Topic category:  Partisan Politics

David Brooks' March 8, 2016 column for the New York Times was a desperate plea to reject both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for Marco Rubio or John Kasich.

Brooks concluded: "The hour is late and the odds may be long. But there is still hope. It’s a moment for audacity, not settling for Ted Cruz simply because he’s the Titanic you know."

Audacity?

Audacity has two definitions: (1 )boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions" and (2) effrontery or insolence; shameless boldness.

Donald Trump demonstrated the first kind of audacity by running for President.

The "rule or ruin" Republicans have been demonstrating the other kind of audacity.

It's time for Republicans and conservatives to unite to stop Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders from succeeding President Obama.

In the four states in which delegates to the Republlcan National Convention were being chosen yesterday--Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi--Brooks was soundly rejected.

Trump won very impressively in Hawaii, Michigan and Mississippi, and came in second in Idaho.

Cruz won in Idaho, and came in second in Hawaii, Michigan and Mississippi.

Rubio came in third in Hawaii and Idaho and fourth in Mississippi in Michigan.

Kasich came in third in Mississippi and Michigan and fourth in Hawaii and Idaho.

The primaries next Tuesday will be held in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.

At least two will be winner-take-all.

Trump was leading before yesterday and will be leading more strongly as a result of the results yesterday.

Trump will have a majority of the delegates before the Republican National Convention.

The big question is whether establishment Republicans continue to try to do to Trump what their predecessor establishment Republicans successfully did to Barry Goldwater in 1964--make him unelectable to the delight of the Democrat Party.

If they do what they expect supporters of Trump and Cruz to do if their preferred candidate fails to win the nomination, Trump will be the next President of the United States and the Supreme Court and other federal courts will follow the progressive platform instead of the rule of law and "amend" the Constitution under the guise of interpreting it, as happened when the Supreme Court created a constitutional right to abortion and took regulation of marriage away from the states.

It's time to shame the Republican establishment into doing the right thing.

Is that doable, or is the Republican establishment too arrogant to be shamed?

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.