Never Trump likes to think of themselves as the thoughtful, reasoned, and above all principled(TM) alternative to MAGA. They are the wise, diplomatic Picards to MAGA’s boorish James T. Kirks. Which makes watching Lincoln Project founder Steve Schmidt’s descent into madness so compelling. And the most recent target of his outrage is our own fearless leader, Jon Gabriel. Who, according to Mr. Schmidt, is “a Christian Nationalist … an extremist and a fascist.”

The backstory is here. The TL;DR version is that Mr. Schmidt gets very, very testy when people point out that one of his Lincoln Project co-founders, John Weaver, had an unsavory interest in teenage boys and that this troubled the rest of his Lincoln Project cohorts about as much as teaching five-year-olds about gender ideology bothers Disney executives. After this and another recent Schmidt Twitter tirade against Sarah Palin (whom Schmidt called a “nut ball”) and Meghan McCain whom he called insane; Mr. Gabriel gently recommended Mr. Schmidt should perhaps seek help. And it was this that prompted Schmidt’s “Christian Nationalist, extremist, and fascist” riposte. Mr. Gabriel handled the insult with the class and aplomb we have come to expect.