The
GOP finally has someone who can stand up to Donald Trump’s lies — and it turns
out she’s a liar, too.
By Donald Kaul
The Republicans have finally found someone to man up to Donald
Trump, who’s threatening to turn their presidential primaries into a Saturday
Night Live skit. She’s a woman.
At the latest Republican debate, with a stage-full of candidates
straining at the leash to distinguish themselves by puncturing the balloon that
is The Donald, it was Carly Fiorina — and only Carly Fiorina — who coolly
stepped forward to reveal his one-man clown show for what it was.
The moderator had asked Fiorina to respond to Trump’s insulting critique of her looks.
Dripping with
contempt, she noted Trump’s habit of backing away from statements like that by
pleading misunderstanding, as he already had with his crack about Fiorina’s
face. Then she said:
“Women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump
said.”
Pow! Right in the kisser. The message behind that simple
sentence was clear: “You, sir, are a cheap liar and a punk.”
It got her the warmest applause of the night.
Later, Fiorina took center stage again during a general bashing
of Planned Parenthood as she told the story of a video surreptitiously taken at
a Planned Parenthood clinic. It showed, she claimed, “a fully formed fetus on
the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to
keep it alive to harvest its brain.”
Clearly a chilling and horrific story. Even I, a Planned
Parenthood supporter, could see why these wonderful, moral Republicans wanted
to defund the organization.
Except there’s no such video. Fiorina was lying.
The Republican Party finally gets someone who can stand up to
Trump’s lies — and it turns out she’s a liar, too.
Fiorina wasn’t the only candidate who took on Trump at the
debate. Jeb Bush, who was the front-runner out of the starting gate and has
been losing ground ever since, was easily the most pathetic of the also-rans.
Trump’s been driving him crazy for weeks now, ridiculing him at
every turn, and it’s begun to get to the former Florida governor. A couple of
weeks ago, when asked about Trump, Bush complained:
“He attacks me every day with nonsense, with things that aren’t true. He tries to personalize everything. If you are not totally in agreement with him, you’re an idiot, or stupid, or you have no energy, or blah, blah, blah. That’s what he does.”
Which is the political equivalent of saying “That bad man is
being mean to me. Make him stop.”
Is that who you want going eyeball-to-eyeball with Putin or the
Ayatollah?
Give Bush this, though: He didn’t give up. He took another crack
at Trump at the debate, this time in defense of his wife.
Trump had insinuated that Bush perhaps had a soft spot for
Mexicans on the immigration issue because of his wife, who’s Mexican-American.
Bush came out breathing fire. “To subject (sic) my wife into the
middle of a raucous political conversation was completely inappropriate,” he
said. Then, addressing Trump directly, he added:
“She’s right in the audience. Why don’t you apologize right
now?”
Trump said no. And Bush…said pretty much nothing.
If being called an influence on her husband is the worst thing
she has to endure in this campaign, Columba Bush is one lucky political wife.
As a wise man once wrote: “Politics ain’t beanbag.”
But if you demand that an opponent apologize, there should be an
“or” afterward. Apologize or “I’ll punch you in the face.” Or “I’ll challenge
you to a duel.” Or “I’ll pour coffee on your head.”
Something.
There was nothing. Which was pretty much the case with all the
candidates, save Carly Fiorina — and she lied.
OtherWords
columnist Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. OtherWords.org.