Mulvaney's on record calling the Very Stable Genius a "terrible human being"

Just before the 2016 election:

Mick Mulvaney, the Office of Management and Budget director who President Donald Trump tweeted Friday would serve as acting chief of staff after John Kelly departs in January, has been a loyal Trump supporter—but he didn’t always like him so much. 

During a debate with his then-congressional challenger, Democrat Fran Person, on Nov. 2 of 2016, less than a week before Trump was elected president, then-congressman Mulvaney was blunt with those gathered at York Middle School in York, South Carolina.

After decrying the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as a liberal who would take the country in the wrong direction, Mulvaney said he was supporting Trump, essentially by default.
“Yes, I am supporting Donald Trump, but I’m doing so despite the fact that I think he’s a terrible human being,” he said, according to a report in The Statenewspaper. 

Mulvaney won his race by more than 20 points, with Trump carrying the same area by 19 points. 

I've had occasion in the last few days on Facebook to revisit the whole matter of the various points along the spectrum of how Trump is regarded in post-America:

• the shills and cult-worshippers
• those who acknowledge his shortcomings but are so pleased with the overall policy-level accomplishments of the administration that they proclaim their full support of him as president
• those who are likewise pleased but deem it necessary to keep front and center his lack of character and maturity (the camp in which LITD is situated)
• those on the Left who hate him because he is the current Republican standard-bearer and the victor over Hillary Clinton
• those who hate him so much for his shortcomings that they really aren't thinking about the Republican Party very much

The second group is the one with which I've had most of my exchanges. What I find amazing is that, at this late date, they still trot out the ultimate banality, "I wasn't voting for a pope," or some variation thereupon.

Maybe I should have included as a point along the spectrum those elected officials and operatives who, in the name of political expediency, have taken positions in the administration knowing full well that past comments of Mulvaney's sort are on the record. Two in this category that bear noting:

During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Trump opponent Rick Perry called the future president’s campaign a “cancer on conservatism.” Perry now serves as President Trump’s Secretary of Energy. Before Kellyanne Conway became Trump’s 2016 campaign manager during the homestretch of the race, Conway had publicly criticized candidate Trump for refusing to release his tax returns and for his “vulgar” rhetoric. Conway currently serves as one of Trump’s most ardent defenders and as his White House counselor.

Mike Pence fits in this group as well. He did what he could to be a Cruz supporter, but when the call came a few weeks after Cruz bowed out, he accepted.

Each of these people has to live with his or her decision, and I don't think I know enough about the inner workings of their hearts and minds to conjecture about whether cowardice or any other less-than-laudable motive enters into their decisions.

But daily they have to live with the likes of this:

The pathetic and dishonest Weekly Standard, run by failed prognosticator Bill Kristol (who, like many others, never had a clue), is flat broke and out of business. Too bad. May it rest in peace!

Granted, as I pointed out yesterday, TWS had staked out a position that was a little different from even other find-Trump-objectionable conservative periodicals. Ben Shapiro also makes this point today at the Daily Wire:

While the Standard may have taken a more stridently anti-Trump position than any other conservative outlet, it was far from the only outlet to oppose many of President Trump’s policies as well as critiquing his lack of moral fiber. The biggest problem for the Standard, at least in the mainstream conservative mind, was the consistently anti-Trump tone taken by many of its leading voices, even when Trump was accomplishing conservative goals. To a large extent, this was due to the ideological shadow cast by longtime Standard editor-in-chief Bill Kristol, who has been loudly proclaiming that he is seeking a primary alternative to Trump in 2020.

Still, a president with at least a subatomic particle of dignity and compassion would not have celebrated the loss of jobs among an entire magazine staff just before Christmas.

LITD wishes Mick Mulvaney all the best in what will surely be a brief  stint in the chief of staff position. And may he maintain his composure and principles during that time.