Larry Hogan has been getting a lot of press lately. Republicans who have learned nothing from the rise of Trump are already plugging him as a 2024 candidate and CNN is asking whether he’s the “future face” of the party. For his part, Hogan has played into it, writing a Trump critical op-ed in The Washington Post to boost his plaudits from the left.

Those of us who’ve remained mentally cognizant the last four years know this is foolishness, and while Hogan enjoyed about five minutes of good press this past week, the media are already turning on him.

Emails detail U.S. company’s offer to sell virus tests to Hogan for less than he paid South Korea https://t.co/tgcT8mLWNX

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 17, 2020

You may recall that Hogan was bragging some months ago about how he side-stepped Trump to get his state the tests they needed. The media played this up as a “good” Republicans doing what needed to be done in the face of Trump’s awfulness. Those tests came via a deal with a company in South Korea. According to the above article, Hogan apparently spent that money overseas while an American company was offering him the tests he needed at a lower price.

While the financials are interesting enough, the real reason this is raising eyebrows is because Hogan’s wife is South Korean. Why did Hogan choose to pay more to a foreign company? Are there family connections involved here? That’s certainly the insinuation the Post is making. Or was it simply to make Trump look bad by claiming he couldn’t get them domestically?

Regardless, the main point here is this: Not even a Republican as squishy and “acceptable” as Hogan can escape scrutiny when push comes to shove. It took less than a week after the media started singing his praises for them to begin accusing him of corruption. This is how Republicans will always be treated. It doesn’t matter how much you suck up to them or try to present yourself as being on their side. No Republican is ever liberal enough to satisfy the left.

In the end, as I’ve written before, Hogan is not the future of the party, and he’s wasting his time and everyone else’s by attempting to be. He’s a good fit for Maryland, a deep blue state that would otherwise have a Democrat in charge, but there’s noway the GOP base is going to get behind a guy who’s pro Roe v. Wade, pro gun control, and pro tax raising.