Over at KausFiles Mickey Kaus writes about his bewilderment at the behavior of GOP elites who want to get rid of Trump. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.
Kaus argues the one key thing fueling the Trump boom is illegal immigration and his promises to stop it and deport the undocumented. If one or more mainstream candidates took that position unequivocally, Kaus believes it would let the air out of the Trump bubble.
I'm not certain at this late stage in the campaign any establishment candidate would be believed if they announced a Trumpian epiphany. Six months ago, maybe; if done now it would look like what it is: the rankest opportunism. No one would believe the claimant had honestly changed his/her mind to truly oppose amnesty.
In other words, Kaus is correct except for the timing ... it needed doing back in March or before to be effective. There is essentially no way anyone can today reveal previously unannounced opposition to amnesty without being accused of flip-flopping, or out-and-out lying.
The better question is why it didn't happen back when it was feasible? The only answer I come up with has two parts: first, they expected Trump to crash long before now, and second, the big money operators have such a strong financial stake in wide-open borders they couldn't bring themselves to act against it.
Because of Trump's expected demise-as-a-candidate, the GOP elites saw no need to give up on their beloved unrestricted immigration. They guessed wrong ... Trump lives ... now it's too late.
