It started out pretty innocently. The Washington Post ran an exclusive reporting that 2012 GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, would not make an appearance at the Cleveland convention.

Scoop: Mitt Romney plans to skip Trump’s nominating convention in Cleveland https://t.co/veegdKi5Io

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) May 5, 2016

I’m not a Mitt Romney fan by any stretch of the imagination. Ask the guys from My Man Mitt who I banned over the course of two primaries. Ask the National Review reporter who got a sad because I called her a Mitt Romney fluffer. But I have to say, Romney is a gentleman whose personal life is worthy of emulation. He is a serious man who has the brain power to at least comprehend the problems facing this nation. And he is a freakin prophet:

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, delivered a sweeping point-by-point indictment of Donald Trump on Thursday and implored Republicans to reject the businessman’s candidacy in an election “that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and, more importantly, for the country.” “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” Romney told nearly 700 people at the University of Utah. “His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat.”

Then John McCain said he will not attend the convention. Both Bush41 and Bush43 have said they will not endorse anyone this election cycle but then we learn they will not travel to Cleveland either.

.@GuardianUS can confirm that Bob Dole will attend the convention in Cleveland and only be the only former GOP nominee there

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 5, 2016

That should tell you all that you need to know about the support Donald Trump has within the GOP. He can bring in enough Democrats, independents, disgruntled people, skin heads, racists, and white supremacists to get the nomination but he can’t get GOP’s former nominees… other than Bob Dole who just may not know where he is… to attend the GOP convention.

Who can blame them? The Stank de Trump attaches itself to everything it touches and, unlike skunk spray which can be removed by tomato juice, nothing can get rid of it. Anyone who endorses this guy is going to be held to account for that lapse in judgment. Anyone who runs with him or serves in his administration will have their career torched and relegated to pariah status.

As an aside, it is sort of ironic that Bob Dole would be in attendance. If anything is memorable about his 1996 presidential campaign, other than his face plant from a stage

it is his rant about the abuses of the Clinton administration:

Appearing at downtown performing arts center, where he stood before a giant mural depicting the glory days of the Lone Star State, Mr. Dole continued: ”Can you imagine former President Bush doing one of those things? No! And you never imagine Bob Dole doing one of those things either. So where’s the outrage? Where’s the outrage? When will the voters start to focus?”

Maybe he’s there to find the outrage that he was asking about 20 years ago.