Graham's "Tough Talk" Doesn't Cover Up GOP Weakness When it Comes to Putin

Washington Post: Lindsey Graham's Call to "Take Out Putin"

Apparently Lindsey Graham feels that he has to make up for the fact that his party has become known as the "party of Putin" during the Ukrainian war.  It's been pretty easy to identify the Republican members of Congress who are opposed to helping Ukraine and by their actions, are correctly seen as supporting Putin's invasion.  Only the most mindless Trumpies don't acknowledge Putin's widespread interference in the 2016 election, and his attempts to continue to interfere beyond that, even with insurmountable and conclusive evidence that he was doing it.  

So, in an effort to prove the GOP's toughness, and to try to change the narrative that is pointing out, with their own words and deeds, the affinity many Republican leaders, including Trump, have for Putin, Graham called for Putin's assassination.  And because he got a lot of publicity for it, and a mountain of negative criticism, rightly so given the serious error that it was, he's sticking by it. It's not like he could take something like that back.   

Before you read on, you need to know that there is just no possible way I can take Lindsey Graham seriously.  Other than Louisiana's John Kennedy, Texas' Ted Cruz and Missouri's Josh Hawley, Graham is one of the biggest, and most duplicitous jokes in the Senate, and to ever have served in Congress.  He's a wannabe, a hanger-on, an attention seeking mimic who sticks his finger up to see which way the wind is blowing before he puts his foot into his mouth.  

A Clue About Republican Thinking on President Biden's Leadership

Graham's been around long enough to figure out how things work in Washington.  He's always just a bit behind the curve, but he can pick up on the signals and sense when things are going to turn south, so to speak, and try to get his interpretation and perception of events into the mix to avoid major damage.  

Republicans like Graham know President Biden.  They've worked with him, and against him, in the senate.  They've seen his experience in foreign policy and they have seen his success.  I expect that Graham, more than most Republicans, recognizes the full potential that President Biden has when it comes to making the right decisions and I also expect that he knows what the President is now doing is exactly the right thing to do.  

In spite of the fact that this is a dangerous situation, and it requires our government coming together to do the right thing and get behind the President, as Republicans demanded with Iraq after 9-11, they're still playing politics.  Graham's remark, which did absolutely nothing more than provide Putin with evidence to support his claim that the West, and particularly the United States, is "out to get him," and that his reason for going into Ukraine was to prevent the US and its NATO allies from using a neighboring, former Soviet republic, to do it.  It was one of the easiest pieces of propaganda that the former KGB leader ever got from an American politician, aside from Trump's flattery.  

Tough Talk is Just Talk 

President Biden has handled this situation with remarkable skill, considering the pressure that is placed on the United States any time something like this happens, because of expectations.  The Republicans know the dynamics of the situation, and they know that what the President has done is the most that can be done under the circumstances.  Ukrainian President Zelenskyy acknowledged this.  Yes, he'd like everyone, including the United States, to do more, of course.  But handling this with the real acknowledgement of the danger that is involved is part of the skill.  President Biden has very wisely and carefully avoided giving Putin anything that he can use to his advantage, to gather support for his claim that this action is a result of Russia being "bullied" by the West.  

The claim has been made that if Trump were still President, Putin wouldn't have attacked Ukraine.  While I wouldn't bet on that, the circumstances would have been different.  Trump essentially walked away and left NATO pretty much on its own, falsely stating that the US was the only country paying its dues and supporting the alliance financially, and undermining its unity.  Putin also saw Trump interfering with and actually helping his cause in undermining Ukraine.  Trump wanted to undo all of the sanctions put in place supporting Ukraine after the seizure of the Donbas and Crimea, and couldn't because he didn't have the authority.  But he did hold up the military appropriation approved by Congress, and got impeached for his corruption.  And he removed one of the most effective American ambassadors to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, out of fear that she would expose his corruption there.  

My guess is that he would have invaded anyway, given his rhetoric and reasoning for doing it now.  But he would have had much less resistance from NATO and from around the world, and he wouldn't have to worry about American participation in the sanctions, or leadership in uniting the NATO allies against him.  

So what we have here, with Graham's loud, "tough talk," and the muttering and rhetoric from Cruz and Hawley, is a Republican Party that has been caught between a rock and a hard place, having left a very conclusive record of support for an autocratic dictatorship and against a fledgling representative Democracy looking to American idealism to build their nation.  Their actions and their words, including the eight Republican votes cast against further sanctions on Russia in Congress this week, are telling the voters that the GOP no longer stands for the constitution, liberty and a government of, by and for the people.  

Thank you, Lindsey.  We can always depend on you to cut and run when the going gets tough.