I remember way back in 2016, I had friends on the political left who were fans of Tulsi Gabbard. She was, after all, a popular Democrat from a reliably blue state — Hawaii hasn’t gone for a Republican since Reagan’s FIRST term, and only once before that (1972) in all the time since they joined the Union in 1959.

In fact, I had one friend in particular who lived in my hometown, a guy I’d known since I was a kid. He was a real deal hippie, one of those guys who stood out in front of the courthouse with a sign calling to “END THE CUBAN EMBARGO.” He was a huge fan, convinced that she was some kind of pre-AOC liberal firebrand.

Being an absolute politics wonk for about 25 years myself, I told my friend to be leery of her and her ties to Bashar al-Assad, the former President of Syria. He argued with me for some time all the way up to the day that this caption showed up on his TV:

Tulsi, of course, took it a step further than that, She officially joined the Republican Party back in October of this year, after previously refusing to even say whether she’d consider running as an Independent or even as a candidate with the “No Labels” party.

In her announcement, she was sure to use conservaspeak to ingratiate herself to the GOP, calling her former colleagues “the Democrat Party” (it’s Democratic, Tulsi).

For independent-thinkers like myself, there is no home in the Democrat Party. However, there is a home for us in the Republican Party.

The Republican Party of warmongering elite Dick Cheney is in the past. Trump’s GOP is a big open tent party of the people, equality,… pic.twitter.com/lz19KyYERf

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 23, 2024

But even the Republicans still don’t trust her, and for good reason. I didn’t trust her because she was cozying up to dictators like Assad and even Vladimir Putin. But I join the GOP in their distrust of her over the fact that she’s a straight-up opportunist.

Gabbard did what RFK, Jr. just finished doing and went to Capitol Hill to kiss some GOP backside in the fight to get confirmed as Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. It doesn’t sound like it went very well.

According to Reuters, Gabbard failed to win the hearts and minds of at least 8 Republican Senators — a number she won’t be able to overcome if she wants to be confirmed. The GOP will only have a 3-seat majority in January, so including the vote of JD Vance, who would be a tiebreaker if necessary, she can lose only half of those 8 Republicans.

She’s got her work cut out for her.

A Trump transition spokesperson denied the claims made by Reuters, saying “This is anonymous sources desperately trying to hold on to power, so they hide behind the media to spread these falsities that directly subvert the will of the American people.”

But the sources said that Republicans felt she was unable to answer “tough questions” during her week of meetings with them, and they were concerned with her lack of experience.

Although no Republicans came forward with an actual statement, the sentiment is certainly shared by Democrats as well. Senator Tammy Duckworth from Illinois, who lost both her legs as a veteran of combat in the Iraq War, summed up the sentiment:

I have deep concerns about the fact that she might be compromised. I mean, it was Russian-controlled media that called her a Russian asset. I also think she’s not qualified for the position. She’s not really done anything in the intelligence world, so I don’t know that that’s the right person to run our nation’s intelligence agencies.

Polymarket, the polling agency that’s actually a cryptocurrency betting market, has her at a 60% chance of being confirmed. That’s lower than even Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, who’s accused of rape, drinking on the job, and literally mismanaging two separate veterans’ organizations — something that should be a complete non-starter for the boss of the military.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Tulsi Gabbard can muster the support necessary to get through the confirmation process. She’s definitely no longer the “sure thing” she looked like back in November, when she was sitting with an 80% chance on Polymarket after her transition to the GOP just weeks before.

It looks like she’s playing dress-up, and seasoned Republicans aren’t being fooled by the charade. It’s just too bad they’re okay with the rest of Trump’s horrible nominations.