Trump’s party threat is a threat

While the Republican Party continues to struggle to get its arms around the gargantuan presence of Donald Trump as he threatens to drown out any other message party leaders might want to discuss, here’s something else it might want to add to its list of c

It has nothing to do with the latest bit of bombast from “The Donald,” a decidedly offcolor salvo he fired at FoxTV anchor Megyn Kelly in response to what he perceived as her unfair questioning concerning some past comments he made about women.

The mogul apparently has only one speed, that being full speed ahead. So he turned his mouth on Kelly and described her questioning thusly: Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

GOP leaders immediately denounced the comments, which got Trump disinvited to a key meeting of conservatives over the weekend.

But Trump, clearly empowered by his lead in the polls – and the fact that his presence assuredly was one of the biggest reasons 24 million sets of eyeballs tuned into the debate – is not backing down.

He maintained his comments were being taken out of context and that only a “deviant” would interpret them in an improper way.

The deviant population may have just skyrocketed, but Trump remains unmoved.

Lost in all this hyperbole is any intelligent review of the debate, as well as impressive performances by the lesserknown candidates. That will remain a problem so long as Trump dominates the landscape.

But it might not be the GOP’s biggest concern about Trump. Something else he said during the debate should be ringing in its ears.

Trump made it pretty clear that should he not win the nomination, he would seriously consider a third-party or independent campaign.

Republicans in Delaware County can tell party leaders just how disastrous that would be to their chances of winning the White House.

Last week’s special election for the vacant 161st District state House seat pitted endorsed Republican Paul Mullen against Democrat Leanne Krueger-Braneky. But they weren’t alone. They were sharing the voting booth with write-in candidate Lisa Esler. The conservative Esler, a member of the Penn-Delco School Board, was championed by a faction of the local GOP which was irate at the choice of Mullen as the party’s candidate.

Fueled by a conservative Harrisburg PAC, she ran a vigorous campaign, littering the district with mailers blasting Mullen as not representing traditional Republican ideals.

The result was exactly what local GOP leaders feared. Esler managed to siphon off enough votes to open the door for a win by Krueger-Braneky, who had lost handily to former Rep. Joe Hackett just a few months ago in the general election.

Trump could do the same to Republicans on a national level. The result could be to throw the election to the Democrat.

Trump’s latest coarse discourse will blow over. We’re not going to hold our breath waiting for him to take back his ugly characterization of Kelly, nor his other derogatory comments directed at women.

Those undoubtedly will continue to concern Republicans. But they perhaps are not the biggest threat he poses. Need proof? Just ask Delco Republicans.

“Trump made it pretty clear that should he not win the nomination ... he would consider a third-party or independent campaign.”