For one thing, you have to give the man credit for rushing into a burning building when everyone else is leaping from the ledges. A few weeks shy of his 71st birthday, with a legion of grandchildren and an estimated $250 million in the bank, Romney certainly doesn’t need to come to Washington at a time when a lot of sensible Republicans, having been thoroughly marginalized, are packing up and going home.

You’d have to conclude his belief in service and sacrifice is real, which ought to count for something among his detractors.

And maybe, just maybe, Romney can see, looking through his unfailingly opportunistic lens on the world, that there is a vacuum here begging to be filled.

The party’s governing wing has surrendered to Trump, its leaders in full retreat to the hills, its elder statesmen hiding in exile.