Excellent analysis from The Hill by a fine writer, Al Hunt with this headline:
“Russia and the Republicans”
(Key parts boxed off to emphasize utter
Republican hypocrisy and fit the blog):
Introduction: Russia's
unprovoked war upon Ukraine is causing a political schizophrenia for many
Republicans. They assail President Biden as too weak in taking on Russia, but
don't want to offend their own party's leader, Donald Trump, a fan of Vladimir
Putin. Most of all, they don't want this crisis to interfere with their plans
to take back control of Congress in the midterm elections. Rattling Trump's
cage isn't in that playbook. You can see their contortions in plain view - and
by a little monitoring of their preferred venue, Fox News.
During the State of the Union - always a political Kabuki
dance - Republicans applauded the Ukrainians during that part of the
president's speech, but didn't look happy about it:
* House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) seemed busy checking messages on his phone;
* GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) looked even stiffer than usual;
* Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) appeared to smirk.
* McCarthy had blasted Biden for not providing more military
assistance to Ukraine saying: “Sadly President Biden consistently chose appeasement.
* Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) charged: “Putin was walking all over the president.”
They apparently forgot that it was Trump who actually withheld aide to Ukraine unless Ukraine delivered some dirt on Joe Biden.
Trump was impeached for this, but McCarthy
and Graham dismissed it as a nothing burger.
* Then there is the hawkish Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR),
who on ABC last weekend accused the president of “pussyfooting
around. The financial sanctions are riddled with loopholes.” Four times
moderator George Stephanopoulos asked Cotton if he would condemn Trump's praise
of Putin. Four times Cotton refused.
The Biden administration
has committed $1 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, and the sanctions
Biden engineered are draconian.
* Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Cotton's GOP colleague, says they
will be cataclysmic for Moscow.
One expert predicts a Russian depression.
* J.D. Vance, the once anti-Trumper and and acclaimed author but now running for the Senate in
Ohio and now pandering to the Trump crowd, Initially Vance told Steve Bannon he didn't “really care what happens
to Ukraine one way or another.”
Someone then apparently told
him there are 80,000 Ukrainians - immigrants and their descendants -
in Ohio (as well as from other Eastern European countries) who hate the
Russians - and Vance backpedaled.
* At the recent CPAC convention in Orlando, the citadel of
right-wing pro-Trump Republicans, there was far more
concern about rogue Canadian truckers or curbing transgender athletes
than there was about Russians killing Ukrainians.
* On Fox the contradictions abound: One prime time anchor (Tucker
Carlson) is pro-Putin, the others knock Biden for being soft on Russia, while
praising Trump.
* Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s former and one of his factually
challenged press secretaries (now a Fox co-host), boasted about how Trump “gave the Ukrainians weaponry.”
But, she neglected to
mention he also withheld millions for corrupt political reasons.
Fox News contributor, former Arkansas governor, GOP
presidential candidate and father of another Trump press secretary, Mike
Huckabee told Sean Hannity: “The Houston Astros got in trouble for stealing
signals ... Joe Biden stands at the podium and gives them away.”
The administration did
leak classified intelligence on what the Russians were up to - which helped
galvanize public opinion to the dismay of Putin.
What Biden also did was quietly build back trust in the NATO alliance. By not publicly pressuring the Germans, it facilitated Berlin taking the most surprising and dramatic move: scotching the natural gas pipeline from Russia and providing military assistance to Ukraine.
Frank Wisner, a
former top diplomat in Republican and Democratic administrations and a harsh
critic of Biden's Afghanistan withdraw, told me (article author Al Hunt): “That
Biden’s performance in this instance has been “masterful.” adding: “Joe Biden, without bragging, has put together a Western
alliance like we haven't seen since the founding days of NATO. That was in
1949.”
Former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen, under Bill Clinton and the former 3-time Republican Senator from Maine agrees, said: “Biden, behind the scenes, was brilliant before the invasion and then in not taking Putin's bait on nuclear weapons.”
But Cohen anticipates dangerous times ahead, unless the Russians take an off ramp. Possible off ramps might include Putin declaring victory - he got the world's attention and Ukraine will never be in NATO; external pressures, principally from China but also potentially India and Israel, all with Russian ties; or an internal revolt as the economy tanks and body bags come home.
Cohen thinks it much more likely that Putin, in a bloody war, will occupy Ukraine, saying: “He's convinced we'll fold on the sanctions before he does, that oil is king and the West needs that.”
If the war rages on, Cohen has little doubt that his old
party will turn on Biden for weakness, charging he's unable to negotiate with
Putin and focus on the real problem, China.
Hunt’s summary: “That may be good politics and will please
Trump, but it would be terrible for America and most of the world.”
My 2 Cents: I agree with Al Hunt totally.
And, as I said an excellent article and very factual, but heck, the Republicans mentioned above plus a heluva lot more of them in office feel the same way – keep ripping Biden, changing voting laws, and make sure they never lose another election while elevating Trump to Putin’s level – a fact that cannot be denied.
But I still
have faith in the voters and our overall system – we will not let that happen
(fingers crossed).
Thanks for stopping by.
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