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Speaker Mike Johnson in simply months has all however cemented his place among the many weakest Home leaders in its historical past. Alas, the Louisianan nonetheless holds sufficient energy that he’s single-handedly blocking one of the essential issues of our time: bipartisan U.S. support to Ukraine for its protection towards Vladimir Putin’s murderous expansionism.
It’s not like Johnson is making a stand on precept by not scheduling a Home vote. Oh, no. To listen to him discuss, he’s all for our Ukrainian allies and needs some form of support. However Donald Trump doesn’t — he’s with Putin, as regular — and Johnson usually stands wherever the previous president directs. Not for nothing is the novice speaker referred to as “MAGA Mike.”
Opinion Columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a crucial eye to the nationwide political scene. She has a long time of expertise masking the White Home and Congress.
And no difficulty illustrates higher than Ukraine the dithering and subservience to Trump which have change into Johnson’s hallmarks since October, when Home Republicans ousted his predecessor, rejected a number of higher-ranking aspirants after which, exhausted by the deadlock, settled on him.
Additionally, no difficulty holds extra dire penalties if Johnson doesn’t change course — for Ukraine, peace in Europe and the US’ safety and worldwide standing.
Johnson continues to straddle the query, saying all the suitable, supportive issues — “Ukraine is the sufferer right here. They had been invaded,” he advised reporters Wednesday — and but doing nothing. President Biden’s support request has languished for so long as Johnson has been speaker. It’s now been a month because the Senate overwhelmingly voted, 70 to 29, for the $95-billion international support package deal — $60 billion for Ukraine and the remainder for Israel, Taiwan and Palestinians in Gaza.
Give Johnson this a lot: He can take a variety of strain, not less than when he’s safely in Trump’s nook. Recently he’s been getting hit from all sides about Ukraine — from the president and congressional Democrats, positive, but in addition from pro-Ukraine Republicans and even from international leaders.
Members of each events started making an attempt in current days to gather signatures from a majority of the Home on two separate discharge petitions that will power a vote on Ukraine support. The discharge technique is not often used, and it’s much more not often profitable as a result of, by definition, the motion is a slap on the get together leaders who bottled up the laws. However this could possibly be one of many uncommon occasions.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Republican leader Mitch McConnell is fed up with Johnson’s pussyfooting. McConnell has almost never publicly criticized House Republicans or told them how to run their chamber. So it was a measure of his exasperation that he vented to reporters Tuesday: “We don’t have time for all of this. We’ve got a bill that got 70 votes in the Senate. Give members of the House of Representatives an opportunity to vote on it.”
Visiting leaders from Poland, Ukraine’s neighbor and our NATO ally, on that same day publicly singled out Johnson for some less-than-diplomatic kvetching. “Mr. Johnson’s failure to make a positive decision will cost thousands of lives” and affect “the fate of millions of people,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
After Johnson met privately with Polish President Andrzej Duda, he issued the kind of have-it-all-ways remarks he’s now known for. The statement was silent on the Ukraine aid bill yet proclaimed, “America must remain united with our friends against those who threaten our security.”
What do those words mean if they’re not an argument for more aid to Ukraine?
The “remain united with our friends” part is particularly rich. Contrary to what Trump and his America First Republicans would have us believe, nearly all European and NATO allies have given more assistance to Ukraine than the United States, measured as a percentage of the size of the nations’ economies. They’re panicky at the prospect of a U.S. retreat from the bloodiest combat in Europe since World War II.
As for “those who threaten our security,” certainly Russia looms large among those threats, at least for everyone but Trump and his sycophants.
Of which Johnson is one. And that’s the problem.
Johnson, stalling, insists that the Senate and the House first must finish the long-overdue work of funding the government. But the annual spending bills won’t be completed before Friday, and then Congress skedaddles for a 17-day recess. The Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Alabama Rep. Mike D. Rogers, had a word for Johnson’s timetable: “reckless.”
As Johnson waffles, Ukrainian troops are rationing ammunition and giving ground to Russians that they could hold if they had a reliable pipeline of U.S.-made weaponry. CIA Director William Burns and other U.S. intelligence officials recently warned Congress that Ukraine’s losses would only mount without U.S. aid. For this country to abandon Ukraine after pledges to the contrary would not only embolden revanchist Russia, it would encourage the Chinese in their global ambitions.
As Biden said in his State of the Union address, the necessary lifeline for Ukraine “is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world.”
Johnson would deny that’s what he wants. Let’s see him prove it. In the words of McConnell: “Let the House speak.”
And if it does — with a bipartisan vote for Ukraine — that will echo the support of a majority of Americans. But first Johnson must get out of the way. Or be pushed.
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