There was a brief period when Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska did what he’s supposed to do, which is help pass the agenda of the nationally elected leader of his party — that would be President Trump — but he’s fallen off the wagon.
Now he’s back to hooting and hollering about his own personal principles and bemoaning the state of our political culture.
What perfect timing. It’s not like we’re two weeks from an election that boils down to a choice between emerging from the pandemic with a repaired economy and remaining in perpetual lockdown with the Black Lives Matter crowd as our new overlords.
Thanks, Sasse!
In audio obtained by the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker, Sasse aired all his grievances with the president.
“I’m not at all apologetic for having fought for my values against his in places where I think his are deficient, not just for a Republican, but for an American,” Sasse told his constituents. “The way he kisses dictators’ butts. … Right now, he hasn’t lifted a finger on behalf of the Hong-Kongers. The United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership; the way he treats women; spends like a drunken sailor. … He mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He’s flirted with white supremacists.”
It’s as if Sasse prepared for the call by watching a week’s worth of CNN’s Tonight with Don Lemon and memorizing its programming by heart.
We don’t need to take these one by one, but for Sasse to moan that Trump “spends like a drunken sailor” is ridiculous, given that Sasse voted to pass the $2 trillion tax cut that the president signed into law two years ago.
Sasse also eagerly voted to confirm Trump’s first two Supreme Court nominees and will certainly vote to confirm the third in just a few days.
OK, Sasse doesn’t like that Trump deals with foreign leaders in different ways because the president pressures our allies to do more of the lifting that keeps our adversaries in check, even as they’ve bypassed that minor inconvenience for years while reaping the benefits.
The Sasse dynamic is similar. He gets to enjoy saying he helped confirm three conservative Supreme Court justices and pass a massive tax cut, but also dump on the president who deserves far more credit than he does.
Should things go wrong for Sasse’s political career, at least he knows CNN might want him.
