Winners and Losers for the week ending April 7

Watching President Trump continue to tack closer to son-in-law Jared Kushner’s globalist positions while appearing to diminish alt-right weltschmerz Svengali Steve Bannon’s White House role, including demoting him off of the National Security Council, it kinda felt like watching someone be, I don’t know, what’s the word I’m looking for … oh, yeah: it was definitely like watching someone be cuckolded, only in front of the nation.

Ironic, because, as has been leaked ad nauseum this week, Bannon has constantly referred to Kushner as a cuck, the contraction of cuckservative, the alt-right’s preferred portmanteau of cuckold and conservative. It's unclear what was wrong with the more traditional epithet of RINO – Republican in Name Only – to describe someone who identifies as conservative but exhibits moderate proclivities, but we are talking about a movement that has had to deal in euphemisms and codewords to hide its true nature for decades.

Now, after the triple gutshots of watching their inside man moved a little further into the cold, seeing Kushner set new fashion trends in Iraq and then absorbing the America First president’s unilateral statement bombing of a Syrian target, it sure seems like they need to come up with a new descriptor for someone or some group that has had its illusions of influence, partnership and future opportunities abruptly shattered.

Too bad “cuckold” has already been appropriated.

WINNERS

 Joe DeFelice: the head of the Philadelphia GOP, who has delivered a unified, energized and expanded electorate on all levels for the party, is supposedly going to become a regional director for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to sources.

John Perzel: A state appellate judge made a final ruling that relieved the convicted former House Speaker of $1 million in restitution tied to his 2011 corruption case.

Joe Khan: the Democratic candidate for Philadelphia district attorney had a very good week financially – he announced he has over $400,000 on hand to reach voters before the May 16 primary. He also secured the endorsement of one of the more famous former inhabitants of the position, Ed Rendell.

LOSERS

Mark Reese: the embattled Lancaster County sheriff, who has been accused of horrific acts of sexual harassment against one of his deputies, has refused to do the right thing and step down from his position. Accordingly, the state House began the impeachment process against him this week.

Michael Untermeyer: While he is also in the financial catbird seat for the Democratic DA primary with over $400,000 on hand, Untermeyer came under fire for an ad with astonishingly sexist and racist undertones from his failed 2011 bid to win a seat on Philadelphia City Council as a Republican.

Brian Sims: There are plenty of ways to go after GOP state Rep. Martina White’s stance on immigration. Unfortunately for Democratic Rep. Sims, he chose to lie about her position to do so, claiming in a fundraising message that White “wants to deport all of our hard working immigrant brothers and sisters and whitewash America.” As Billy Penn, which first broke the story, put it, this is definitely “pants on fire” territory.