Just when the GOP is able to showcase a stellar line-up of presidential hopefuls at the Fox debates, much of the subsequent airtime is consumed with Donald Trump's trash talk about Fox debate moderator Megyn Kelly.

Mr. Trump has implied that Ms. Kelley asked him tough questions during the first Republican debate because she is in her period. Very presidential, no? I hope I am not defaming Todd Akin when I say that Mr. Trump could become a Todd Akin in a six thousand dollar suit for the GOP.

Ms. Kelly doesn't need defending. Something tells me that Donald Trump may live to rue his verbal attack on this particular woman. He has gotten in verbal mud wrestling matches with Rosie O'Donnell in the past (also arguably not presidential), but Kelly has more intellectual heft than Ms. O'Donnell, and we aren't worried about her.

Trump has attracted a big following, and I am not the first to think of it as a Howard Beale constituency that is mad as hell about the way things have been going in our country. The anger is legitimate and if the GOP can't demonstrate that it hears this constituency, it is in deep trouble. In the meantime, Trump seems unafraid (or did before Donald met Megyn) and that is one reason many people find him appealing.

Jonah Goldberg has a piece on Trump headlined "Rudeness Is Not a Conservative Value:"  

 So now The Donald is in hot water for making a crude menstrual insult. This is as good a time as any to make a simple point, one I make to young conservative activists all the time. Just because being rude or crude is un-PC that is not, in itself, a defense of being rude or crude. You would think social conservatives in particular wouldn’t lose sight of this. But many have, at least going by my email and twitter feed.

. . .

We are now in the crazy stage where people are shouting at me that I (or Charles Krauthammer, or George Will or Erick Ericson or Kevin Williamson) must be a liberal if I don’t support Trump. Never mind that the objective evidence leans overwhelmingly that support for Trump puts your conservative convictions in doubt. Are we really going to go down the insane path of saying that real conservatives must abandon good manners and respect for women to demonstrate their purity? Count me out of that nonsense.
 

I also want to say a few words about critics of the questions asked at the Fox debate. I suppose that some people expected softballs because the debate was being put on by Fox. Instead, the questions were excellent and enabled us to get a good look at these men and one woman who would be president. The questions in a debate should be not to flatter or destroy candidates but to reveal them. The Fox debate did just that.

Here is my prediction: Thursday's debate will turn out to be the first and last presidential debate for Donald Trump. He knows he was in over his head in trying to answer serious questions about the matters that the next president will face. He won't be willing to play the apprentice again. He won't admit that he's a crummy debater. He'll attack the questions and questioners. That, as anyone who read the gossip columns during either of his marathon divorces knows, is how he operates.