WASHINGTON. Since the 1950s, when Senator Arthur Vandenberg declared that “politics stops at the water’s edge,” the titans in Congress have been key partners in America’s foreign policy, not as “pushing people” to presidents, but as co-creators of Pax Americana and Pax Americana. post-war order.
But the spiral Ukrainian conflict pointed out how much Congressional power had fallen in the foreign policy arena following the death of Senator John McCain, the move of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. from Capitol Hill to the White House, and the emergence of a brand of partisanship that stretched far beyond the water’s edge.
There have been loud voices this week calling on President Biden to act decisively to counter Russian aggression. But other lawmakers have used the crisis to their advantage, sharply criticizing the president and blaming the Biden administration for President Vladimir Putin’s attack on his neighbor.
Perhaps more telling is the relative calm on the part of both Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, who are shackled by divisions within their ranks and seemingly content with the White House taking the lead, credit or blame.
“Congress will stand ready to take further action if additional action is deemed necessary,” Maryland Representative Steny H. Hoyer, House Majority Leader, said Tuesday afternoon, mirroring the stance of many of his non-intervention colleagues.
Such caution is in line with the legislature’s reluctance to challenge the president’s expanding powers abroad.
“When you put your name next to an action, you will be judged for that action, and Congress is full of risk-averse people,” said Casey Burgat, director of the legislative affairs program at George Washington University who studies Congress and foreign policy. . “Foreign policy is a minefield of unintended consequences. It’s hard to put your name next to something when you don’t know how it ends.”
After a month of trying and failing to reach a consensus, bipartisan senators on Tuesday got back to work on a multifaceted legislative response to Russian aggression that would provide emergency funds for Ukraine’s defense, weaken Moscow’s economy, and create a new task force to find ways to seize the wealth of Russian oligarchs and perhaps the wealth of Mr. Putin himself.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said the emergency spending bill and the bipartisan sanctions bill, which had been long delayed in Congress, could be passed when lawmakers return from presidential recess.
“I want a hell of a sanctions regime next week,” he told reporters at a press conference in South Carolina.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said negotiations began Monday night and picked up pace Tuesday after senators argued to no avail over the past month over the size, shape and timing of legislative sanctions.
The spending bill would increase lethal aid to Ukraine, help the Department of Defense fund troop deployments to NATO countries in northern and western Ukraine, and prepare Ukraine’s neighbors to receive refugees. The sanctions bill targets the fabulously wealthy oligarchs who supported the Putin government by sending their children to schools in the West and their money into yachts in European ports and luxury apartments in London and Manhattan.
“There is a consensus among Democrats and Republicans that one of the weaknesses of Putin’s world is the lavish lifestyle of the oligarchs he supports to maintain his power,” Mr. Graham said. But he also warned the wider Russian public: “You can expect bad things to happen to you.”
Mr Blumenthal said Germany’s actions this week stop work on a major gas pipeline from Russia to Western Europe removed the main stumbling block in the sanctions bill. Some Republicans pushed for sanctions to damage the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, but the Biden administration strongly opposed such actions before the Russian attack, fearing that it would split the transatlantic alliance and damage NATO unity before the invasion.
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February 22, 2022 6:25 pm ET
But a month ago, Mr. Blumenthal was among senators who vowed that a bipartisan vote on sanctions against Russia would take place within a week or two to prove U.S. unity and resolve—and to marginalize voices on the far right that question America’s interests in the conflict or, even worse, side with Mr. Putin.
“To be frank, I was disappointed that we couldn’t get together,” Mr. Blumenthal said on Tuesday.
There is no guarantee that unity is near. Foreign policy has become a graveyard for legislative ambitions. Repeated attempts to revoke or revise military permits issued in 2001 and 2002 gained momentum but died. Republican efforts to change or cancel President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran have come to nothing. Democrats’ efforts to block President Donald Trump’s “urgent” arms sales to the Middle East have also been unsuccessful.
The ever-expanding powers of the imperial president were met mainly by the inaction of the legislature.
But the current crisis may be different, said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who has worked for nine years to no avail to restore the power of Congress to declare war. Mr. Biden has broad powers to impose crippling sanctions on his own, but in some areas, such as cutting Russia off from international banking computer system known as SwiftCongress may have to pass legislation. And after so many tough speeches, legislators will want to show that they can unite.
“Congress would rather not act if it’s not necessary and would rather leave it up to the president if there is a reliable way to do it,” Mr. Kane said. “But at the moment there is no reliable way to do this.”
Understand how the Ukrainian crisis unfolded
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Failed diplomatic efforts. That United StatesNATO and Russia were involved in whirlwind of diplomacy prevent the escalation of the conflict. In December, Russia put forward a series of demands, including guarantees that Ukraine would never join NATO. The West rejected these demands and threatened economic repercussions.
Mr. Graham, an outspoken ally of Mr. Trump, did say on Tuesday, amid gunfire from many of his fellow Republicans in the Biden administration, “We have one president at a time. President Biden is the President of the United States, and to the extent that I can help him fight back against Putin, I will.”
But other Republicans were less accommodating.
“Joe Biden has refused to take meaningful action and his weakness has emboldened Moscow,” Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn said Tuesday, echoing Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz who wrote on Monday: “Biden-Harris officials are hugely are directly responsible for this crisis.”
The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives even photographed Mr Biden’s back as he left the East Room of the White House after announcing the latest round of sanctionsand stated, “This is what weakness looks like on the world stage.”
The criticism is nothing new, notes Mark Salter, a longtime aide, adviser and biographer of Mr. McCain. The senator, who died of brain cancer in 2018, was able to manage foreign and military policy from Capitol Hill thanks to an exceptional strength of personality. He could be critical of the presidents of both parties, but he was consistent in his defense of a strong transatlantic alliance to counter authoritarianism.
It’s that consistency that frays, Mr. Salter said, and cheap attempts at attention don’t help. Republicans who were silent when Mr. Trump launched a relentless attack on NATO and leaned towards Mr. Putin are now talking about Mr. Biden’s weakness towards Russia. Leaders failed to condemn isolationist voices in the party, such as Mr. Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, who tweeted: “What kind of neocons are drooling over our 18-year-old men torn to pieces in the war?” ?
On the conservative radio on tuesdayex-president praised Mr Putin as “smart” and “brilliant”, echoing the Russian dictator’s description of his invading troops as peacekeepers.
“This is the strongest peacekeeping force; we could use that on our southern border,” Trump said, adding, “There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They are going to keep the world in perfect order.
Such sentiments are a far cry from the internationalist coalition formed by Mr. Vandenberg, a Michigan Republican, to support the post-war Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, the creation of NATO and mutual defense agreements through the UN.
“Even in the glory days of ‘politicians stop at the water’s edge’, if there ever was one, there has always been political opportunism,” Mr. Salter said. “Right now, it’s just disgusting.”