Good Lord

[Content Note: Violence; racism.]

Your Republican primary, Shakers:

A huge Republican political gathering on Mackinac Island got under way Thursday night with a barroom incident in which a top official for presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio allegedly threw a punch at a Michigan consultant working for Sen, Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The alleged incident took place at Horn's Bar, a popular nightspot on Mackinac Island, which hosts the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, which is held every year and has drawn six GOP presidential hopefuls this year.

John Yob, a Grand Rapids political consultant who is national political director and chief Michigan strategist for the Rand Paul campaign, said on Facebook Friday morning that he was punched in the face inside the bar by Rich Beeson, who is deputy campaign manager for Rubio, a Florida senator.

LEADERSHIP!

Meanwhile, Republican candidate and Ohio Governor John Kasich says that Latin@s should vote for Republicans, because he leaves tips for maids, or something:

The last question of the GOP gathering at the exclusive golf club was straightforward: "Do you have a strategy for attracting a significant chunk of the Latino vote?"

..."I think it's a matter of inclusiveness and I think it's a matter of tone," the governor started out.

He briefly described his immigration stance, which includes finishing a wall along the Mexican border but also providing a potential path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

"I look at our friends in the Latino community as people that ought to be voting Republican. I mean, they're very strong family. We could all learn a little from them about the importance of family, couldn't we? Because they are great, they are God-fearing, hard-working folks. And a lot of them do jobs that they're willing to do.

"That's why, in a hotel, you leave a little tip, you know?"

He praised the housekeeper of his Los Angeles hotel room, who wrote a note: "I really want you to know that I care about your stay."

Kasich said he later found out she was Hispanic when he met her in the hallway. "I needed a little more soap, you know?"

There ain't enough soap in the world to scrub this guy of the bullshit in which he covers himself.

Y'all, I have been writing about presidential elections for eleven years. I started just before the 2004 Bush vs. Kerry election. I covered the 2008 primaries and election, and the 2012 primary and election. Long before I started this blog, even long before I was old enough to vote, I had a profound fascination with presidential politics and immersed myself in the minutiae of every election.

I have never, ever, in all my days seen a Republican field this terrible.

And that is really saying something, when you remember Tom Tancredo running for president.