@ThePlumLineGS @LukeRussert So you're either for war or against raising the debt limit?
— billmon (@billmon1) September 10, 2013
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Upon one issue all reasonable beings can agree: Luke Russert is a jackass.
And these guys are not much better:
… In the past, hawks—largely Republicans—might have objected because they didn’t trust the Russians, or trust the “international community.” It was only 10 years ago that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was dismissing Western European nations that declined to support the war in Iraq as “old Europe,” and the New York Post was labeling France and Germany as part of the “Axis of Weasels” for preferring weapons inspections to war in Iraq. Before neoconservatives despised that “axis,” they’d despised Henry Kissinger and détente with the Soviet Union, amending trade bills to add human rights conditions for Russian Jews.
But realpolitik is back. Members of Congress are more outwardly concerned about Syrian Christians than they are about AIPAC’s endorsement of airstrikes. They’re tentatively endorsing a Russian plan that may or may not be sincere.
“We did a lot of things with the Soviets,” suggested Rep. Darrell Issa after leaving the closed-door briefing on Monday. “We did a great many things during the Cold War that were positive, including work on nonproliferation. My statement earlier that Putin was part of a smaller but still evil empire that opposes the United States, that blocks it, that has backed Iran, that continues to support Syria for purposes that are not good—I stand by that. But if Russians in this case could get weapons out of the hands of both parties, that’s something we should work on.”
A reporter who’d talked to Issa before about Russia remarked that he’d completely changed his tone. Issa swiveled to find her, looking away from the TV cameras that had been capturing his wisdom.
“He’s still an evil man from an evil empire!” Issa assured the reporter. He turned back to the cameras. “If in fact Putin can, for the sake of his sponsored nation—if he can get weapons out of the hands of Assad, for positions that are in his best interest, then we should work with him. The Russians may not be able to deliver the elimination of chemical weapons, but neither can this military strike.”