Thom Tillis, the author of many a progressive nightmare, is on course to paint his most distressing picture yet. It features his surname in bright colors, situated just below the name of another man. You’d see it from coast to coast printed on a rectangular piece of poster board. He wants to be Vice President.
Perceptive as ever, John Wynne asked, “Could [Tillis’s] name one day appear on a presidential ticket?” That was just after the Consultant from Cornelius arrived in Washington. In subsequent months, Tillis proved that he would like to see John’s prophecy realized. Forget the handwashing incident. (OK, that’s impossible; just put it aside for a moment.) Tillis’s behavior has served as an attempt to position himself as the Establishment’s ideal veep.
First, he simply raised his profile. Recent history has shown that mastering the media is more important for ambitious national pols than is accumulating years of service. So Tillis has made himself a man about Washington. As Thomas Mills put it, “he’s driven to cable news shows like a moth to a flame.” Tillis is making sure that the publicity he received as an incoming senator transfers into ongoing political celebrity.
Based on personal tutoring from Dick Cheney, he’s tried to portray himself something a foreign policy savant. The worldview he espouses is consistent with Washington Republicans’ neoconservative consensus. Significantly, he gives thunderous warnings against “retreat,” a buzz word that’s been hot in neocon circles throughout the Obama years. You just don’t give full-length foreign policy addresses unless see yourself on a national ticket in the near future.
Tillis has likewise assumed the role of water-carrier for the Establishment’s economic agenda. Establishment GOP’ers care little for anti-statist kamikaze missions. Their real priorities emanate from K Street. Accordingly, Tillis opposed shutting down the government over Planned Parenthood. And he’s pushing a bill to expand the deeply exploitative H2B guest worker program. Steady-handed corporate shilling is what the Establishment favors and expects from national leaders.
More subtly, Tillis is trying to redefine himself as a Reasonable Republican.The handwashing incident itself took place at the respectable Bipartisan Policy Center. He’s sponsored pragmatic bills to help eugenics victims and promote criminal justice reform. And to little fanfare, he actually rebuked his party’s refusal to consider a SCOTUS nominee. If this quiet mission meets with success, selecting him for the ticket could be hailed by the MSM as a nod toward pragmatism.
Thom Tillis is made of pure ambition. His driving purpose in politics is to fulfill a self-perceived destiny for greatness. And the next step up the ladder is the Vice Presidency. Expect him to continue doing everything possible to get on Marco Rubio’s shortlist.
By the way, guess who he just endorsed.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
Tillis won because in the final few weeks of the campaign, when he was still trailing Hagan in every poll, his angels created a $5 million secret “nonpolitical nonprofit” slush fund that used dark money to flood the airwaves on his behalf. $4.9 million came from one donor, and of course by the time the existence of the superPAC was discovered and made public, Tillis was ensconced in his seat. I don’t remember yet if the investigation into the lawbreaking has been quashed already by the Republican activists on the state Supreme Court, but it will be. Because … he’s already gotten away with it. So, in the quoted words of Antonin Scalia, “Get over it.”
God help us all.
This braindead moron was elected in 2014 because the only people who showed up at the polls were elderly racist white folks anxious to whine about Obama.
Wow. I voted for Tillis, who you describe as a braindead moron. So in your view, I must be one of those “elderly racist white folks.” Funny, I don’t recall race being much of an issue in the Hagan-Tillis race. But if you’re on the far left politically, playing the race card when your candidate loses an election is apparently standard operating procedure along with the usual vitriolic personal insults.
I’m still trying to firgure out what an IBM Partner is.
They even have the perfect campaign slogan, vote for dumb and dumber.
Please, I already have nightmares about this election. Trump & Tillis? OMG!!!
Thom Tillis is certainly GOP VP material. Just look at the other clowns in their presidential car this year. The prospect of a Vice President Tillis would keep me awake at night. However, I have much more confidence in the average American voter than I do in NC voters to soundly reject Mr. Tillis.
I’m not sure what he would add to a Republican ticket. He is unpopular at home and would not help the ticket carry a state it MUST win. The tea party see him as part of the establishment (which is why he was not their choice in the 2014 primary) and swing voters aren’t likely to be impressed with a two year Senator who says a lot of crap only slightly less crazy than Sarah Palin.
His comments about Obama’s SCOTUS nominee will earn the wrath of the base, and his quick back peddling on those comments (he now says the next president should make that nomination) want please them and his quick flip flop won’t win over swing voters.
The suggestion that Tillis will be “on a national ticket in the near future” is one of the most absurd notions put out on this blog in this election season. There are far too many talented and popular VP prospects for the GOP Presidential nominee to even consider tapping Tillis, a first term Senator with no national reputation or even name recognition. Either left wing bloggers are paranoid over Tillis’ political acumen or, more likely, are prone to engage in fantasies that sooth their despair over Tillis’ political success here in NC.
Normally, I’d agree with you. But if you remember correctly, Sarah Palin happened. So yeah.
We have had US Senators from NC in a hurry before….