PrairiePundit

Washington Free Beacon: Prominent A-Hole Wants to Impeach Trump While the descriptor probably applies to several of the President's opponents, Kasich appears to have really angered people about other issues too.

Jon Ward: ... The RNC’s argument to the D.C. delegates boiled down to this: A vote for the rules reset would open the door to Ted Cruz becoming the GOP’s nominee four years from now. Cruz is already laying the groundwork for another run for president in 2020, but a top RNC official told Yahoo News that they expect him to run even if Donald Trump becomes president this fall. That would represent the first major challenge of an incumbent president from inside his own party since Teddy Kennedy ran against President Jimmy Carter in 1980. “If Trump wins, you better bet your ass Cruz is going to primary him,” the RNC official told Yahoo News. And so the RNC officials told D.C. delegates that a rules reset would open the door to an effort by a key Cruz ally, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to close primary contests in several states to independent and Democratic voters. Cuccinelli and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pushed for the closed primary in the convention rules commit...

Byron York: Trump-Kasich feud could have disastrous consequences in November It appears to be a case of when two jerks collide, however, Trump is reported to have offed Kasich the VP spot including broad executive power and was turned down.   Polling shows a tight race that is virtually and in some cases literally tied in Ohio.  Trump needs it more than Clinton does.

NY Post: Donald Trump could face a stiffer challenge securing 1,237 delegates to win the GOP presidential nomination and avoid a brokered convention because forces close to Marco Rubio are involved in the Ted Cruz–John Kasich alliance to block his path, sources said Monday. “Little Marco ain’t so little anymore,” one Rubio insider told The Post, referring to Trump’s derisive nickname for the Florida senator. When he was still in the race, Rubio collected 171 delegates — whom he can now withhold from Trump at the GOP convention. A GOP strategist who backed Rubio was involved in talks that led to the alliance between Cruz and Kasich to derail Trump, the source said. ... Anti-Trump groups are also opening their wallets to attack him in some of the remaining states.  Saving the GOP and the country from a Trump- Hillary Clinton race is a worthy objective.

CNN: Ted Cruz and John Kasich are joining forces in a last-ditch effort to deny Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination. Within minutes of each other, the pair issued statements late Sunday saying they will divide their efforts in upcoming contests with Cruz focusing on Indiana and Kasich devoting his efforts to Oregon and New Mexico. The strategy -- something the two campaigns have been working on for weeks -- is aimed at blocking Trump from gaining the 1,237 delegates necessary to claim to GOP nomination this summer. The extraordinary moves reflect the national strength Trump has shown and the inability of Republicans who oppose the New York billionaire to come together to stop him. Dividing up some of the remaining primary states by putting forward one strong alternative to Trump in each could be enough to take away delegates and curb Trump's run to the nomination. ... I hope this works.  Stopping Trump is the only way to save the GOP and the conservative mov...

Washington Post: John Kasich: ‘My Republican Party doesn’t like ideas’ In an interview with The Washington Post’s editorial board, the GOP presidential candidate criticized his party for a lack of ideas but said House Speaker Paul Ryan was an exception. This guy clearly is not paying attention to people like Ted Cruz h]who have a lot of good ideas.  He should get a copy of the CNBC interview with Cruz on his economic policies.  It is both brilliant and brilliantly defended.  Kasich's problem is he lives in a moderate bubble and does not listen to the ideas of those outside it.  But it is there that the really bold ideas are made and expressed.

CNN: Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald Trump boxed him out of key positions in the Michigan delegation. The Texas senator's campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was "double-crossed" by Kasich supporters. The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee. The Cruz campaign lost votes for both seats. The rules committee seats have become highly coveted prizes for their role in shaping a contested convention in Cleveland. After the delegates are selected in each state, they meet as a group and pick the members of four convention committees, the most important of which is the rules committee, which will ultimately decide who can be nominated president. Michigan Cruz leader Saul Anuzis said they were "double-crossed" by Kasich's campaign....

CBS News: With the Wisconsin primary looming and polls showing a close race there, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is going on offense against the other non-Trump candidate in the race: Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Cruz's campaign is running an ad in the state suggesting Kasich offered favors and tax breaks to an Ohio-based steel company whose board he served on before becoming governor. "Right before John Kasich was governor, he collected $611,000 from a Fortune 500 corporation. After Kasich became governor, that same company received $619,000 in state tax breaks for 'job creation,'" the ad says. "But last year the company laid off 100 Ohioans, even as the CEO cut a half-million-dollar check to Kasich's super PAC. John Kasich's not for us." ... Cruz is also reportedly sending out mailers challenge's Kasich's record on spending and guns.  The ad evidenly draws on criticism used against Kasich in his run for reelection by Democrats.

NY Times: Cruz Is Fuming Because Kasich Won’t Bow Out As Senator Ted Cruz looks beyond Wisconsin, where he is favored to win on Tuesday, his frustrations with Gov. John Kasich of Ohio have increasingly been laid bare. This seems to be the one area of agreement between Trump and Cruz.  Kasich has long been mathematically eliminated and has no chance of getting the wins needed to even qualify.  Both sides see him as taking away their votes, but Cruz has the better argument since Trump appears to have a lower ceiling with voters.

