It’s a problem, sir, but it can’t be bent

After a brief run of trying to restore his reputation as a Respectable Conservative to whom Ben Wittes can give the Benefit of the Doubt, consigliere Barr quietly announced last month that of course he was voting for Trump. But of course establishment Republicans who don the Never Trump mask to wear to the Gridiron Club’s Spring Superspreader Spectacular can never leave it at that — you have to start adopting the full panoply of lunatic MAGA views again:

So when former staffer Larry Kudlow on Thursday interviewed former attorney general William P. Barr for his Fox Business show, the conversation operated from shared assumptions about Trump’s successes and the toxicity of the political left. The result was that Barr outlined a remarkable hierarchy of importance for actions that might have affected the results of a presidential contest.

Russian interference in 2016, he said, was just “some embarrassing emails about Hillary Clinton and Bernie.” The effort to “suppress” information about Hunter Biden’s laptop, meanwhile, was “probably even more outrageous” and “had much more effect on an election.”

And of course, he also has to throw in a guest podcast for an Intellectual Dark Web podcast:

What Barr’s conversation with Kudlow really makes clear, though, is how reactionary his politics are. “The United States was going over the abyss with the progressive march that was occurring with Obama,” Barr told his former colleague, with Trump making “a goal line stance … that stopped that.” Had Trump lost in 2016, he added later, “it would be 30, 40 years of radical, progressive jurisprudence like the kind of nonsense we’re seeing in the area of transgenderism.” At another point, he claimed that “the whole idea of ‘wokeness’ and these unbridgeable [racial] gaps is simply a lie.”

Can you imagine a Supreme Court with Elena Kagan is the median vote? It would be the end of the America! Saying Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce? Inventing a Constitution with the fake news “15th Amendment” in it? Ordering each and every American to get gay trans married to a box turtle? The horrors!

Almost is horrifying is people giving money to mobilize voters and support local election offices:

“You have things like Zuckerberg,” Barr said, referring to a group funded by a nonprofit formed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that invested in voter turnout efforts. “Same thing. I’m not sure if it was legal or not, but that skews the playing field unfairly.”

Setting aside the former attorney general claiming that it was maybe illegal to run a get-out-the-vote effort — a claim that would seem to demand some sort of evidence — it’s bizarre to state that this “skews the playing field.” The effort centered on getting legal voters to vote! It’s exactly what campaigns do for months before Election Day. But the difference here is that someone was applying resources that would likely end up turning out more Democrats, and that’s what galls Barr, Kudlow and their allies.

“I don’t know if making it easier for legal voters to cast votes is legal, but it shouldn’t be.” That’s the Republican legal establishment in 2022, and it’s MAGA all the way.