From driftglass:
As you know, the longest, slowest and most reliable road to going broke and never getting invited to all the cool parties is to have been right about the Right all along.
Conversely, the shortest, laziest and most reliable path to media fame and fortune is to have been a Republican dickbag your entire adult life — to have devoted yourself unremittingly to the creation of the GOP Monster Machine. Then, as a life-long Republican dickbag, when the prefect Apex Republican Predator finally rolled off your assembly line, you had a couple of choices: either reap the rewards of joining Trump’s Pandemonium Carnival —
— or reap the rewards from being a suddenly “woke” Republican who is shocked — shocked! — to discover that your Republican party is full of Republicans.
Didn’t matter which path you took: if you’re a Republican, there would be a pot of gold at the end of both of them.
Which brings us to Deadbeat Joe Walsh: the racist, crackpot, one-term Teabagger congressman turned fringe wingnut radio host from the suburbs of Chicago.