One thing we can say for Karoline Leavitt is that she does what she’s paid for, which is to be a spokesperson for Donald Trump. She does it without apology or shame, channeling her inner Donald with relish, casting shame on those who would dare question his blinding brilliance.

Mike Lawler, on the other hand, is paid to be a representative for the people of New York’s 17th Congressional District. So why does he spend so much of his time on cable news in Karoline Leavitt mode?

There he was on CNN last week defending Trump’s love fest with Saudi Prince MBS. “Foreign policy is messy,” says Lawler.

There he was again on CNN last night, adding to Trump’s criticism of Marjorie Taylor Greene (with some self-promoting sprinkles):

Then there was his continuing campaign to recast the Democratic Party as the Socialist/Communist Party based on the mayoral election in NYC of Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani’s policy “is an absolute train wreck in the making,” he said on Newsmax 2 the night before Mamdani’s meeting with Trump at the White House.

But then Trump praised Zohran in the Oval, so Lawler hopped on Fox Business Channel and toned it down: “The President is gonna give him a little leeway here and see how he does when he takes office in January. I think keeping Jessica Tisch [as NYC Police Commissioner] was a wise choice, OK? She has done a good job. We’ll see how this works out.”

On to News Nation, where Lawler was asked about Trump accusing 6 Democratic lawmakers of sedition, “punishable by DEATH!” Their crime? An ad reminding members of the military and intelligence communities that they can refuse illegal orders. Lawler was able to admit that calling for their deaths was wrong, but quickly pivoted to the “both sides need to tone it down” schtick, before concluding: “I think my Democratic colleagues need to recognize that somehow encouraging members of our military to defy orders is counterproductive, to say the least, but it is wrong.” Of course, he left out the critical word, illegal orders.

Not a surprising perspective from Lawler, since he has vocally supported Trump and Hegseth’s extrajudicial killings of alleged drug boat runners coming out of Argentina. And the swarming of military troops into American cities, with Trump declaring that he wants to use those cities as military training grounds.

And finally this week we saw Lawler defending the chaotic release of a Russia-Ukraine 28-point peace plan written by Russia? Steve Witkoff? Jared? Marco? Who knows. Slate’s review: This Weekend Made Trump’s Foreign Policy Look Like a Real Circus. The NY Times wrote of Putin’s Win-Win: Take a Russia-Friendly Peace Deal, or Fight On. Thomas Friedman wrote that this just might earn Trump the “Neville Chamberlain Peace Prize” — “awarded by history to the leader of the country that most flagrantly sells out its allies and its values to an aggressive dictator.”

Mike Lawler’s assessment, as delivered on Fox Business:

“The sad reality here is because of the way this war was waged over the last three and a half years, and especially during the Biden administration, where they withheld ammunitions, where they wouldn’t allow Ukraine to proactively prosecute the war in Russian territory, where they didn’t implement secondary sanctions, and where the Europeans continued to purchase Russian oil and gas while simultaneously trying to stop this conflict….There’s still some more details to work out here, but I do believe we have made significant progress over the last week, which certainly puts this on the precipice of coming to an end, you know, more so than at any point over the last three and a half years.”

On the precipice? Yesterday’s assessment by the non-partisan Institute for the Study of War: “The Kremlin continues to show no willingness to compromise for good-faith peace negotiations and has not set conditions for Russians to accept anything less than a full Russian victory in Ukraine.” As Russia dropped another round of missiles on Kyiv, killing another 20 Ukrainians last night.

Time will tell. But for now Lawler’s going with: Biden screwed this up. Thank God for Donald. Ignore that split screen there with Putin on the red carpet, Trump drooling over the money to be made. By him, not us.

Dmitry J. Trump, perhaps (as in Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov)?

Why does Lawler keep pardoning this turkey?

---

Wishing you a happy and politics-free Thanksgiving. Rule of Lawler will return next week.