esquire.com – Because of all the noise at the top of the news, a weekend column from Frank Bruni in The New York Times hasn’t received nearly as much attention as it deserves. We note it here because it involves Senator Tom Cotton, the bobble-throated pen-pal of the mullahs from the state of Arkansas, who is somebody at the top of everyone’s list of potential Republican saviors if the Trumpageddon really does befall the party.

Some people are ideologues. Some people are charlatans. Some people are opportunists. And some people are simply raging, flaming holes of pure ass. As Bruni’s column makes clear, at least in the case of Tom Cotton, these categories are far from mutually exclusive.