A working class hero is something to be
By 
Josh Hawley is continuing his futile quest to convince Republican primary voters he can be Donald Trump’s heir by solidifying his brand:
Sen. Josh Hawley, last seen encouraging a riot at the U.S. Capitol, now thinks America is too tough on hate crimes.
That’s the only logical conclusion one can draw from Hawley’s vote Thursday against a bill designed to limit assaults and murders based on ethnic hate, including hate of Asian Americans.
In a statement, Hawley explained his opposition to the law this way: “It’s too broad. As a former prosecutor, my view is it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents.”
Hawley, who had just been elected Missouri’s attorney general when he started running for the U.S. Senate, is not even right about being a former prosecutor, though the AG’s office does have certain prosecutorial powers.
And the law does not give the government “open-ended authority.”
[…]
In short, there is nothing in the bill that is an overreach, unless you think ethnic assaults and murders are acceptable. That’s why 94 U.S. senators approved the legislation Thursday, in a rare show of bipartisanship.
Except, of course, for Missouri’s Hawley. He was the only recorded no vote (five senators were absent.)
Saying the measure is too broad makes no sense, except in the context of his ongoing attempts to set himself apart as the most extreme on any issue.
His unquenchable thirst for Fox News appearances and fundraising cash continues to make this country unsafe, whether it’s from a gang of rioters pushing through the Capitol’s windows or from some lone gunman feverishly surfing the internet for anti-Semitic, or anti-Asian, or anti-Black, or anti-American messages.
Assertions that Hawley is a “populist” are not entirely inaccuate, if the “populist” tradition you’re thinking of includes Charles Coughlin, George Wallace, Jesse Helms, etc. etc.
Meanwhile, Hawley is also taking his supporters to the Missouri Vienna, VA branch of Trump University:
Two of the leading Republican firebrands in Congress touted big fundraising hauls as a show of grassroots support for their high-profile stands against accepting the 2020 election results.
But new financial disclosures show that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., relied on an email marketing vendor that takes as much as 80 cents on the dollar. That means their headline-grabbing numbers were more the product of expensively soliciting hardcore Republicans than an organic groundswell of far-reaching support.
A supporter from one angle, a mark from another.