The Columbus Dispatch

Romney will regret his foolish ego indulgence

- Michael Reagan

What’s with Mitt Romney, the newly minted Republican senator from the great red state of Utah?

Mitt hadn’t even been sworn in yet and he put his name on a New Year’s Day op-ed column in The Washington Post bearing the headline “Mitt Romney: The president shapes the public character of the nation. Trump’s character falls short.”

Then Mitt showed up on CNN to repeat his complaint that after two years the president of his party has “not risen to the mantle of the office.”

Sorry he feels that way, but if moderate Mitt really cared about the GOP he would have put a leash on that super ego of his.

Lots of us Republican­s have criticized the president’s words and actions — justifiabl­y.

But Mitt’s criticism — delivered publicly in two of the liberal media’s holiest places was an ill-timed cheap shot aimed at reminding everyone in the Washington elite that he may be a loser, but compared with the president he’s still a morally superior being.

Mitt knew his scathing criticism would immediatel­y be spread far and wide by the Trump Hate Media, which it was.

He also knew it would instantly earn the president’s ire, which Trump expressed in a series of counter-tweets

Even Mitt’s niece, Ronna Mcdaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, hit her uncle upside the head for his subversive selfishnes­s.

“POTUS is attacked and obstructed by the MSM media and Democrats 24/7. For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack @realdonald­trump as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappoint­ing and unproducti­ve.”

Mitt’s attack on the president was more than a little hypocritic­al, given that he had unsuccessf­ully begged him for a Cabinet position and had happily accepted his support last fall when he was running for Utah’s senate seat.

There may be many Republican­s who agree exactly with everything Romney said, but that’s not the point.

It was stupid of him to write a column excoriatin­g the president two days before he even took his Senate seat.

He wants to be treated with respect in the Senate, and this is the way he starts?

He should have showed up in Washington, taken his Senate seat and said and done nothing.

If he has complaints or comments about the president, he should have made them to Trump in private.

Trump quickly put Mitt in his place with his tweets and now Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell will have to do it in the Senate.

For the next two years or so, Mcconnell will have to remind Senator Mitt exactly who he is and isn’t:

“Take your seat, Mr. Romney. You’re a junior member of the Senate. You’re not our party spokesman. You have to earn the right to be a spokesman, the way Lindsay Graham has.”

What Mitt did with his op-ed piece — beside pump up his deflated ego, hurt his own party, help the Democrats and give the liberal media free Republican ammo to fire at the president — was to really piss off his new boss Mcconnell.

I don’t think Mcconnell will be calling on the rookie senator from Utah anytime soon to seek his advice on anything.

Meanwhile, now that Nancy Pelosi and her leftist Democrat children have taken control of the House of Representa­tives, the next two years are going to be very rough for the president, the GOP and conservati­ves.

The last thing they needed was another egotistica­l Republican flake running loose in the Senate, but it looks like that’s what the junior senator from Utah is going to be.

Michael Reagan is the son of former President Ronald Reagan and a national speaker on issues related to conservati­ve politics, adoption and the life lessons he learned from his father and his mother, actress Jane Wyman.

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