Does Gaetz fall into the lackey category?
Someone between the level of Rob Deer and Matt Stairs.
There's nothing wrong with a power hitter who knows all he is and will ever be is a power hitter. Now Stairs was more versatile, he could draw walks and was a good situational pinch hitter ( not quite in the league of a Dave Hansen but towards that end)
Being a name brand politician in either party is exceptionally difficult. That's like breaking into MLB with the vast and relentless competition.
I've said this before ( though it's likely taken flak since there is some kind of sin associated with any criticism of the GREAT AND ALMIGHTY BARACK OBAMA. I mean that kind of group think would be true if gun running for cartels and tanking America's health care system even further were seen as positive things ), that the profession of high level politics draws in sociopaths, psychopaths, sadists, narcissists, Borderline Personality Disorder types and plainly people who probably would have been beaten to death in a dark alley in a previous time in human history.
Gaetz had to try to make an impression in law school ( And what a vast menagerie of woe that ends up being. Remember I come from a generation when people thought being Blaine from Pretty In Pink was the height of self actualization) Then battle through the field of jackals, thugs and grifters on the way up.
To actually get into the national daily media cycle ( sans scandal) as a brand name politician is even harder. It's like Peter North shot you out of his Chateau Vas Deferens and you had the motility of a prime Michael Phelps, and you burst up some post Wall hitting muffin top's Devils Creek and outraced billions of rivals into Egg City rebranded Eighteen Years Of Weary Obligation.
Rob Deer could turn on a fastball. Sometimes. There are way more failed wished they were Rob Deers out there than the actual Rob Deer.
Gaetz is skilled in a niche that is needed, it's just not versatile. He also did it as a white male when being a white male in politics isn't exactly the kind of street currency it used to be. If JaVale McGee was 5'7, he'd probably be mopping a floor at a Sbarros right now. There's a context to everything.
Gaetz is a hack. But he's an exceptionally motile hack. Which means to survive that, he might actually survive this.