Last week Congress had to shorten the last day of its members' intensive labors from Tuesday all the way to Thursday, their usual schedule, so they could have a little more time to pack for a quick vacation. They'll be back after the election.
Two senators did hang around a while longer — conference leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in town to chat with the defenders of American democracy who work on the taxpayers' dime, although many of them strongly oppose taxpayers helping to defend Ukrainian democracy.
Still, Chuck and Mitch thought it only courteous to meet with Volodymyr. The retiring minority leader, who happens to support Ukraine''s fight, was so thoughtful and courteous he especially wanted two senators vying for his job, South Dakota's John Thune and Florida's Rick Scott, to join the meeting with Volodymyr. Also John Barrasso, Republicans' probable No. 2 Senate guy next session.
After all, in their high-ranking capacities each will soon carry the heavier end of Ukraine's legislative load: its future. Will it be that of democracy, freedom and Western alignment? Or, once the mass executions are over, one of fascistic oppression by Trump's mass-murdering good friend, Vladimir Putin? In carrying the aforementioned load, would it not also be courteous — and thoughtful — of Thune, Scott and Barrasso to at least listen to what Zelensky had to say?
He came wanting to share with senators of both parties his government's "victory plan," something long demanded by Congress. Reports are it includes more military aid, holding on to Russia's Kursk region as both a bargaining chip and display of Ukraine's military prowess, fast-tracked NATO membership and striking Russia proper with long-range missiles, with the West's approval.
In fact Zelensky told the senatorially gathered that his military forces could possibly forego further U.S. funding if allowed to fire deeper into Russian territory. That option would satisfy virtually every member of Congress; no longer could constituents complain about America's defense of others' freedom. Zelensky knows he must move fast for Ukraine's sake and Congress' tolerance, for he's entering a war phase that plagues democracies: His people are beginning to tire of the fight.
Decisions about Ukraine's future are among the most vital to be thoughtfully weighed by Congress. Incumbent on U.S. senators is to ask questions, to press for answers, to seek solutions and conclude a policy. But of course none of that can be thoughtfully accomplished in the absence of facts, informed minds and good faith. Senate leaders Schumer and McConnell and other senators met with President Zelensky so that all parties could proceed on those conditions.
But, as Axios reported, "Three important names were missing from [the] Senate huddle with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky." In the next congressional session, each occupant of those names — Thune, Scott and Barrasso — will be in the highest ranks of Senate Republicans, quite possibly as leaders of the chamber's controlling party.
And in their first preliminary act as the driving decision makers in this profoundest of issues facing the U.S. government, all three fled the scene as would invertabrate burglars at night or the most cowardly soldiers in battle. Essentially they're both: thieves robbing the taxpayers of what they pay them to do — embrace the challenges of leadership — and even more so, the most poltroonish, lily-livered of men confronting political danger.
Sen. Thune was perhaps the yellowest of the faint-hearted trio. He's likely the frontrunner to replace Boss McConnell and he has supported Ukraine in the past. But now of far greater urgency to Thune is not the future of 44 million Ukrainians under the sheer evil of Putin's shadow but rather placating a twice-impeached ex-president and fourfold indictee. The senator's pitiful reason for skipping the Zelensky meeting? A scheduling conflict — the banality of fear.
The other two sad sacks, Scott and Barrasso, who fled this most fundamental of governing responsibilities are almost too ethically bankrupt and conspicuously simple-minded to trouble oneself with condemning. Both team leaders of the intellectually vacuumed and lowlife obstructionists of goodwill have dome nothing but aggravate Ukraine's desperation. And nothing is what could change their meager minds.
They just didn't attend. Zelensky, I imagine, said a silent "Thank you for that." Still, the two whackjobs and singularly Trump-debased Thune had been asked by their Senate leader to momentarily pause their habituations of ignorance, intransigence and cowardice and pretend they are serious men. But a mere pause was too much to ask.
Heaven help us all if this sorry-ass triumvirate is put in charge of the next United States Senate.
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