Remember when we were assured Romney was a victim, destined to take mountains of abuse after his sacrosanct, serious decision to remove the President from office? Only Romney, out of the hundreds of other Republicans on Capitol Hill, could see the truth of Trump’s crimes and now he’d pay a price.

Yeah, well except that was always nonsense. Instead, Romney got treated like a mix of Ghandi and the Pope. He lined up three separate interviews with friendly voices, each praising his unmatched courage. Then he sent a preaching, condescending letter to his colleagues letting them all know how great he is and how unprincipled they are. The mainstream media swooned and pronounced him forgiven for his past transgressions of being a nasty old Republican.

And now those tales of heroism are making their way to the Democratic primary trail. The reaction says a lot.

Klobuchar: Democratic crowds are cheering for Romney https://t.co/NKDU9fpPEn

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) February 10, 2020

Later, however, she returned to impeachment to praise Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who, like Klobuchar, also voted to remove the president. Whenever she mentions Romney at Democratic events, Klobuchar told the group, “everyone would cheer” the only senator in United States history to vote to remove a president of his own party.

“I think we’re living in a moment right now like no other,” Klobuchar said. “Wherever you were on that impeachment hearing, I got to see some brave things happen. I got to see Mitt Romney take a vote that was really hard for him, and, as he said, he couldn’t do it any other way because of his oath, and I got to talk about that in Democratic audiences, and everyone would cheer for Mitt Romney in the last few days, and I think it shows how things are kind of upside-down in our country.”

The braveness of Mitt Romney to accept near universal adulation from one side of the aisle, while still getting defended by many on the right, is just unmatched. And the crowds are eating it up. They love Romney’s vote and have turned him into a rock star on the campaign trail. I’m sure it’s only a coincidence that history finds Romney’s helping the other party again instead of his own

York notes the absurdity of painting Romney as a victim in the above article.

The flip side of that, for Romney, has been heaps of praise from media commentators and Democrats. He has been called a “profile in courage” many times since last Wednesday, and, now, Klobuchar says just the mention of his name elicits cheers at Democratic gatherings.

Apparently, the Bernie Bros are really into him now too.

I'll add that Mitt Romney was being enthusiastically praised by attendees at Bernie Sanders event today as well. https://t.co/8d0UzmPd24

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) February 10, 2020

I can hear the replies. Country and principle over party, yada yada yada. The fact is that party politics are a major part of our system. Putting “country over party” often means making compromises on that front. At the very least it means not reveling in joining the other side and making a huge scene of it like Romney did. Had he simply cast his conviction vote humbly and moved on, perhaps the animus would have subsided sooner. Instead, he did a media tour and backhandedly trashed anyone who disagreed with him as not honoring God. That’s allowed Democrats to fully weaponize his decision. Instead of pushing back or saying he doesn’t want to be used that way, he’s doing what he does best, which is staying quiet while Democrats railroad the very people who once supported him.

But this is the guy we are supposed to go to bat for? Nonsense. Such actions have never been reciprocated by Romney, even when he ran for President. There’s a reason so many Republicans said “forget it, you get Trump now.” It’s not because they are rubes or hate decorum. It’s because they got sick and tired of politicians in the GOP demanding that voters have their back while they could never be bothered to return the favor.

Romney will no doubt continue to enjoy his new found love affair with the side that used to call him a cancer giving racist. But in the Republican party, there’s no coming back.