As much as one might disagree with George Conway’s Twitter habits or his glaringly obvious jealousy of his wife’s boss, one has to admit he’s a smart man. His undergraduate degree is from Harvard and his law degree from Yale, where he was president of the Federalist Society. Working closely with Ann Coulter and Matt Drudge, he represented Paula Jones in her lawsuit against Bill Clinton. He’s argued cases before the Supreme Court and has been considered for top posts in the US Department of Justice under Republican presidents.

His conservative pedigree is undeniable. So, why is he so illogical when it comes to Donald Trump?

George Conway is so illogical when it comes to Donald Trump precisely because his conservative pedigree is undeniable. Even though Donald Trump is one of the richest men in the world, everything about his style is tea party versus GOP elite. People like George Conway are the “Men of Harvard” who spent their years on campus smoking cigars at finals clubs while scoffing at people like Mark Zuckerberg and discussing “big ideas.” They enjoy people knowing their place in society and staying there.

(Disclaimer: As a girl who dated a Harvard guy while I attended Boston University, I fully understand the mindset, as shown here in The Social Network. Perhaps that’s also why I know the attitude when I see it.)

But Trump didn’t know his place and stay there. He didn’t start out as a governor or a clerk for a federal judge. He’s a billionaire reality show star with nouveau riche decorating taste who has, as far as we can tell, zero interest in debating the finer nuances of case law or policy. He was sick of what he saw happening to America’s economy and, even more importantly, to her spirit, courtesy of leeches in both parties who were paid handsomely regardless of how the policies and pork-barrel bills affected the kitchen tables across the country.

Somehow, this man won the presidency against a woman who’d been planning for it since she learned to talk. And the person largely responsible for this interloper’s win was Conway’s own wife.

Regular RedState readers are well aware of Conway’s shenanigans when it comes to Trump. He, along with a bunch of grifting conservative/GOP political consultants who suddenly found their gravy trains had come to a screeching halt after Trump’s win, founded The Lincoln Project (more about that in a minute), a group whose sole purpose is to defeat Trump. Last week, they formally endorsed Joe Biden, whose corruption and lack of mental clarity are well-documented.

But Biden’s not an interloper, and he understands the way of the swamp. This week’s Conway attack is just pathetic. It’s completely based on a throwaway comment Trump made in Monday’s press conference:

“The authority of the president of the United States having to do with the subject we’re talking about, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be. … It’s total. The governors know that.”

Conway couldn’t let that stand and had to pen an “ack-shually” lesson in constitutional law in the Washington Post. It’s pretty dry, but the main point is Conway attempting to Con-splain to Trump that he doesn’t own the presidency.

In our federal system, the states aren’t under Washington’s control, the way a corporate subsidiary might be owned by, say, the Trump Organization….

Conway argues that Trump couldn’t answer the “Who told you that?” question that Kaitlin Collins followed his statement because he truly doesn’t understand federalism or his role as president:

But it’s not just federalism that Trump misapprehends. It’s grade-school-level civics that the president carries out laws, not his whims or desires, however laudatory or popular they might be. The very Article II that he has claimed gives him “the right to do whatever I want as president,” actually says something quite different: not only that “he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” but also that, if he needs authority to do something for the good of the country, he should go to Congress, “and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

Trump would do well to learn these basic tenets of American constitutional law, if only because it’s his job to follow them, and because doing so would make him a more effective president. But Trump still thinks that he, alone, has ultimate authority to call all the shots — much as he did on the 25th floor of Trump Tower. And it’ll never be otherwise. Because the one thing Trump will never be able to accept about the exalted office he holds is that, unlike his company, it doesn’t belong to him.

Ooh, burn.

Look.  We all know that Trump is a blustering grandstander at times. Yes, he said what he said. However, he also said the exact opposite a minute or two later, which Conway disingenuously ignored. Also, his actions – which are more important than his words, in this writer’s opinion – show that he precisely understands both his role and responsibilities and understands the role and responsibilities of the states.

The George Conways of the world will never be convinced of that. They believe that Trump’s statement was an inadvertent dropping of the totalitarian mask, but at the same time will argue until they’re blue in the face that Trump should have done MORE to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The George Conways of the world have a lot invested in hating Trump. The latest Lincoln Project filings show that a whopping 92 percent of the monies taken in by the PAC during the 1st quarter of 2020 went to either people on the Board of Directors or to companies controlled by them, with the bulk of that going to Reed Galen’s Summit Strategic Communications.

#NeverTrump Lincoln Project raised $1.9M in Q1, over $1.16M from small donors giving less than $200. It logged $1,135,686 in operating expenditures and another $148,132 in independent expenditures, burning through $1,284,078.

Strap in… https://t.co/tipIU8qrXr

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) April 14, 2020

The ostensibly #NeverTrump Republican Lincoln Project spent $85,707 on merchant fees, $36,948 on its Democratic fundraising consultant, $15,078 on its Democratic compliance firm, and $3,000 for the Democratic NGP Van software. subscription. pic.twitter.com/9gswTqX51Q

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) April 14, 2020

Of the remaining $1.14M @ProjectLincoln burned through, $1.08M went straight back into the coffers of Lincoln Project members, w/founder Reed Galen’s Summit Strategic Communications collecting $921,790, Ron Steslow’s TUSK Digital paid $140,814, and Jennifer Horn paid $17,930 pic.twitter.com/NZ4hIlNlcj

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) April 14, 2020

To date, @ProjectLincoln has raised $2,587,887, largely from small donors, and spent $1,384,428, w/$153,733 on merchant fees, software subscriptions, fundraising, and compliance, and 92% of the remaining expenditures enriching Lincoln Project members and their firms. pic.twitter.com/Oa9LJFQ89V

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) April 14, 2020

One apologist claimed that the bulk of what was paid to Galen’s firm went into production costs and ad buys…

It’s media money. It says it right there. I know most people aren’t in the media buying business and don’t understand, but the way that works is, you pay a media company $1M to buy airtime. They buy you $850k worth of media. They made $150k for WORK, not $1M in “their coffers.”

— Misc Understanding (@MiscUnderstand) April 15, 2020

… like this…

Nevermind. I see now that the seemingly-inflated ad production costs are entirely justified. pic.twitter.com/Dm3MsK49lL

— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) April 15, 2020

… proving the hypothesis that The Lincoln Project is a spite PAC formed to continue the losing grift its board members have perfected over the years.