So, our putatively moderate governor went and endorsed the very conservative Nikki Haley for president.

Well, kinda, but not really.

VTDigger reported it as an endorsement; Seven Days cast it as a rebuke of Donald Trump. I have to say Seven Days got it right here. He didn’t say he’d vote for Haley. All he said was that New Hampshire primary voters should choose Haley as the only viable alternative to Trump, in hopes that the November election would offer two candidates “with character and integrity, who respect the rule of law, the rights of all people, and the Constitution.”

That’s a depressingly low bar, but Trump’s dominance of the Republican Party has left Scott in the position of endorsing an ardent anti-choicer, an advocate of building the border wall, cutting taxes for the rich, increasing the age for receiving Social Security, and imposing something stronger than Ron DeSantis’ “don’t say gay” bill, among other things. Not to mention that whole playing footsie with the cause of the Civil War thing.

In short, Haley may be more presentable and less aggressively anti-democratic than Trump, but policy-wise there’s not much distance between her and her former boss. She’s no Phil Scott, that’s for sure.

But Scott, who clings to his partisan identity like a toddler with its favorite plushie, desperately wants the Republican Party to offer something, anything, of value to the American electorate.

It’s sad, really. The Republican primary field, at its “best,” was a bunch of people trying to put a smiley face on Trumpism plus the ghost of Chris Christie’s career, and Christie found no purchase whatsoever among Republican donors or voters. It’s gotten to the point where a true-blue conservative like Haley is the closest thing to a moderate on offer, but that doesn’t mean we should identify her as such.

And here’s Phil Scott, setting fire to a bit of his centrist credibility in the forlorn hope that he can help block the Trump steamroller.

Scott felt so strongly about endorsing Haley that he didn’t deliver the good news in person. Rather, it came in a Friday newsdump from his otherwise dormant campaign. In fact, it hasn’t even been posted on his campaign website, whose most recent entry in the “News” category is dated November 4, 2020.

It would be nice if reporters held his feet to the fire in his next press conference. Ask him what he thinks of Haley’s far-right policy positions, one after another. Ask if he would vote for her in November if she somehow became the Republican nominee. Ask what he really thinks of the Republican Party as it exists in the year of our lord 2024. Ask him why the vast majority of his fellow GOPers so happily support a serial liar and wannabe dictator who’s been indicted 91 times. He ought to be made at least a little uncomfortable about identifying himself with such a toxic political brand.