Carly Fiorina will be visiting Donald Trump tomorrow, and this guy claims that the buzz is that Trump is considering her for Secretary of State:

Back from NY. Latest version of things has Trump giving State to Carly Fioini rather than cintroversial Tilkerson and France amb. To Romney.

— John Gizzi (@johngizzi) December 11, 2016

I don’t put a lot of stock in the unsourced tweet of a guy who can’t even begin to approach a correct spelling of Fiorina’s name. And in any case, anyone who has paid attention to this process knows Trump is treating this like a game show: The Apprentice: Secretary of State edition. It’s gotten to the point where he literally says “stay tuned!” when he tweets about it:

Whether I choose him or not for "State"- Rex Tillerson, the Chairman & CEO of ExxonMobil, is a world class player and dealmaker. Stay tuned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2016

Whether it’s due to the chimerical “consideration” of her for the State job, or whether it’s to get Trump’s backing for another Senate run, Fiorina is falling in line and kissing the ring, as so many before her have done. Washington Post:

Carly Fiorina praised Donald Trump’s “brilliant” moves as president-elect on Saturday as she formally endorsed Republican Ed Gillespie for Virginia governor and looked ahead to her Monday visit to Trump Tower in New York.

Her remarks, made at a retreat for Virginia Republicans, could help patch up her rocky relationship with Trump as she is considered for an administration job — and give Gillespie a boost with Trump supporters as he seeks his party’s nomination in a June primary.

Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive and one of many runners-up to Trump in the GOP primary, has had a bitter relationship with the Manhattan real estate mogul, who disparaged her appearance during the primary. She called on Trump to drop out of the race in October, after he was heard bragging about groping women on an 11-year-old recording.

“Donald Trump does not represent me or my party,” she said on Twitter at the time.

But Fiorina, a Northern Virginia resident often mentioned as a potential U.S. Senate candidate in 2018, heaped praise on Trump on Saturday, when she spoke to hundreds of state party leaders, elected officials and activists at an annual gathering known as the Republican Advance.

Notably, the formerly free-market Fiorina is praising Trump’s Carrier deal:

“One thing President-elect Trump clearly understands is this: that actually changing an ingrained, embedded status quo requires a major shock to the system,” she said. “It can’t be such a violent shock that you put the patient in cardiac arrest, but you have to have a signal strong enough that people understand change is actually coming. So I think the Carrier deal was brilliant.”

Carly Fiorina’s apparent knowledge of, and devotion to, free-market economic principles impressed me during the campaign. Before her announcement, she said in April 2015: “What we have now is less and less free market, and more and more crony capitalism.” She said in October 2015: “Government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. . . . Government has to be even-handed.” It is therefore especially disappointing that she would now praise a deal in which government picks winners and losers, and which is a prime example of crony capitalism.

This is why I left the Republican Party on May 3, 2016. I could see that the party was going to support, not just Donald Trump, but Donald Trump’s brand of anti-free market, pro-big government ideas. I’ve been a little surprised — but only a little — at how quickly and cravenly most people fell into line.

It seems that Donald Trump is playing a game in which he sends out flacks to suggest that his biggest critics may be in line for plum jobs. He cleverly appointed one of those critics early on to a job of mid-level importance (Nikki Haley as U.N. Ambassador) to create the appearance that he was serious about letting bygones be bygones. Since then, we have watched Trump dangle important positions in front of one previous critic after another (Ted Cruz for A.G.! Mitt Romney for State! Carly Fiorina for State!) — and they have all dutifully responded by praising him.

The group of people in Congress and/or political life whom I respect without reservation has narrowed considerably, to Mike Lee and Justin Amash and . . . that’s about it. I owe Donald Trump a debt of thanks for helping the others to reveal their imperfections.

Note that I say “imperfections” and not “stunning hypocrisy” or some other over-the-top condemnation. I’m not tossing these people overboard entirely. Politicians are gonna politician, and folks like Cruz and Fiorina are still capable of being fiery on the right issues, when it doesn’t cost them too much politically.

But it’s a little sad to see how few people stand up for free markets and limited government when the going gets tough. And a popular President-elect who disdains free markets is the definition of the going getting tough for free marketeers.

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