Funny how it works. Bill Kristol, the man who helped sell America on the Iraq War and gave us Sarah Palin, is now perched behind a Bulwark microphone telling us the Republican Party is “a mess.” This is like the arsonist showing up with a bucket of water and a press credential.
But let’s give the neocon his due. He’s not wrong about Max Miller.
Miller is the sitting congressman from Ohio’s 7th district, a Trump loyalist who was a favorite of the boss, and he’s running for re-election in 2026 despite the fact that his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, has publicly accused him of domestic violence and of abusing their daughter. This isn’t some anonymous blog post. His former father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno, called on him to resign. GOP senators Jon Husted, Roger Marshall, Katie Britt, and Tim Sheehy piled on. Even Trump himself called Miller to express doubts about his candidacy, according to reporting from The New York Times and Politico, which both now describe a previously safe Republican seat as suddenly competitive.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia CommonsAnd Miller’s response? He’s staying in. Vowed to keep running. Because of course he is.
Ask yourself who benefits from a system where a congressman can face credible abuse allegations from his own family, get urged to step aside by half the Senate Republican caucus, and simply refuse. The party benefits. The machine benefits. Because the machine doesn’t run on morality. It runs on seats. And as long as Miller holds that seat, the tribe closes ranks.
Here’s the part Kristol doesn’t want to dwell on, because it implicates the entire establishment he spent his career serving. This is not new. This is not a Trump-era aberration. This is how the machine has always operated.
Brian Thorpe (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsRemember Dennis Hastert? Speaker of the House. Longest-serving Republican speaker in history. The man was a high school wrestling coach who sexually abused at least four boys as young as 14. He paid hush money to cover it up, got caught structuring bank withdrawals to hide the payments, and went to prison for 15 months. And when the sentencing hearing came around, who showed up to vouch for his character? Tom DeLay, the former House Majority Leader, called Hastert “a good man that loves the Lord” and said “he doesn’t deserve what he is going through.” Former CIA director Porter Goss wrote a letter too. The Republican establishment circled the wagons around a serial child molester and treated him like the victim.
That was before Trump. That was before the Tea Party. That was the good old Republican Party that Kristol and his friends built.
So when Kristol sits on his podcast and acts shocked that the party is sticking with Miller, forgive me if I don’t clutch my pearls. The party protected Hastert. The party protected a hundred other swamp creatures whose names never made the papers. The only difference now is that Kristol is on the outside looking in, and he doesn’t like the view.
United States Congress (Public domain) via Wikimedia CommonsMeanwhile, Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene are reportedly floating a third party for 2028. Trump is fumbling on Iran so badly he can’t even articulate a war position to his own supporters. And Kristol’s own Bulwark dispatch casually mentions that Trump is handing Mexican territory a slice of Big Bend National Park so he can build his border wall through it. You can’t make this up. The man who ran on “build the wall” is giving away American land to Mexico to build it. Ask yourself who benefits from that deal. Follow the money. You always follow the money.
The little guy gets played every time. The establishment protects its own, the experts tell you it’s all fine, and the swamp keeps draining your wallet while it fills its pockets. Max Miller is not the disease. He’s a symptom. And Bill Kristol is not the cure. He’s the guy who spent 30 years building the hospital.