DeSantis, Kemp should stick offers to rob Charlotte’s convention in their face masks

During the COVID-19 pandemic Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Brian Kemp of Georgia have displayed as much buffoonery as they have provided leadership.

Who can forget how — as the coronavirus began to rampage across our nation in March — DeSantis ignorantly allowed Florida’s beaches to stay open so that mobs of equally ignorant spring breakers could frolic on them while increasing the risk of spreading and catching a deadly, invisible respiratory illness?

Who can forget how when it was no longer possible for DeSantis to dismiss COVID-19, the governor transformed Florida’s state seal from a sabal palm to a middle finger by heavy-handedly ordering visitors to be stopped and interrogated?

And who can forget how Kemp rushed to fully reopen Georgia while the state’s COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to rise — despite frantic warnings that the governor was putting Georgians at risk with his reckless and fanatical desire to play some crazy game of Peach State Roulette?

So all throughout America’s battle with this modern-day plague, DeSantis and Kemp have too often acted like rank amateurs rather than responsible leaders. Now, unfortunately, the rank amateurs are trying their hand at being rank opportunists.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s threat to pull August’s Republican National Convention out of Charlotte unless North Carolina commits to allowing “full attendance” for the gathering during the ongoing pandemic, DeSantis and Kemp have been falling all over each other to offer cities in their respective states as an alternative host site.

Instead of acting like mature state leaders and calling on Trump, the Republican Party and North Carolina to work out any issues that may exist with holding the convention in Charlotte, DeSantis and Kemp are behaving like immature instigators hoping to inflame an issue for their own self-serving gain.

How lame is that?

How weak is that?

How poor is that?

Even more to the point, how typical is that from DeSantis and Kemp these days?

So let’s offer this very polite and measured take on the efforts by these two vulture governors to swoop down and benefit at the expense of our neighbor state:

DeSantis and Kemp should take their invitations to host the Republican convention in Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa or Miami — or any other city in either one of their states — and promptly reinsert them back into the face masks they made those offers through.

And they should keep them there.

Yes, we are saying this with some degree of self-interest.

Yes, it is true that a Republican convention in Charlotte will also benefit the hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the surrounding South Carolina communities within shouting distance of that major American city.

And, yes, it is true that a successful convention in Charlotte can’t help but be a good thing for South Carolina.

But in this case, it actually really is about the principle of the matter.

DeSantis and Kemp should just go away.

They should just stop with their needless meddling.

They should just mind their own business in their own states.

And they should just let Charlotte get on with the business of preparing for and hosting the Republican Party convention.

This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 8:10 AM with the headline "DeSantis, Kemp should stick offers to rob Charlotte’s convention in their face masks."