Wonder Who The Russo-Republicans Are? We Name 'Em
Trump—and, of course, the Putin wing of the congressional Republicans— are determined to shut off U.S. aid to Ukraine. It’s a priority for them, so much so that Marjorie Traitor Greene, a top Russo-Republican, betrayed McCarthy, a putative ally of hers, on Thursday to help Freedom Caucus extremists prevent the House leadership from bringing the bill to fund the Pentagon up for a vote… and causing McCarthy to dismiss Congress for the rest of the week.
It’s unlikely that McCarthy feels strongly about Ukraine’s standing as a free nation one way or the other. He’s a guy who calculates the political risks and makes his decisions based on them, not on values or principles or any extraneous stuff like that. Last week he gave President Zelensky, who had requested an opportunity to make a joint address to Congress, the cold shoulder, even forbidding him to use private meeting room. If Zelensky expected cheers and pledges of military aid like he got last time he visited DC, instead, wrote Fred Kaplan, “he smacked into arcades of dysfunction… Zelensky’s plane ride back home must have been a bit grim.”
“Privately,” wrote Kaplan, “McCarthy favors the continued support of Ukraine. He reportedly told Zelensky as much in a closed meeting. But because the extremists who hold a sword over his head oppose giving Kyiv any more money, he can’t say so publicly. Instead, he fumed to reporters: “Was Zelensky elected to Congress? Is he our president? I don’t think so”— a remark that must have warmed Vladimir Putin’s heart.
Yesterday, Brad Dress reported That “Zelensky’s visit highlighted the balancing act McCarthy faces on Ukraine, especially during a broader spending fight that has exposed the deep divides within his narrow majority. Bill Monahan, senior director for policy at Foreign Policy for America, said McCarthy is walking a ‘thin line’ between supporting Ukraine and appeasing a growing share of House Republicans disillusioned with the war. ‘He wants to be supportive of Ukraine, but he also has to [address] this faction that is kind of disrupting U.S. policy,’ said Monahan. ‘I think he’s trying to keep his eye on what really matters, which is the Ukraine supplemental. He’s trying to hold together the bipartisan support for that.’ But Monahan argued that if McCarthy continues to push the Ukraine issue aside, it could lend more power to skeptical House Republicans. ‘This remains a very vocal minority, but it may be getting larger,’ he said. ‘McCarthy is going to have to step up and help make the case for this aid and its wider implications for national security.’”
Michael McCaul (R-TX), chair of the [Foreign Affairs Committee], said the Zelensky meeting went well and that despite the skeptics in the House, he expects the majority will support another Ukraine package.
But McCaul said supporters have to do a better job of arguing why it’s important to support Ukraine.
“We have to explain why it’s a national security issue and whatever happens in Ukraine directly impacts Taiwan,” McCaul told reporters. “This is a great power struggle with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, against the West.”
That might be an uphill battle. More than two GOP lawmakers sent a letter to President Biden ahead of Zelensky’s visit, vowing to oppose further Ukraine aid.
Heading up the Putin Senate wing of the GOP: rabid Ukraine hater JD Vance (R-OH), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has been sabotaging American military preparedness, Rand Paul (KY), who claims he will block and Pentagon budget that includes aid to Ukraine, Mike Lee (R-UT), Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Mike Braun (IN). The Putinistsas in the House include Marjorie Traitor Greene (Q-GA), Chip Roy (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Mary Miller (Q-IL), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Russell Fry (R-SC), Lance Gooden (R-TX), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Roger Williams (R-TX), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Gregory Steube (R-FL), Bill Posey (R-FL), Bob Good (R-VA), Harriet Hageman (R-WY), Warren Davidson (D-OH), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Byron Donalds (R-FL).
Never a reliable ally, on Friday, the weakest, puniest Speaker in history announced he will strip funding for Ukraine out of a Pentagon spending bill after Traitor Greene’s little pro-Kremlin move. “McCarthy,” wrote Michael Schnell, “said he would remove the $300 million for Ukraine currently in the Pentagon appropriations bill and hold a separate vote on the funding. ‘It would be out and voted on by itself,’ McCarthy said when asked about the Ukraine aid in the Pentagon appropriations bill.” [Wait, wait... now it looks like he changed his mind again and won't strip the Ukraine aid out of the funding bill. Poor thing.]
Greene tweeted she’ll back McCarthy’s initiative but only if he takes the Ukraine aid out of the Pentagon budget. Remember, she doesn’t make a move without an OK from Mar-a-Lago. After he made his first announcement, Traitor Greene kicked him in the nuts:
Following McCarthy’s announcement Friday, Greene said it was “frustrating” that it took leadership so long to strip out the money.
“This should have happened weeks ago,” Greene told The Hill in a statement. “I’ve made it loud and clear that I would not vote for a single penny of Ukraine funding. It’s frustrating to me things had to get to this level, that we had to waste an entire week when we could have been passing appropriations.
“Our defense appropriations bill should never be going to fund a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, so this is a victory for common sense,” she later added. “I’m proud to have made it happen.”
Since virtually none of the Russo-Republicans have studied any history at all, I want to write a little about the 1936 German reoccupation of the Rhineland by Hitler in 1936. Whatever was left of an anti-Hitler German military hierarchy was ready to depose him if he sparked a war with France (and Belgium and Britain). But when he invaded, the Allies sat on their hands and let him take over the area. There were some French, Belgian and British politicians who wanted to use force to push back on Hitler's military move, at first even French prime minister Léon Blum, though he was ultimately convinced by his advisors (especially his minister of war, Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud, minister of finance) that France was not militarily prepared for a confrontion with Germany. In Belgium, Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland was also open to the use of force, but he was unable to convince the Belgian parliament to support military intervention. And Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister was adamnatly opposed to the use of force. He believed that such action would lead to war, which he was determined to avoid. His position was supported by most of the British Cabinet, as well as by a majority of public opinion.
This decision not to use force to push back on Hitler's reoccupation of the Rhineland is still controversial and many historians argue that it was a mistake that emboldened Hitler and led to the outbreak of World War II. (Others argue that it was the only realistic decision, given the military weakness of the Allied Powers in 1936.) French hawks who argued not to appease included Blum’s minister of the interior, Georges Mandel, former minister of war André Maginot and Army chief of staff Maurice Gamelin, who believed war was inevitable and that France could win but that it would take a long time. French politicians wan’t to stop Hitler in 1936 because they believed that France had a moral obligation to stand up to Nazi aggression. Others believed that it was in France's national interest to prevent Germany from becoming too powerful. Some were convinced that France was militarily strong enough to defeat Germany in a war. But the majority of French politicians— like the Belgian and British politicians were in favor of appeasement, believing that it was the best way to avoid war.
Historian David Reynolds (The Appeasement Illusion: The Anglo-American Illusion and the Onset of World War II) asserts that the Allies were blinded by the illusion that they could appease Hitler and avoid war. He understood that the Allies failed to grok the true nature of Hitler's regime and that they were unwilling to use force to stop him. A.J.P. Taylor (The Road to Munich and The Origins of the Second World War) basically agrees with him but insists that nothing was going to deter Hitler from expanding his borders and especially after he discovered that the Allies were weak, scared and unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to stop him. Nearly 90 years later... meet the Putin wing of the Republican Party.