Dangerously Unfair (Undignified Disaster)

#Russia | #WhatTheyVotedFor

This is, simply put, not fair:

The F.B.I. warned a Republican congressman in 2012 that Russian spies were trying to recruit him, officials said, an example of how aggressively Russian agents have tried to influence Washington politics.

The congressman, Dana Rohrabacher of California, has been known for years as one of Moscow’s biggest defenders in Washington and as a vocal opponent of American economic sanctions against Russia. He claims to have lost a drunken arm-wrestling match with the current Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, in the 1990s. He is one of President Trump’s staunchest allies on Capitol Hill.

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Mr. Rohrabacher was drawn into the maelstrom this week when The Washington Post reported on an audio recording of Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, saying last year, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” Mr. McCarthy said on Wednesday that he had made a joke that landed poorly.

(Apuzzo, Goldman, and Mazzetti)

That is to say: Oh, come on! You can’t be serious!

And to think, this is #WhatTheyVotedFor. The pace at which this American conservative adventure continues to degrade is a weird, recursive testament to Republican voters and what happens when governance is given to those who believe, a priori, that government does not and cannot work. And it’s just not fair: Trying to keep up with a breathless bacchanal of, “Please tell me you’re joking”, simply isn’t safe.

No, seriously: Republicans have successfully elected a game show host to the White House and secured both houses of Congress, and this flaming, undignified disaster is a better result than any conservative could ever have reasonably hoped for.

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Image note: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R-CA48]. (Photo by Maria Danilova/Associated Press)

Apuzzo, Matt, Adam Goldman and Mark Mazzetti. “F.B.I. Once Warned G.O.P. Congressman That Russian Spies Were Recruiting Him”. The New York Times. 19 May 2017.