From driftglass:
In case you’re unfamiliar, Liz Mair is one of those Conservative-henchmen-for-hire who spend most in their profession lives dancing back and forth between being a paid teevee pundit and Republican campaign advisor. And this week it was Liz’s turn to be gifted a New York Times column so she could burnish her campaign consultant credentials by telling America what a bloody great thing it is that Mark Sanford has decided to fling himself into Donald Trump’s Political Bug Zapper.
Mark Sanford Is the Biggest Republican Threat to Trump
He is unlikely to be defined by Never Trumpism and more likely to campaign on the threat of runaway deficits and debts.
…
He is the latest Republican to challenge President Trump for his party’s nomination. He also becomes the latest Republican to be instantly dismissed and jeered and even have his sanity questioned in some quarters.
But Mr. Sanford enters the race in a vastly different position than Bill Weld, the former Massachusetts governor, and Joe Walsh, the former representative from Illinois — one that could make him a more formidable challenger to Mr. Trump…
As a Conservative-henchman-for-hire, it is very important for Mair’s future employment prospects to continue to pretend that somewhere at the bottom of the gargantuan shitpile that is her Republican party as it has existed during her entire adult life, there must be a Pony of Budgetary Restraint.