All good things must come to an end

Now that the guv has officially ended his months-long prez campaign tease, the question remains: Why did he do it? Why did he actually go all in on the Hamlet bit of thinking and thinking and thinking about it — all in public?

Well, there’s the obvious explanation that he loved all that attention he was getting from the inside-the-Beltway media folks who essentially doted on him from the very first time he brought up the idea of a possible run.

Then there’s the idea that he might have actually talked himself into believing he had a chance to find a way to win the GOP prez nod as a self-styled “pro-choice” GOPer who sometimes actually attempts to compromise. Let’s call that magical thinking.

There’s also the thought that he really, truly, sincerely wants to make sure the Ex-White House Guy who hoards state secrets does get another bite at the apple. And, for lo those few moments actually thought that he could be the dragon slayer.

So why did his pipe dream come to an end?

It’s not completely clear, but one idea is that the guv didn’t get a 100% full-steam-ahead OK for a run from Mrs. Guv.

The other is that, after Chris Christie, the ex-NJ guv and former friend of the EWHG, decided he was going to pull the trigger on a run, it was all over for our guv. Because, in all candor, CC does a much better job than our guv in tearing into EWHG’s character, behavior, record, etc., so our guv thought about the consequences of appearing to be CC Lite.

And then there’s this thought: All those prez primary polls showing the self-proclaimed Most Popular Guv in America was getting low double-digit support (or worse) from his very own NH citizens. He sure did a good job of dismissing ‘em for a while, but at some point the magical thinking just couldn’t ignore them anymore.

“There is a reason why only one person from New Hampshire seriously considered running for president over the last 200 years. (It didn’t end well for Bob Smith, either.)”

— The Boston Globe political reporter James Pindell

“The Democrats try to make themselves out to be the party of LGBTQ rights, but when offered a situation in which they can do so that involves political risk, they didn’t do so.”

— Rep. Shaun Filiault, Keene, on dumping the “D” after his name and becoming an independent after what he said was the failure of party leadership to fully back his effort to prohibit use of the “gay panic” defense in homicide cases.

“I am receiving a lot of pushback from people who are pretty angry about my leaving the party. I’m getting some people saying, ‘I voted for you specifically because you were a Democrat.’”

— Filiault, a couple of days after announcing his leave-the-Dems decision

Breaking point

If you live long enough, you will see everything. And a step was taken toward achieving that goal with the recent announcement by nunuther than Deerfield GOP Rep. Jim Spillane, who apparently has reached his limit with bad behavior — by someone else.

Yes folks, that JS — the F&J regular who’s gotten people riled up by sharing an anti-Semitic image on social media, who killed a squirrel with a .50 caliber muzzleloader and shared a pic of it online, who urged people to “loot and burn” houses with Black Lives Matter signs, and who most recently sponsored a bill that would legalize the use of blackjacks and brass knuckles, among other tidbits.

Well, th’other day JS actually withdrew his endorsement of the ex-White House guy who recently was indicted for stocking his bathrooms with enough top-secret reading material to fill hundreds of volumes of “Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.”

No, it wasn’t because EWHG was indicted on 37 counts, including 31 under the Espionage Act.

It actually was because the EWHG did what the EWHG does: He tore into his former press secretary, Kaleigh McEnany, for having the utter audacity to suggest on Fox “News” of all places that Ron DeSantis could be “closing the gap” in Iowa’s GOP primary race.

So, predictably, the EWHG — not anyone’s idea of a potential Scripps National Spelling Bee contestant — lashed out at KM as “milktoast” because of her apparent foray into offering her opinion.

After viewing the EWHG’s social media post, JS had enough (at least for now).

“I am officially withdrawing my endorsement, as his most recent attack on Kayleigh McEnany is beyond comprehension and explanation. Against my deepest hopes that Trump had learned some measure of control, he has attacked those who have been his staunchest supporters with no regard for their loyalty.”

Wow … that “some measure of control” coming from someone like JS. Sure speaks volumes, don’t it?

MAKING THE ROUNDS

The PGA might be willing to go all the way with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, but not GOP prez wannabe Vivek Ramaswamy. Politico reported th’other day that VR fired the Gitcho Goodwin consulting firm, which had been doing PR work for his campaign after he found out they were working for LIV at the same time.

FWIW, that highly touted zoning atlas — including on said pages of NHBR — has some interesting supporters, including the Charles Koch Foundation (yes, that Koch family), along with the Koch-backed Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the like-minded Frontier Institute, an outfit similar to NH’s Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy.

That was quite an interesting choice by the U.S. Term Limits folks when they named ex Senate Prez Chuck Morse as its NH state chair. CM, you may need to be reminded, served a total of 10 terms as a state rep and senator — a pretty long, non-term-limited tenure, considering that the USTL is pushing a constitutional amendment that would limit members of the US House to three terms and senators to two terms.

While he’s announced his decision about the White House, the guv still hasn’t let us in on whether he’ll be going after term number 5 in the Corner Office. While the wait to hear his plans is frustrating politicos and those media types who are eager to get the guv lineup going, just think about how Kelly Ayotte, Chuck Morse and Frank Edelblut feel.