Chris Sununu suffering from foot-in-mouth oration

So now it’s N.H. GOP Gov. Chris Sununu who’s desperate to win strange new respect from Democrats.

That phrase — strange new respect — was coined 30 years ago to describe the odd, desperate compulsion some Republican politicians have to win accolades from left-wing Democrats who despise them.

These Republicans apparently seek nothing more than to pick up a Democrat tract that nobody reads any more and see themselves described as — pick a word, evolving or growing or mature or thoughtful. Maybe even be compared to … Mitt Romney.

The strange new respect never lasts. Just ask Rep. Fred Upton — a 36-year House veteran from Michigan. He voted to impeach Trump last year. He just announced his retirement from politics due to ill health — the voters got sick of him.

That makes four out of 10 of the House Republicans who voted for impeachment who have now evolved and grown and matured themselves out of office. But they have one consolation in their impending unemployment — a file folder full of clippings about the strange new respect they briefly got from Democrats.

In case you missed it, Sununu flew down to D.C. on Saturday and put on the Republican version of a minstrel show for an audience of more than 600 millionaires known as the Gridiron Club. That’s a group of “journalists,” i.e., Democrat operatives with press passes.

Sununu wowed the SRO crowd by sneering that ex-President Trump is “bleeping crazy,” after which he added that if POTUS were in a mental institution “he ain’t getting out.”

Needless to say, the “high-society” crowd, as Politico described them, swooned over Sununu’s knee-slappers.

In fact, the slobbering Democrat sheet said that Sununu “stole the show … by saying out loud what most Republicans in Washington ‘privately’ whisper about Donald Trump.”

In other words, he reinforced the Ivy League trust-funders’ own fondest fantasies.

Here are some of the other headlines Sununu garnered from his new fans in state-run media:

The Washington Post: “Chris Sununu goes there on Trump.”

The Hill: “Sununu mocks Trump’s sanity at Gridiron dinner.”

The Guardian: “Republican governor blasts Trump as ‘crazy’ during a Washington roast.”

See what I mean about that strange new respect?

Sununu came on my show Monday to discuss his excellent adventure. He basically said it was all a joke, and that I and everybody else who’s complaining were just “grumpy” and taking it all too seriously, because it was all in good fun.

I asked him how many non-Democrats were in the bipartisan crowd of “journalists,” and he said he had noticed “a few Republican elected officials.”

I asked him to name five. He didn’t answer. I asked him to name one other Republican in the room. He again couldn’t.

But he could rattle off the names of assorted Democrats in the house: Jen Psaki, John Forbes Kerry, Dr. Anthony Fauci. In other words, it was all Beltway banditos.

One of Sununu’s coat holders described the jokes as “self-deprecating.” A typical one-liner involved Mike Lindell of My Pillow, who I admit is a sponsor of my show. Mike Lindell is a big Trump guy, and Sununu is apparently an expert on My Pillow.

“His stuff is crap,” Sununu told the Democrats. “I mean, it’s absolute crap.”

I asked Sununu if he owned any My Pillow products.

“I don’t think I own any of his products.”

But they’re crap — he’s sure about that. Because Lindell likes Trump, his products must be crap. That’s the kind of self-deprecating humor that works when you’re seeking that strange new respect. Sununu continued tossing off bon mots about My Pillow.

“You only find that kind of stuff in the Trump Hotel,” he said.

So I asked the governor if he’s ever stayed in one of Trump’s hotels.

“I cannot afford a Trump hotel,” he said.

I asked Sununu about a hypothetical referendum among New Hampshire Republicans between him and the guy who’s bleepin’ crazy, Donald Trump. Who did he think would win such a popularity contest?

“I don’t know and I don’t care.”

Here’s how Sununu was picked for this moment of strange new respect. He decided not to run against Sen. Maggie Hassan, the wretched incumbent who wouldn’t even be in office if then-Sen. Kelly Ayotte hadn’t deserted Trump in the final days of the 2016 election.

Landslide Maggie, buoyed by thousands upon thousands of same-day registrations by out-of-state man buns and snowflakes in the college towns, defeated Ayotte by 1,017 votes.

In the early polls this year, Sununu was running ahead of Hassan. But he demurred, seeking instead yet another two-year term as governor.

Chuck Schumer breathed an enormous sigh of relief. The Gridiron Club invitation was soon in the mail.

Seriously, Chris, do you think that you would be the toast of the town — Georgetown — if you were threatening in any way to impede the Democrats’ campaign to fundamentally transform America into a Third World hellhole?

That’s why your voters are infuriated. You went down there to comfort the comfortable, and afflict the afflicted. You let them kiss your rear end, and you loved it.

If you were running against Hassan, all those grandees at the Renaissance Hotel Saturday night would be claiming you weren’t paying taxes, or that you were driving around with your dog in a crate on the roof of your car.

Wouldn’t matter if you have a dog or not, they’d just make it up. That’s what fake news is all about, and that’s what the Gridiron Club epitomizes.

Strange new respect? It’s a great thing, until it isn’t. Just ask Rep. Fred Upton, Chris.