An all-but forgotten author from New Orleans named Maurice Switzer is generally credited with coining the adage, “It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”
Suffice to say Rep. Andy Barr, R- Lexington, has removed all doubt.
In a Kentucky congressional delegation that features loony tunes like Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty, who recently maintained lynching should be a states’ rights issue, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, who has worked tirelessly to undermine federal efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19, a malady that has cost nearly 1 million American lives, poor Andy sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.
Barr has played the role of Republican face man since arriving in DC nine years ago, providing little more than a smile and a shoeshine. Apparently, he’s been feeling overlooked in the oddball sweepstakes dominated by his Bluegrass colleagues so last week he essentially accused President Biden of opening the door for Russia President Vladimir Putin, handing the Moscow madman his hat and his coat and wishing him a safe journey on his way to Kyiv.
In a statement regarding Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of neighboring Ukraine, our boy Andy jumped to the head of the peculiar caucus, declaring that, “The Biden Administration’s weak and feckless foreign policy not only failed to deter this aggression, it invited this outcome.”
That’s right. This whole mess isn’t attributable to the machinations of a war criminal. It all can be laid on the stoop of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where Biden “sent a dangerous signal to Vladimir Putin that this President would not challenge him.”
Imagine, then, Vlad’s surprise when Biden took the lead in doing everything to thwart his land grab, invoking serious measures just this side of dispatching U.S. ground troops for Ukraine’s defense. Sanctions in place could conceivably bankrupt The Bear, and all sorts of armaments are headed Kyiv’s way from nations like Sweden and Switzerland who rarely if ever get so involved.
Biden has acted by rallying the members of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that his predecessor, former President Donald J. Trump, threatened to exit on any number of occasions. With Biden, the military alliance between 28 European nations, the United States and Canada is re-emerging as a powerhouse.
Condoleeza Rice, secretary of state under President George W. Bush, a Republican, told Fox News that Biden has “managed to unite NATO in ways I didn’t think I would ever see again after the end of the Cold War.”
What Putin has done, Rice said, “is certainly against every principle of international law and international order, and that’s why throwing the book at them now in terms of economic sanctions and punishments is also a part of it. And I think the world is there. Certainly, NATO is there.’’
Now, keep in mind that Barr’s “feckless” comment arrived just as Biden was endeavoring to get NATO allies on the same page regarding the Russia induced calamity. Andy’s claim couldn’t have helped much in attaining that necessary cooperative atmosphere. And it threw to the wolves any notion, old and reliable as it may be, that the United States and its various factions come together in times of crisis.
The Ukraine predicament, most people would agree, qualifies as just such a crisis. Regardless, Andy found a grand time to stick his foot in it. For what benefit? Who, exactly, was Barr helping as Vlad’s tanks rolled across the Ukraine border by asserting it was all Biden’s doing?
To support his claim, Barr provided a laundry list of Biden foreign policy measures with which he disagreed, asserting that the administration’s “missteps (have) led us to this point.’’ Leading off, as usual, is that old right-wing canard, Afghanistan, which he termed a “disastrous retreat…which projected an unwillingness to defend our allies.’’
Oh please, dear boy. This is just an unbelievably ridiculous assumption that marks the perpetrator as an unserious person. Does anyone – anyone – legitimately believe Vladimir Putin sat back on his high horse in the Kremlin, rubbed his hands in glee and thought, “Hey, the Americans are ditching Kabul. Odessa here I come!”
It’s silly. Barr’s assessment came at the…
Read More: Opinion – Bill Straub: Removing all doubt, Rep. Andy Barr just has to keep