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Greenbrier Republicans Push Back on Morrisey · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: He arrived in Washington expected to obey Edmund g Ross
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  Speaker 1: entered the United States Senate as a loyal Kansas Republican,
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  Speaker 1: counted among those determined to remove Andrew Johnson from office.
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  Speaker 1: The verdict, many believed, was already written. The passions were high,
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  Speaker 1: the pressure was relentless, and then Ross voted no one vote,
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  Speaker 1: one decision that spared Johnson from conviction and changed Ross forever.
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  Speaker 1: Why did he do it? The argument began immediately and
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  Speaker 1: has never really ended. Critics cried corruption, saying Ross sought favor, patronage,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps even reward. Supporters said conscience, that impeachment required more
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  Speaker 1: than anger, more than politics, more than a disputed violation
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  Speaker 1: of the Tenure of Office Act. Some believed he simply
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  Speaker 1: thought the punishment did not fit the offense. Others said
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  Speaker 1: old alliances and old loyalties helped shape the moment. But
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  Speaker 1: whatever reason guided him, Ross knew the cost before he
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  Speaker 1: ever rose to speak, public condemnation, political exile, the likely
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  Speaker 1: end of his career. He voted anyway. Years later, John F.
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy would place Ross in Profiles and Courage, praising a
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  Speaker 1: man willing to lose everything rather than surrender what he
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  Speaker 1: believed right, and this past weekend, West Virginia witnessed a
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  Speaker 1: smaller echo of that same courage. Ben Anderson, chairman of
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  Speaker 1: the Greenbrier Republican Executive Committee, publicly announced his committee would
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  Speaker 1: not endorse in the primary. Then he went further. He
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  Speaker 1: condemned out of state influences, deceptive interests, and those willing
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  Speaker 1: to violate Ronald Reagan's eleventh commandment, thou shalt not speak
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  Speaker 1: ill of a fellow Republican. Those words came after Governor
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  Speaker 1: Patrick Morrissey reportedly endorsed challenger Jonathan Comer while incumbent Vince
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  Speaker 1: Deeds was present in the room. A public show of preference,
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  Speaker 1: a public show of division. True, Ben Anderson is not
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  Speaker 1: facing the same ruin Ross faced. No Senate seat hangs
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  Speaker 1: in the balance, No place in national history turns on
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  Speaker 1: his statement. But courage is not measured only in grand
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  Speaker 1: halls or famous chambers. Sometimes courage is local. Sometimes it's
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  Speaker 1: plain spoken. Sometimes it's simply the willingness to stand up
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  Speaker 1: when silence would be easier, when nodding along would be safer.
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  Speaker 1: When power expects obedience and instead receives resistance, that kind
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  Speaker 1: of courage is uncommon. In any age. Governor Morrisy should
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  Speaker 1: remember this. Political memory can last longer than political victories.
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  Speaker 1: Those challenged today may still be standing tomorrow. Those slighted
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  Speaker 1: do not always forget. Power often believes itself larger than
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  Speaker 1: it is. That illusion has ended many careers. It could
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  Speaker 1: end the governors, but those willing to speak against it,
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  Speaker 1: those like Anderson, are remembered far longer