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A Tea Party Congressman running for the U.S. Senate on Saturday likened President Barack Obama‘s response to Vladimir Putin‘s moving Russian forces into the Ukraine to the United States’ initial response to Hitler’s annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas today issued a statement blasting President Obama, just days after officially declaring his candidacy for the Senate.
“Emboldened by President Obama’s trembling inaction, Vladimir Putin has invaded the Crimea region of Ukraine,” Congressman Cotton’s statement reads. “Senior U.S. officials have reportedly called Russia’s actions in Crimea an ‘uncontested arrival,’ not an invasion; the same was said about the Anschluss.”
The Anschluss was Hitler’s 1938 annexation of Austria.
“At a minimum, President Obama should revoke travel visas and freeze assets of senior Russian officials and Putin cronies, freeze assets of Ukrainian oligarchs who assist the Russian invasion, stop transfers of assets out of Ukraine, support the Ukrainian transitional government and military as it defends Ukraine’s territorial integrity, recall our ambassador to Russia, reschedule the upcoming G-8 meeting from Russia to Western Europe or the U.S., and suspend Russia from the G-8. Putin must be punished for his outlaw actions and the Russian people and elites must recognize they will pay a price for them.â€
Let’s try that last part again.
“Putin must be punished for his outlaw actions and the Russian people and elites must recognize they will pay a price for them.”
Elites?
Really?
That’s a code word for his base to hear but not register. Cotton doesn’t care on iota about “Russian elites.” But using that word means he’s “one of us” to his voting bloc.
Ironically, just six weeks ago, Cotton attacked Obama, calling him “the Imperial President.” Apparently, Cotton now believes empire-building is bad only if it supposedly happens within a nation’s borders.
Of course, Rep. Cotton has zero foreign policy experience, and is a 36-year old freshman Tea Party Republican Congressman from Arkansas who served in the Army for four years before working as a management consultant for about a year, and then left to work on his family’s cattle ranch — for about a year.
Cotton, who is virulently anti-gay, last year described women as unfit for infantry combat, claiming their “nature†can “impair the mission-essential tasks†of their units. He is now running to replace Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, and is promising to “fight to repeal ObamaCare, cut spending, reduce taxes, and protect our Arkansas values.”
Meanwhile, in the real world, President Obama today spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes. The White House issued a lengthy report detailing the two presidents’ conversation.
Were President Obama to actually take all the steps Cotton is demanding, he would have few cards left to play — sans one: entering into armed conflict with Russia.
Rep. Cotton just proved that herding cattle is a noble profession, but it leaves a lot of bull.
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