Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson just jumped the shark during a recent interview segment with CNN's Don Lemon.  "Jumping the shark" is a term inspired by the infamous episode of Happy Days in which tough guy Fonzie was literally dared by a California beach bum (who subsequently chickened out) to a water-ski jumping contest over a shark confined by a net.  The show had been in a gradual decline for a while — there are only so many times the same basic idea can get recycled and still generate laughs — but that was the coup de grâce for the series.  The phrase means you've gone too far.

And who is Rick Wilson, you might ask yourself out of morbid curiosity?  An excellent question, considering I was just asking myself the same thing.  According to his Wikipedia page, Wilson's claim to fame as a Republican strategist dates back to the late 1980s, when he worked for Connie Mack's campaign for one of the Senate seats from Florida.  Then he worked for President Bush (41)'s Department of Defense before helping Rudy Giuliani win the race for mayor of New York City.  His most recent foray into a political campaign was to serve as the brains behind the spectacular failure during the 2016 primaries that ought to be known as Evan McMullin's Ultimate Exercise in Futility, for even trying to beat Donald Trump in the Republican primaries after seventeen or so better known candidates had already tried and failed.  Wilson was a NeverTrump long before our president was elected and sworn into office.

Rick Wilson laughs at Trump voters (Twtter video screen grab, cropped).

So, once upon a time, Wilson really was a Republican, at least according to the John McCain/Mitt Romney definition of the word, meaning as long as it was convenient for him and served his purposes.  Wilson's more recent claim to fame — and most likely the reason he was a panelist on Don Lemon's show — is probably due to his authorship of the New York Times #1 bestseller (for one week) Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real about the Worst President Ever.

Because I haven't read the book, unlike my own (liberal) critics, I can't write a review on a book I haven't read.  I can't really express an opinion on anything except the title, which I would recommend changing to something along the lines of Everything Trump Touches Dies, Except the Economy, Foreign Trade, Domestic Employment, and the American Dream.  I doubt that a book published with my revised title would be as popular with the Don Lemon crowd as Wilson's original, but I suspect that it could do well with the audience of Rush Limbaugh and the readership of American Thinker.  But I digress...

Precisely when did Rick Wilson get seduced by the Dark Side and become a former Republican strategist?  Apparently, it happened only a couple of days ago, after Wilson mockingly joked that Trump wouldn't be able to find Ukraine on a map even with the letter "U" and a picture of a crane next to it.  Naturally, Don Lemon reacted as if it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard, just as any other TDS sufferer would do.

Please remember that Wilson is talking to the same guy who once asked a different panel of guests if a black hole could have swallowed a missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner, and it had to be explained that a small black hole could conceivably suck in our entire universe and gently suggested that serious questions about serious matters such as the disappearance and presumed deaths of several hundred people should not be inspired by silly plots of television shows like Lost and The Twilight Zone. 

Three years younger than I am seems too young for Wilson to have retired...perhaps he has transitioned into a writing career like me.  It remains to be seen how many "bestsellers" bashing President Trump can be written, though, and his career as a Republican campaign consultant probably just suffered a fatal blow...yeah, Mitt Romney would still hire the guy, but Utah and Massachusetts both seem to have experienced some buyer's remorse, and he could never again come as close to the presidency as he did in 2012.  Yesterday, a caller to Rush Limbaugh's program suggested we should thank Mitt Romney for losing to Obama, because Trump could have never been elected otherwise.

I agreed with Rush (I usually do) on the call — he countered that we should instead be grateful to Candy Crowley for exposing the weakness in Romney, and he's absolutely right, because we were richly rewarded in 2016 — we got a much better president in Trump than the weak Romney could have ever hoped to be, and we haven't heard from Candy Crowley since.

Maybe Rick Wilson has made enough money that he can "retire" from the grind of a political campaign to the ivory tower of media punditry.  Perhaps he could afford to jump the shark without worrying if anyone would ever hire him as a Republican campaign strategist ever again, which would be good for him, because I don't think he could get another job unless he decided to cross over and consult for Democrat politicians in the future.

That brilliant satire website, The Babylon Bee, offered the best takeaway from Rick Wilson's disgraceful appearance on Don Lemon.  The hilarious (and true) headline says it all: "CNN Airs Free Commercial For Trump Campaign."

It's been done already.

John Leonard writes novels, books, and occasional articles or blogs for American Thinker.  You may follow him on Facebook or his website (and blog, which includes the AT "rejected" pieces) at southernprose.com.