My dear friend and mentor, the late, great Observer Founding Editor Frosty Troy, was fond of recalling when he crossed paths in the mid-1980s with former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon at the Tulsa Convention Center.
“Frosty, I have a scoop for you,” Bellmon said. “I’ve decided to run for governor again.”
“Why,” Frosty asked, incredulously. “You were terrible the first time.”
“That’s the problem with you reporters, Frosty,” Bellmon replied. “You’re too busy putting white hats and black hats on politicians. You never know when they’re going to change hats.”
So it is with Oklahoma’s current governor, Kevin Stitt.
Stitt stuck his head out of the Republican foxhole on Thursday to oppose – yes, oppose – President Trump’s deployment of state National Guard troops into other states that don’t want them – or in the judgment of their governors, need them to maintain order.
Holy smokes! A Republican official daring oppose – in public! – the Dear Leader’s scheme to send guard troops from Texas to Chicago and California to Portland, OR – cities where Democrats are in charge.
“Oklahomans would lose their mind if [Democratic Gov. JB] Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration,” Stitt, chair of the National Governor’s Association, told the New York Times.
According to the Associated Press:
Stitt drew one key distinction: While he opposes sending groups across state lines where they’re not welcomed by the governors, he said that Trump should have federalized National Guard from Illinois instead to protect federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That’s the approach Trump took over the summer went he sent National Guard to Los Angeles during protests there.
Even so, Stitt’s public break with Trump is rare among elected Republicans, the vast majority of whom are scared witless that Trump’s cultish MAGA base could knock them out of power in the next primary.
It’s worth noting, of course, Stitt’s relationship with Trump probably isn’t the warmest anyway. Remember, the Oklahoma governor in 2023 endorsed Florida’s Ron DeSantis for president over Trump. And the narcissistic Trump never forgets a slight.
It’s also noteworthy that Stitt changed hats.
Even if only for a day.
