1. Ed Whelan's embarrassing, desperate, libelous Twitter thread, much like the entire Trump administration, has deep roots in the world of Republican politics. It's not some black swan event. Whelan is a well-respected, entrenched figure in @gop-land. He's no Alex Jones.
2. Whelan worked with a PR firm that is best known for Swift Boating John Kerry back in 2004. You know, back when "reasonable Republicans" like GWB and a host of Never Trumpers were running the party. Same org works for the *very sober* Federalist Society as well. 
3. It seems fairly clear that Whelan's work was known to long-serving Republicans like Orrin Hatch, whose staffer had predicted something big coming from Whelan a few days before his Tweet thud.
4. Whelan's stunt is not some Freedom Caucus/Breitbart wackiness emanating from the fringes of the @gop. It's not some Trump Derangement Syndrome that otherwise reasonable Republicans have succumbed to. It's who they've been for quite a while now.
