Opinion – Bill Straub: Conservative commentator, KY native Scott Jennings, drowning in Trump Kool-Aid

That old paleo-conservative, Pat Buchanan, has moved off the nation’s political stage at the ripe old age of 86 but his mordant, far right agenda survives, passed on to a younger and even smarmier wag in the person of CNN commentator Scott Jennings.

Buchanan, you may recall, staged a primary campaign against incumbent Republican president George H.W. Bush in 1992 and delivered such a crazy right-wing harangue at the GOP convention in Houston that columnist Molly Ivans was moved to note, “Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan’s speech; it probably sounded better in the original German.”

Enter Jennings, who has assumed Buchanan’s former role as the voice of conservatism on CNN commentary programs, a worthwhile endeavor even if you disagree philosophically. Calls for smaller government and fewer taxes are worth listening to and, sometimes, they might even make sense.

Jenning debuted on CNN in 2017 and came across as slick but reasonable. Over the years, however, everything out of his mouth is a jeremiad. He has drunk the unfiltered Kool-Aid served by President-elect Donald J. Trump to the point of near drowning, airily dismissing the countless peccadillos of the soon to be Grifter-in-Chief while storming against the notably lesser sins of Democrats.

The NKyTribune’s Washington columnist Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at [email protected]

He has, citing an old saying, gone Hollywood. In this instance, quite literally – he was recently appointed to the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times.

It’s been an interesting transformation. Jennings is a native of Dawson Springs, a stop-in-the-road so nice that two counties, Caldwell and Hopkins, lay claim to parts of it. And it also happens to be the hometown of former Gov. Steve Beshear, whose politics differ markedly from those of his fellow former resident.

As everyone knows, Beshear is the father of the Commonwealth’s current governor, Andy, and Beshear fils and Jennings may encounter each other in the coming years if, as expected, Andy seeks the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

Jennings, who founded a big-time PR firm out of Louisville, offers a political background that makes him a perfect mouthpiece for the Republican cause.

Ironically, he owes much of his success to his relationship with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, the erstwhile GOP floor leader, who famously finds himself at constant loggerheads with Scott’s new big daddy, Trump.

After serving as political director in Kentucky for Republican President George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000, Jennings moved on to manage McConnell’s re-election effort in 2002 and worked in his political behalf several times thereafter. In 2003 he managed Ernie Fletcher’s successful gubernatorial campaign, helping him become the first Republican to gain the office since 1967. He subsequently worked in the Bush White House.

Big doings, no doubt, for a boy from Dawson Springs. He started out as a standard-issue conservative commentator. In March 2019, for instance, he authored a column for the Los Angeles Times explaining why Trump supporters are so dedicated to their hero.

It was simple, he wrote, “Attitude and gratitude.”

Basically, he said, folks loved Trump because, as the saying goes, he owned the libs and crossed swords with the hated media on numerous occasions.

Policy? What’s that?

“Unencumbered by the pablum that traps most politicians, Trump is a perfect mirror when he takes the rally stage,” Jennings wrote. “The attendees see themselves in him; they don’t talk or think like politicians, either. And though their lives don’t permit them to attack those they find aggravating; they can live vicariously through a president who does it for them. This is especially true for rural folks, looked down upon as hicks and rubes by the coastal elites for a very long time. Bless your hearts, we do cling to our guns and religion because they are a deeply meaningful part of our heritage.”

Frankly, that’s about as good an assessment about Trump’s popularity as anything I’ve read. But it was written before a jury in New York found that he had sexually assaulted a woman in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in 1995/96 or instigated a deadly riot intended to halt Congress from affirming the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, in 2021. Uneasy little details like that held little matter when Trump. Fact is, policy and moral character have little to do with the political choices of millions of voters anymore. It’s about hating the same people they hate. Trump fit the bill.

But in recent years Jennings has chosen to dabble in the dark arts of political commentary, ditching analysis for nastiness.

Jennings has become a one-man cheering squad for Trumpism, gaining kudos from the faithful for supposedly telling the truth but offering little in the way of insight or questioning any of the boss man’s weird inclinations, which are many. Scott manages to rebuff any suggestion that a man who sexually assaults a woman or causes a riot to overthrow an election might be unfit to be president by deflecting and throwing attention to other, less culpable, holders of the nation’s highest office.

For instance, writing on X last Sunday, Jennings said of President Biden, “He’s a disgrace. Pardons. Commutations. Corruption. Coverups. The absolute degrading and ransacking of the presidency,” claims he repeated on CNN.

For what it’s worth several issues marred the Biden administration that keep it from being wholly successful. The Afghanistan withdrawal was always going to be chaotic, but it turned out to be more chaotic than necessary. And some, including me, agree that he shouldn’t have pardoned his son on a tax conviction after declaring that he wouldn’t do so.

But history will show despite public opinion (remember, Trump left office after his first term with a 34 percent approval rating and was the only president since polling began who failed to eclipse 50 percent at any point) Biden enjoyed successes in his administration, leading the nation through the COVID-19 pandemic, passing an infrastructure bill (something Trump promised and never delivered on) and is leaving with a healthy economy without encountering the recession everyone was predicting. He championed Afghanistan and rallied allies who could hardly stomach Trump during his four years.

Biden had his ups and downs. But there was no corruption, despite Jennings’ claim.

A disgrace? Hardly. And what exactly has he ransacked? Is the coverup that he joined the Mongol hordes?

Which brings us to Jimmy Carter, the former president who died last week. Even Trump, who is not given to accolades, issued a statement upon his death, saying, “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.” McConnell agreed, saying, among other things, “President Carter served during times of tension and uncertainty, both at home and abroad. But his calm spirit and deep faith seemed unshakeable.”

Not Scott.

“If possible, he was an even worse ex-president because of his meddling in U.S. foreign policy, because of his saddling up to dictators around the world and because of his vehement views, anti-Israel views, and more than dabbling in antisemitism over the years.”

“I think he was a guy who had a huge ego and believed that he was uniquely positioned to do all these things even after the American people had roundly and soundly rejected his leadership,” he added.

Now, it’s generally held that Carter’s tenure in the White House was unsuccessful, Some of that was attributable to circumstances, but a significant part was his own inability to handle politics in the most politically intense position in the world. He didn’t do himself any favors. He wasn’t as god-awful as a lot of people claim, but he certainly wasn’t an ace either.

What is revolting about Jennings’ claim is the charge of antisemitism, a charge that would undoubtedly shock the likes Stuart Eizenstat, who worked in the Carter administration and has long been involved in Holocaust issues, who enjoyed a long friendship with the former president. It was Carter who worked with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin on the Camp David accords.

Carter, a humanitarian who was long involved in seeking social justice, was a long-time critic of the Israeli government as it pertains to its treatment of Palestine, asserting that Israel should withdraw to its pre-Six Day War boundaries and create a Palestinian state. He authored a book on the subject, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which may overstate the situation but doesn’t reveal any distaste for the Jewish people.

Those views are not unique to Carter and criticizing the state of Israel is not tantamount to antisemitism.

A huge ego? Probably. Has anyone run and served as president who didn’t have a huge ego? Does anyone have a bigger ego than Scott’s pal Trump? And its no secret Carter remained involved in global affairs after he left the White House, sometimes at the request of one of his successors. He founded the Carter Center with the express purpose of helping “to improve the life for people in more than 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy and human rights; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care.”

Oh, and he won a Nobel Peace in 2002 – 21 years after leaving office – for his efforts.

How many of them does Scott have?