By a shocking 18-vote margin, the Republican controlled Senate voted to terminate President Trump’s arguably unconstitutional, but probably legal, national emergency. It was a bold and surprising stand by some unusual suspects, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and a confirmation from others, like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, that their promises to protect the Constitution are more than empty words.
Then there’s Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. Sasse has spent the better part of the last three years pontificating to anyone who’ll listen to him about the unique threat Trump poses to the office of the presidency.
“I don’t have any desire to beat the president up, but it’s pretty clear that this White House is a reality show, soap opera presidency,” said Sasse in September, an assessment that isn’t incorrect, but one so obvious it’s almost redundant. He regularly teases leaving the Republican Party, and wrote an entire book essentially impugning the core of Trumpism. He takes to the Senate floor to rail against Trump’s rhetorical attacks on the Justice Department and has repeatedly stoked rumors that he plans on primarying the president in 2020.
But Sasse voted with Trump. If he refuses to take an actual material stand against perhaps the most egregious and norm-decimating action of Trump’s entire presidency, then how is it anything more than grandstanding?
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has earned plenty of ire from his base for his public sycophancy to the president. Over the past two years, his Twitter feed has become, for lack of a better term, rather Trumpy.
This deserves more attention! FBI Mistress, Lisa Page, confirmed to House Judiciary, there was an anti-Trump Insurance Policy and it’s the fake Russian investigation! She admits there was almost no evidence on collusion, yet they continued with WITCH HUNT! https://t.co/vCIikT4tyr
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 13, 2019
He’s publicly gone to the mat for a man who attacked his appearance on national television.
And today, Paul cashed in on three years of goodwill, voting to overturn Trump’s national emergency. He explained that while he overwhelmingly supports enhanced border security, the situation in the south simply doesn’t constitute the Constitutional grounds for a national emergency.
One vote of Paul’s outweighed every word uttered by Sasse in the past three years. When it mattered more than ever, Sasse abandoned a career of promising to exemplify constitutional conservatism, and for what?
Romney’s already made his opposition to Trump’s worst excesses clear, and today, he put his money where his mouth is. Given his immense popularity in his state, he can afford to do so, as he should. But for those less fortunate, it’s time to shut up, but more importantly, to put up.
At the end of the day, the job of legislators is to legislate. Pundits and the public can rightly rip on Trump all they like, but politicians need the capital to make a deal. Sasse’s “no” vote was likely informed by his vulnerability in his upcoming re-election, but it’s also partially Sasse’s fault he’s in this position in the first place. Yes, it’s important to protect the diminishing dignity of the White House, but if you burn through all of your goodwill with the party so that you have to bend the knee to Trump at the moment it matters most, then what’s the point of it all?
Would you rather call out Trump’s bad tweets or prevent the terrifying precedent of the president being allowed to mobilize construction without the consent of Congress in the name of a phony national emergency?
Moral courage means nothing if it nukes your ability to actually do your job. Talk is cheap, but today it cost Sasse far too much.
