough of them would probably be upset by the prospect that the Georgia GOP was giving in to a Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy to destroy Walker, and would therefore stay home in November. Oh, and did I mention that Quin Hillyer is a charter member of the Never Trumpers?)

And if a vote for Walker is really a vote for (fill in the blank), shouldn't (fill in the blank) agree to debate Raphael Warnock? Can that be arranged?

Hillyer hopes someone outside of electoral politics would be the replacement senator:

That person should not be yet another elected official who would necessitate yet another special election to fill that seat. It should be someone readily able to perform well in the Senate immediately. (Randy Evans, former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg and former general counsel to the U.S. speaker of the House, comes to mind.)

Evans actually served as general counsel to two Speakers: the disgraced Newt Gingrich and the disgraced Denny Hastert. When he was appointed by Donald Trump as ambassador to Luxembourg, 43 senators voted not to confirm him.

But I bet there'd be jockeying for the replacement slot as soon as it became clear that the Georgia GOP was taking the idea seriously. How hard is it to imagine a campaign to make Marjorie Taylor Greene the designated substitute senator?

Nice try, Mr. Hillyer, but I don't think this would work.