Come on, man. This either qualifies as one of Karen’s Feel-Good Friday entries or as evidence that the Matrix exists, only in a much stupider form than anyone imagined.

Either way, this should be amusing to watch … until the money runs out. And that will likely be before Labor Day:

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s ex-attorney-turned-critic who has characterized his former boss as a “conman” and “racist,” is considering a run for Congress.

Cohen said he would run as a Democrat, potentially mounting a primary challenge against U.S Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the party’s top member on the House Judiciary Committee.

“I am interested and there’s a multitude of folks encouraging me to run,” Cohen told Semafor in a brief phone interview.

A “multitude” of people want a man convicted of lying in congressional testimony to serve in the House? Can we quantify “multitude”? I mean, obviously Cohen is as honest as the day is long and this certainly can be trusted, but … naah, who are we kidding?

Semafor is almost equally honest about Cohen as Cohen is about his “multitude.” They do note that Cohen spent 13 months in prison for a “multitude” of charges, and in this case “multitude” can be taken more at face value. (Maybe someone at Semafor can spring for a thesaurus, however.) They do avoid mentioning that false testimony to Congress was among that multitude, instead offering ambiguities about being “Trump’s fixer,” and so on.

That would be a rather important detail in a story about a prospective candidate for Congress, no? Why would Semafor leave that part of Cohen’s record on the editing room floor? Hard to say, but it might be to point out just how risible this effort would be.

Politico oddly skips over that specific fact too:

The former lawyer worked for Trump for more than a decade, doing stints in the Trump Organization, the Trump 2016 campaign and at the RNC. Cohen was sentenced to federal prison in December 2018 after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and related crimes that stemmed from his time working for the former president.

What a missed opportunity! Didn’t either outlet think to note the irony that Cohen wants to go from lying to Congress to lying from Congress? Instead, we just get a “related crimes” ambiguity despite the clear relevance of his conviction to his new aspiration. A seat in Congress is a position of public trust, after all; it’s one thing to have someone violate that trust after winning an election, but something else entirely to ask to seek the office after impeding it in a criminal fashion.

Media outlets might skip over the relevance of Cohen’s track record, but Democrat voters and donors almost certainly won’t. Politico points out the obvious about Nadler, which is that he’s well supported and well connected inside and outside of his district:

But any run to topple the 31-year incumbent would be difficult, given Nadler’s longtime status in the area and deep support among powerful Jewish communities in his district. …

New York’s 12th congressional district, which was shaken up last year to encompass the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan, includes some of the most affluent areas of the country. Nadler easily defeated former Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a rare primary showdown of House committee chairs last year after the two were drawn into the same district.

As a senior member of House Democrat leadership in his sixteenth term, Nadler can and will get a tremendous level of support from establishment donors as well as small-donor contributions in and around his district. That was certainly what happened in 2022, when Nadler squared off against fellow House Dem chair Carolyn Maloney when their districts got redrawn into NY-12. Nadler beat Maloney 55/24 in that primary, and Maloney had significant support from fellow Democrats in that fight.

What kind of support could Cohen get? He won’t get any from Trump, since Cohen’s set to testify against Trump in Alvin Bragg’s prosecution over the Stormy Daniels payoff. Establishment donors have no reason to cross Nadler, certainly not for an ex-con like Cohen. Maybe Cohen can call up a small ‘multitude’ of individual donors for novelty’s sake, but that won’t last.

The most amusing part of this is the target. Why go after Nadler, with all of his advantages inside the party and the city? Why not instead challenge Republican George Santos, perhaps the only current office-holder in New York with a reputation as bad as Cohen’s? This is nothing more than another cry for attention from a fringe character of American politics. Don’t bother stocking too much popcorn for this fight.

Now, if Anthony Weiner decided to challenge Nadler …

Meanwhile, on another topic entirely, the latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today’s show features Michael J. New discussing the disappointing results in Ohio’s special election this week:

• Can pro-lifers make a comeback in Ohio?  The pro-abortion lobby won a constitutional-process initiative in Ohio this week.
• Does that mean they’ll win on an abortion-rights amendment in November? Michael J. New says not so fast.
• A midsummer special election is different than a November election — and Michael has some precedents for his optimism as well.

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!