By D. Allan Kerr

Corey Lewandowski defined his character in 2016 when he grabbed a young woman by the arm, yanked her with enough force to leave bruises, and then accused her of making up the incident when she went public with it.

He thought he could get away with this because he thought he was a big man at the time – the campaign manager for Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

And it didn’t hurt that the woman in question was a 28-year-old reporter with Breitbart News, whose chairman, Steve Bannon, had already established himself as one of Trump’s primary sycophants.

Then Lewandowski accused the female reporter, Michelle Fields, of lying about the assault. He called her “delusional” on Twitter and actually wrote, “I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I never even met you.”

And Trump – who’s had his own issues regarding the mistreatment of women – also implied Fields had concocted the whole story.

“Everybody said nothing happened. Perhaps she made the story up,” the future president said. “I think that’s what happened.”

But then video footage came out, and the campaign to destroy this young reporter’s credibility crashed and burned – Lewandowski was shown doing exactly what he had denied. This time, fortunately, there was irrefutable evidence to back an accuser’s claim.

Now Lewandowski is reportedly thinking about running for New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate seat currently held by Jeanne Shaheen.

Ultimately I think Lewandowski will chicken out, but I hope he doesn’t. I hope he actually mans up and goes for it.

I am begging for him to challenge Shaheen.

Not because I think he’d be a great senator – he’s already shown himself to be a liar and a coward and a punk.

This might sound sexist and outdated, but you don’t grab women like that around here.

No, I want him to run because I would enjoy seeing him get his ass kicked by a woman on a level playing field.

Because this time he’s not bullying a 20-something reporter toiling for a second-rate news organization.

Now he’s challenging a genuinely historic figure – New Hampshire’s first female governor and the first woman in American history to be elected both governor and U.S. senator.

She also happens to be a direct descendant of Pocahontas, a personal hero of Lewandowski’s former boss.

As for Lewandowski’s electoral history, well, you know the tired old anecdote about how so-and-so couldn’t even get elected dogcatcher in his hometown? That’s our boy.

In 2012 he ran for town treasurer in Windham, New Hampshire, and got skunked by more than 45 percentage points – 73% to 27%. Before that, as a student at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, he once ran a write-in campaign for the state legislature there, and received no more than seven (not a typo) votes.

But despite his failed record as a candidate, Lewandowski is already displaying a curious sense of entitlement. He suggested to WMUR this month he would prefer a clear path thru the Republican primary to the 2020 general election if he does indeed deign to run.

“Any candidate who would want to run in what is going to be a competitive general election race would want to have the opportunity to focus on that general election as early as possible,” Lewandowski said. “I think that would be the preference of the people in Washington, the preference of all the party leadership.”

I only know a couple of things about Donald Bolduc, the retired Army general who has already launched his campaign to challenge Shaheen.

I know he devoted more than three decades of his life to serving his country in uniform, earning two Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in combat and five Bronze Stars.

I know he was one of the famous “horse soldiers” who rode into action on horseback in Afghanistan after 9/11.

And I know he has this crazy notion American voters should be the ones who decide their party’s nominee.

“During my 33 years of military service I have faced challenges far greater than those posed by career politicians or Washington insiders,” Bolduc stated after Lewandowski’s remarks. “Ultimately, the outcome of this election will be determined by Granite State voters and I’m confident they will join me in a mission that puts people ahead of politics.”

Michelle Fields was robbed of satisfaction after her run-in with Lewandowski. She wound up resigning from Breitbart, as did one of her editors, after her boss Bannon lacked the guts to back his own reporter who was manhandled on the job.

Incidentally, this is when I first recognized Bannon as a total weasel as well. I once worked for a newspaper editor named Rod Doherty who was notoriously gruff with staffers, but anyone who grabbed one of his reporters – especially a woman – would have unleashed holy hell on himself.

Bannon, of course, later wound up working for Lewandowshi’s former boss.

Just weeks after Fields’ resignation, the state attorney in Florida’s Palm Beach County, where the incident took place, declined to prosecute Lewandowski for the assault.

“While the facts support the allegation that Mr. Lewandowski did grab Ms. Fields’ arm against her will, Mr. Lewandowski has a reasonable hypothesis of innocence,” the attorney office declared.

Lewandowski won’t be able to count on having the deck stacked in his favor if he takes on Shaheen, and maybe that knowledge will prevent him from stepping up.

But I, for one, would find it much more entertaining if he backs his mouth with action.

D. Allan Kerr finds it interesting how these people of low character seem to gravitate toward Trump.

(Aug. 25, 2019)

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