The Shkreli and The Donald

It may seem that everything there is to say about that low-life, scum-sucking piece of shit Martin Shkreli has been said, but I'm here to tell you that that is not true.

And in fact, what I think hasn't been said yet is pretty interesting.

You don't need the whole background, but it's enough to remember that he is one of those obscenely wealthy people, the kind the Republicans call "job creators". You know, hedge fund managers, people who don't work for their money and pay no more than a token tax on the millions that sticks to their fingers and lands in their pockets at the end of a long hard day not working. That's where he got the money to buy the drug that was worth $13.50 a dose last week and is now, according to him, worth $750 a dose.

But that's what you know already. I got interested in the story we haven't heard, so I started poking around to see what the Republican presidential candidates have to say about him. He seems to be the most hated guy in the country, and rightly so, so there should be some mileage on ganging up on him, right?

So I started poking around. Marco Rubio, whose parents fled the Castro Batista dictatorship? I can't find any evidence he's made any comment about him.

What about Ted Cruz of the famously modest immigrant upbringing? Again, apparently silent.

What about the two doctors, Ben "evolution was invented by the devil" Carson or Randy Paul, the doctor so special he invented his own accrediting board? Again, they seem to be pretty quiet.

In fact, hard as I looked, I could only find one member of the Republican Party who has anything bad to say about Shkreli.

“He looks like a spoiled brat to me. He’s a hedge fund guy. I thought it was disgusting what he did.”

And:

"That guy is a zero, a nothing...I thought that was a disgrace."

Yes, you guessed it. The Donald seems to be the only Republican candidate who could summon any moral outrage, or any judgment at all, on this reprehensible pipsqueak.

And that's why I mention the hedge fund connection. You see, as far as I can tell, Trump is also the only Republican who thinks hedge funders should pay taxes.

"The hedge fund guys didn't build this country. These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky," Trump said.

"They are energetic. They are very smart. But a lot of them - they are paper-pushers. They make a fortune. They pay no tax. It's ridiculous, ok?"

Don't get me wrong, Trump is a buffoon, a bloviating windbag, a crapulent, self-satisfied plutocrat with way more money than brains.

So what does that make the rest of them?