Topic category:  Partisan Politics

Who is the head of the Republican Party--2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan or Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus.

It is Trump, who won the nomination.

Unfortunately, since New Yorker Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential, there have been times when the Wisconsinites (Ryan and Priebus) acted like they have a more important mission that helping Trump beat Democrat Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, like telling him how to run his presidential campaign.

For example, Ryan seemed much more interested in both distancing himself from Trump, pushing Trump to adopt the Ryan agenda and, like Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, focusing primarily on the Congressional races that will determine whether they retain their current political positions.

Instead of enthusiastically supporting Trump and wooing the enthusiastic Trump supporters, Ryan chose to try to publicly negotiate policy with Trump, even saying that he was "not there yet" when it came to endorsing Trump before finally expressing support for Trump in such a tepid way that Shepard Smith of Fox News insisted he had not actually endorsed Trump.

Trump later returned the slight, saying he wasn't "there yet" when asked whether he endorsed Ryan in Ryan's primary against a Trump supporter, before officially endorsing Ryan in the name of party unity, together with primaried Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

Ryan won his primary with about 84% of the voter, but what is more notable is that more than one sixth of the Republican primary voters made a point to voter against Ryan in a high turnout race.

Time is reporting that the Republican National Committee will shift money to down ballot races if Trump doesn't improve soon and Chairman Priebus personally so warned Trump.

The Time report is disputed and Trump denied that he had such a conversation with Priebus.

What is apparent is that there are a significant number of disgruntled Republicans who want that shift to happen, whether they admit it or not.

That's the best way to help the Democrats win there Presidency and both Houses of Congress!

HotAir's Allahpundit immediately imagined the future if the Republican National Committee bails on Trump and his supporters (http://hotair.com/archives/2016/08/11/report-trump-was-warned-that-the-rnc-will-shift-money-to-downballot-races-if-he-doesnt-improve-soon/).

Allahpundit: "...the time might be coming, sooner than anyone thought, when the RNC will have to cut bait on the presidential race even if Trump does start pushing a more disciplined message. Imagine what the final month of rallies would look like if that happened. 'They told me, "Do it our way and we’ll support you to the end." It was a threat! But I did it the[ir] way in the name of unity, because we need to make America great again. And now they stabbed me in the back!" There’s a nonzero chance that the RNC will get the worst of all worlds down the stretch this fall — Trump as a fatally wounded nominee and millions of angry Trumpers resolving to never again vote for the party in downballot races because the GOP didn’t support their leader to the hilt. How ironic would that be? Reince protected Trump at the convention because he wanted to keep Trump fans inside the tent, even if that meant a likely loss in the presidential race. Now, for his trouble, he might get a loss and mass defections."

The Democrats would be delighted!

Message to McConnell: Don't expect to be the Majority Leader in the next Congress if this happens.

Without the support of Trump enthusiasts, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rob Portman of Ohio, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Marco Rubio of Florida, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Jo hn McCain of Arizona won't be returning to the Senate as members.

Indeed, without the votes of Trump supporters, McCain, by primary day an octogenarian will lose his primary to Trump backer Kelli Ward.

But that's no guarantee that the Democrats won't win the Arizona Senate seat in the general election, given bitter division in the Republican Party.

Allanpundit opined that Priebus "thinks he has leverage over Trump but it’s really the opposite: Once the plug is pulled, Trump could spend the rest of the campaign and then the next four years in the media attacking the GOP leadership as corrupt, having effectively 'rigged the system' for Hillary by cutting off his financial and organizational support."

About that, Allahpundit is right, and Trump would be entitled to do it.

Senator Ted Cruz and Governot John Kasich need to stop pouting and honor their pledge to support Trump.

If Texas Railroad Commissioner George P. Bush wants higher office, he needs to get there elder Bushes abroad the Trump train.

If Trump wins with a generally united Republican Party, the Republicans will retain Control of both the Senate and the House.

If Trump loses with full party support, divided government will continue, with a Democrat in the Whiter House and Republicans controlling Congress.

If Trump loses because sore losers continue not to support him, not even Trump and the RNC can keep Republican control of Congress, because Trump is leading a reform movement and anti-Republicans would have behaved like Whigs did before the Republican Party replaced the Whig Party as the major party alternative to the Democrat Party.

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.