NEVER MIND! ANN WAGNER HAS ALREADY FOLDED ON HER ANGRY OPPOSITION TO JIM JORDAN
Two lessons were learned: Wagner's word is meaningless and I'm too old to use a computer
My dear colleague Bill McClellan coined a brilliant term for people like me (and him):
“20th Century Man.”
I gave new meaning to that today. My dotage was again revealed by the posting of my Substack – two hours after I thought I had posted it – about our own Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Waffle House) and her indignant opposition to supporting Rep. Jim. Jordan (R-Hell) for Speaker of the House.
It’s a pretty telling story all around, especially about Wagner’s deceitfulness. And a good joke on me.
Here’s how it went down.
Late Sunday, I composed a Substack about Wagner, intended for publication at 9:00 a.m. Monday. There’s a function at Substack that allows a writer to schedule the publication of a finished post at a future time.
I scheduled the post, or at least I thought I did, around 4:45 a.m. I do a lot of writing late at night. I decided to let myself sleep in, as old people are expected to do when they’ve been up all night.
I woke up at the crack of 11:00 a.m. today and was surprised to see that the post hadn’t been posted, at least not according to my own email. It turns out that the nice computer lords at Substack had it scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, October 17.
I swear I saw a message that confirmed the item would “post in four hours.” Maybe it was a dream. Maybe Substack was lying like Ann Wagner. I don’t know.
So I immediately posted the item shortly after 11:00. But funny thing. Shortly before 11:00 a.m. CDT, Wagner had made a post of her own on “X.” In it, she executed a stunning 180-degree, reverse backflip on her principled and indignant opposition to Jordan’s candidacy.
Here’s Wagner’s tweet, for those of you who might be connoisseurs of chicanery and mendacious deceit.
Just as she has done on her dear leader Donald Trump, Wagner shamelessly – and we’re talking world-class shamelessness here – evolved in roughly 72 hours from describing Jordan’s candidacy as a “non-starter” to announcing her support of it.
As I had reported in my short-lived Substack, Wagner had told Politico this about Jordan:
“Yesterday in conference, he gave the most disgraceful, ungracious — I can’t call it a concession speech — of all time. There were gasps in the room.”
That’s what Jordan gets for being in a room with Wagner. I sure wouldn’t want to be. And on that point, the feeling is surely mutual. Consider a subsequent tweet from Wagner that should lay to rest any pretense of goodwill on her part.
“Let me be clear, I am not, and will not, work with Democrats as our Republican Conference comes together to elect a conservative Speaker of the House,” Wagner posted.
Great moments in bipartisanship.
I like to look at the bright side of things, so I found three silver linings:
One, I didn’t have to change or retract a single word of my original Substack. Indeed, in a moment of rare prescience, I had concluded, “But if things change, don’t count on Wagner to do the right thing and maintain her opposition to Jordan. This is Ann Wagner we’re talking about.”
Two, If anyone, for any reason, was operating under the false assumption that Ann Wagner is an honest human being, that should stand corrected. If you want to vote for this empty vessel, knock yourself out. But don’t ever trust another word that she says.
Three, this provides an opportunity to inform my dear Substack readers that I’ve decided to expand my work – and make it more consistent in this space – by posting every Monday and Thursday morning. Provided, that is, I can figure out this computer contraption. Which I promise to do once I get the light to stop blinking on my VCR.