Red States:   ... Pretty amazing. Ted Cruz is running even with Hillary Clinton is a Blue/Purple state like Wisconsin. Kasich does better than Cruz but not so much better as to support his narrative, his Unique Selling Proposition, that he, alone, can beat Hillary outside traditional GOP areas. And Donald Trump, America’s animated hairball, gets beaten like a rented mule. This is very much in line with the RCP national head-to-head average that has Clinton beating Trump by 50-38. ... It gives you an idea of just how bad a candidate Trump is in the general election and how delusional his followers are in pushing his candidacy.

Caleb Howe: ... 1. Ain’t nobody supportin nobody after the primary: The remaining three candidates have all basically surrendered their vow to support the nominee after the primary is over. They can call it what they like, I’m sure there is spin coming from at least the two who still care about electoral politics in the future, but the bottom line is that these guys are not friends, and aren’t going to be. Cruz: “I’m not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and my family … I think nominating Donald Trump would be an absolute trainwreck, I think it would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton.” Trump: “No, I don’t anymore. … [Cruz] was essentially saying the same thing.” Kasich: “I want to see how this thing finishes out. … All of us shouldn’t even have answered that question [originally].” I will tell you this, and if you fail to accept it, then you fail at truth: It’s Trump’s fault. Every other candidate would have supported the eventual nominee we...

Kasich is playing for a spoiler role at the convention and this is an attempt to head him off.

Erick Erickson: John Kasich Came in Fourth in a Three Man Race Rubio who had already dropped out of the race actually beat Kasich resulting in Trump getting all the delegates with only a plurality of the votes.

Salt Lake Tribune: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has zoomed to a commanding lead in Utah's GOP caucuses, according to a new poll released Saturday. It also gave a glimpse into how frustrated the state's Republicans are with Donald Trump's candidacy. The Y2 Analytics survey shows Cruz with 53 percent support among likely Republican caucus-goes and if that matches Tuesday's caucus vote, he'd win all of the state's 40 GOP delegates. Coming in second is Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 29 percent, while Trump, the national front-runner, was a distant third at 11 percent. The Y2 Analytics poll was conducted from Thursday to Saturday and included 500 respondents, capturing some of the reaction from public events held by all three of the Republican candidates. Cruz held three public events in Utah on Saturday with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, commentator Glenn Beck and former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. Kasich and Trump held events on Friday. ... It showed that Cruz perf...

NY Times: Cruz Has New Foe in Kasich With Rubio Out While Senator Ted Cruz has moved to consolidate support among evangelical and Tea Party voters, John Kasich has made a play for moderate Republicans. The fact that Kasich is getting substantial financial support for George Soros who hates Republicans and is always pushing for a leftist like Hillary Clinton tells you something about the man.  He is already mathematically eliminated and hopes to be a spoiler at the convention to push his moderate squish agenda.  It is the moderate wing of the GOP that has taken it down the road to defeat in recent presidential elections by offering a Democrat light agenda. All he is really accomplishing is making it easier for Trump to get the nomination which is what liberals like Soros really want because they see him as the easiest candidate to defeat.

NY Times: Kasich Captures Ohio, Keeping Hopes Alive Kasich has become a tool of Soros whose funding of a Super PAC has kept his campaign afloat despite his lack of any chance for anything other than a spoiler role that will deliver Trump as the nominee.  History should not treat him kind if that is the role he chooses to play.

Tim Carney: ... Among Kasich voters nearly 65 percent said they would vote for Cruz or Rubio if either man were the nominee. This data all suggests that many voters who preferred Cruz or Rubio ended up voting for Kasich. This was likely because Ohio is a winner-take-all state, and Kasich was the only candidate with a chance to beat Donald Trump. Rubio's campaign actually told his Ohio supporters to vote for Rubio. ... He also points out that Ohio is the only state in which Kasich has actually carried conservative voters in the entire primary campaign.

Ted Cruz points out the way the Trump tariffs would hurt consumers in this country and at the same time hurt US exporters such as farmers and ranchers who sell US food products overseas. Trump responds by saying he would help US companies build products here to replace the imports, but does not explain how that will make up for the prices increases on consumers. I thought all of the debaters were much more civil.  Kasich and Rubio still say they are going to stay in regardless of their weak positions. Cruz was the most challenging and scored points on trade and national security. Ted Cruz also scored with the focus group with his attack on Washington. Holding the whole government accountable.

John Kass: For grass-roots conservative Republicans — mocked by the Beltway's imperial punditry and lied to again and again by the GOP establishment — what could be sweeter than this? They can watch the GOP elite tremble in fear and panic over the prospect of Donald Trump as their presidential candidate. Or they can wait for those same Republican establishment lords to drop to their knees and begin that slow crawl, over the broken political corpse of Marco Rubio, to kiss the feet of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the constitutional conservative whom they hate. Ahhh. At times like this, I just want to enjoy a fine cigar, think of revenge as a dish best served cold and consider a great line from antiquity such as this one: Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. The GOP establishment boys are hopping mad now, mad as hatters, frantic for answers, even ridiculous answers. And the most ridiculous is the dream of propping up Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich until Mit...

NBC News: ... No word on whether or not the meetings will lead to an endorsement by the former governor who suspended his own White House bid after a disapointing finish in the South Carolina primary on February 20. Florida holds its Republican primary on Tuesday. He may be trying to talks some sense into Rubio and Kasich who have no path to the nomination at this point.