Winners & Losers | An Empty Vessel & a Servant's Heart

There are so, so many losers to choose from this week. And, well, some winners? The Dems who walked out rather than take part in the vote on Emil Bove — that’s a sort of Trump-era winning, right? And Bove — the Platonic form of villain. He’s a loser. But this week we asked YOU who to choose, and you all really know how to spot a loser.

I’ll get to your choices in a sec. But first …

I went on vacation last week, just as the Epstein files story was dropping. As you can imagine, as a producer of political commentary, my daily life is flush with breaking news, ridiculousness, outrage, and hysterics. I wanted to try to disconnect during my break so that I could recalibrate a bit.

You know how it is. Sometimes you get so worked up about the latest that every little news nugget becomes the biggest thing you’ve ever experienced in your life. Except it’s not, of course.

So I wanted to unplug for a minute and then play catch-up after a week to see what stories actually stuck, and which were just passing fancies.

As I stepped on the plane, I happened to see a news alert about the Epstein files, and the Lincoln Square team messages kinda blew up. But … Epstein files? Sure. I hit stop on my notifications and enjoyed the week.

If you’d told me then that it would still be a story when I got back, to paraphrase Clark W. Griswald, I couldn’t have been more surprised if I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet.

There are SO MANY LOSERS (did I mention that already?) in this whole wild story, that it’s a little difficult to decipher or make a clear choice. In fact, you might say that we’re all losers in this drama.

This story still has legs, and the plot continues to develop in a way that is both surprising and unique. And one of the losers you chose this week is someone who has been at the center of the MAGA world and on its seedy periphery for a while. She’s not directly involved with the Epstein files, but she has a way of inserting herself into everything. Even the stuff that could ensure her demise.

As Rick Wilson says, #ETTD.

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Winners & Losers | So Far, So Good — Or So Far, So Bad

CJ Penneys (Charles Penneys) · Jul 14

We’ve been keeping score for two months now, and the list is long, ugly, and occasionally inspiring. From popes to power-grabbers, from tragic enablers to the quiet adults in the room, it’s been a wild ride through the grifters, cowards, and unlikely heroes shaping our collapsing republic. Before we name the next batch, let’s take stock of who’s stood o…

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So you picked a great loser. But your winner is even better. She’s like the perfect foil for the loser — a character who leaves the villain’s flaws and evil so evident as to be somewhat absurd.

Without further ado, let’s break this down.

Karoline Leavitt, Loser

Karoline Leavitt is the origin story of Delores Umbridge. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look HERE. She is annoying, driven by mad loyalty and ambition, and she dresses like she’s cosplaying her favorite MAGA figurine — and her favorite MAGA figurine is Karoline Leavitt.

She, of course, is Trump’s 27-year-old press secretary whose smugness is only eclipsed by her lying, which is only eclipsed by her gaslighting, which is only eclipsed by her creepy outfits.

Last week, she was asked about the “hoax” of the Epstein files. Specifically, she was asked which part of it was a hoax, as Trump was claiming. ...