Top O’ the Briefing
Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. The Sine Qua Non Sequitur is judging a Norman Fell dance-alike contest at a Funyuns festival somewhere near Des Moines.
If toxic cluelessness were punishable by law, lame duck Senate Majority Leader John Thune would need to lawyer up soon.
Thune is one of those loathsome Swamp creatures who has been in Washington so long that he has no functioning knowledge of what goes on in the real world outside the Beltway. He was first elected to the House when Bill Clinton was president, and he’s been in the Senate for 20 years.
Just how divorced from reality is Thune? He’s convinced that Senate Republicans did a bang-up job the past two years while they were allegedy in the majority. No, really. Thune stood on the Senate floor on Monday to pat himself on the back and have it entered into the permanent record.
While very calmly reflecting on last Tuesday, Thune said, “…it was certainly not the outcome that we had hoped for, but it was the outcome the American people chose. And we have to listen to them.”
The guy didn’t seem upset at all about the butt-whuppin’ that his party was subjected to in the midterms. I’ve seen people share recipes on Instagram with more passion. Thune obviously doesn’t feel that he has any responsibility for the disaster.
Thune’s newfound interest in listening to the voters after the Democrats were victorious is galling and yet another thing that should disqualify him from remaining in leadership. More on that in a moment.
Republican voters have been screaming all year for the Senate to pass the SAVE Act before the midterms. That all fell on Thune’s very politically deaf ears. Now that the Dems have won, he’s blathering on about being bipartisan, which is a filthy word in this political environment.
Thune is rushing a leadership vote, and actually feels that he is still deserving of leading the Senate Republicans when they’re back in the minority next year. House Speaker Mike Johnson has actually done a passable job in his leadership role, but isn’t interested in being the minority leader in the House.
Some politicians still care about the good of the country and the good of the party. Some politicians are John Thune.
In his Monday Townhall video, my friend Larry O’Connor discusses the fact that not all of the Republicans in the Senate are thrilled with Thune’s quick power grab. Over at RedState, my friend and colleague Ward Clark discusses what would be best for the GOP right now:
A good leadership contest would be good for the party. It would force some discussions as to what went wrong in 2026. It would force a post-mortem, examining how things could have been done better. Best of all, it would separate some wheat from some chaff, and maybe hone the Senate Republican (and the House Republicans, for that matter) to a fine edge, the better to fight the fights that we’re sure are coming.
Sadly, that might just be something to dream about. The Senate is a calcified institution that is difficult to shake up internally. Because he was Mitch McConnell’s righthand man and McConnell had become so riddled with Trump Derangement Syndrome, Thune shouldn’t even have been in the conversation for the leader spot when Cocaine Mitch stepped aside. The GOP’s fear of being bold and acting like they just won an election prevailed, however, and they just went with the next guy in line.
The Republican Party got rid of a lot of unreliable squishes this year. That should bode well for it in the future. If Republicans keep a squish in charge in the Senate, though, they may end up in the minority there forever.
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The Mailbag of Magnificence
Just a few today. People are probably still worn out from last week’s debacle. Kath will get things going:
Hi Mr. Kruiser: Re your renewed DeSantis enthusiasm: you will run into the KLH Stiff Theory of Politics ™. The candidate who can convey some amount of personality and charisma wins over the dull or duller one (Dull = the Stiff), at least in presidential races. Going back since at least radio, the Stiff always loses. Do your own comparison & you’ll see I’m correct, whether it’s FDR v. anyone or Trump v. the unlikable ladies. Stiffs like McGovern, Gore, Dukakis, Romney, etc. always lose (2020 not really an exception). DeSantis is a great governor, but he was a Stiff in 2024 and will likely be the Stiff in 2028 unless the Dems nominate their own version of Romney.
I do agree that DeSantis was rather stiff and dull in 2024. What was strange about that is he’s not like that all of the time. My good friend and co-host Stephen Green and I had a great election post-mortem discussion with our old pal Ed Morrissey on last Friday’s episode of “Five O’Clock Somewhere.” We went through some of the reasons DeSantis may have been so off in the 2024 race, and also agreed that it wouldn’t have mattered. Trump was inevitable. DeSantis still has a chance to rebound from that and shine on camera the way he usually does as governor.
This is from Steve G. (NOT VodkaPundit):
Kruiser,
Enjoy your column. Read it every morning. Overall, i agree with you analysis. The one aspect that isn’t getting nearly enough is John Thune. Trump is doing fine. The House did fine. But the Senate. That has been a disaster. None of Trumps work has gotten either codified or supported by the Senate. Even the 1BBB — could have been better. Babylon Bee called it — It only there was some Act the Senate could have passed that would have Saved America. At a certain point, and many people — including my wife — reach the point that instead of fighting we need to push. Ayn Rand called it in Atlas Shrugged — let it all crash and then pick up the pieces.
Thank you for hanging out here! Trust me, I have not yet begun to bash John Thune and the rumored Republican Senate majority of 2025-26.
We will finish with this from Briefing stalwart Jerome:
Hey Kruiser,
You are spot on that Dems are better at messaging because they aren’t concerned with being honest or realistic. I think this is a big reason why Republicans only win when things get bad enough that the truth can’t be ignored. What sucks is, too many voters don’t get this, and we all get stuck with elections like last week.
Maybe Republicans should learn to articulate the truth in a coherent fashion to the voters before things get too bad. Just sayin’.
Hang in there everyone, and thanks for keeping in touch. Oh, Laurie C. — the deviled egg pic was hilarious!
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— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) November 9, 2026
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The Kruiser Kabana
Kabana Gallery
Chrysanthemums (1881–82) crowds an earthenware crock with feathery, gestural blooms. Painting flowers let his brain rest, Renoir said — none of the tension of facing a model. He could test tones and values boldly, without fear of losing the picture. #artbots #renoir https://t.co/3iKjWWasPD
— Auguste Renoir (@artist_renoir) November 9, 2026
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