Open Thread Feb. 5: At Least 3 Eagles to Skip White House Visit

Malcolm Jenkins, Chris Long and Torrey Smith have declared they will not visit the White House for the president’s traditional photo op with the NFL champions (how this nakedly obvious publicity stunt turned into such a tradition that Trump won’t break it is another story). I’m not sure that’s the best way to get attention for their causes. I would kind of like to see Chris Long get in Trump’s grill with his opinion on several issues. Why Chris Long? Because he has the size to deal with Trump’s O-line-sized lard ass.

OK, so now the GOP is running actual Nazis: A Holocaust denier and longtime crank candidate in the Chicago suburbs is — oops! — the only Republican who registered for the party primary in Illinois’ 3rd District. That district, among the most heavily Democratic in the country, is held by Dan Lipinski, perhaps the most conservative Democrat in Congress, who faces a serious primary challenger himself. To be fair, the Republicans are aghast — this guy isn’t unknown to them, he’s run in the primary for this seat seven times before. The Anti-Defamation League has kept tabs on him for years because of his outspoken belief that the Holocaust is “an international extortion racket” and “the blackest lie in history.” Then again, the Republican “mainstream” in Illinois seems to be moving south. A disgruntled Republican state senator who’s primarying the Republican governor is running an ad so offensive that everyone else in the gubernatorial primaries, Democrats and Republicans, denounced it and called on her to pull it from the air. She refuses to.

Hey, remember that Memo? You know it was a dud when Trey Gowdy says it doesn’t affect the Russia investigation. Nunes, however, is quintupling down, claiming he has five more memos to release. This guy got his start raising cattle, which must have regarded him as their intellectual equal.

My friend says conservatives don’t get irony. Maybe that’s why Paul Ryan brag-Tweeted when public school secretary Julia Ketchum wrote him she was “pleasantly surprised” that her weekly paycheck had grown by $1.50, which meant her tax break would cover her annual Costco membership. Clearly, Ryan didn’t recognize dry sarcasm when he read it. “Pleasantly surprised.” Well played, Ms. Ketchum, well played.