For about the first five minutes of Wednesday’s U.S. Senate debate in Phoenix, you saw what Kari Lake could have been.

Well pressed and pinpoint in her appearance and speech, she declared that the audience would soon behold a man in mask, the product of “an extreme makeover.”

And she was right.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego is the ultimate chameleon. Two years ago he was a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, trolling social media’s unpoliced trails with his vulgar prose.

On May 24, 2022, the day a gunman killed 21 people in the Uvalde school shooting in Texas, Gallego pointed his finger and blamed Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz:

“Just to be clear f--- you @tedcruz you f---ing baby killer.”

Gallego’s generation is the first to come of age in the internet’s Wild West and is inured to its raw language and mean culture, but even this was over the top for a modern U.S. congressman.

He could be that way — unapologetically profane and left-wing — from his safe congressional district where he won elections by 75% and 85% of the vote. At the time, he seemed to be trying out for AOC’s Squad of young Turks and socialists.

When U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema got sideways with the Democratic base with her overtures to Republicans and bipartisan consensus, Gallego took a jackhammer to her from the progressive left.

“We need senators who will put Arizonans ahead of big drug companies and Wall Street bankers,” he said.

That was yesterday’s Gallego.

Today’s Ruben........

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