Josh Hawley, Clownish Menace

Hawley is a hypocrite and an opportunist, and now he has shown himself to be the lowest kind of demagogue.

Josh Hawley is a clownish menace:

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said Tuesday that he will place a hold on "every single civilian nominee" for the State and Defense Departments unless Secretary Antony Blinken and Secretary Lloyd Austin resign from their posts, citing their roles in overseeing the US' chaotic exit from Afghanistan.

Hawley is a hypocrite and an opportunist, and now he has shown himself to be the lowest kind of demagogue. When the president announced his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, the senator endorsed the withdrawal decision but faulted Biden for taking too long to implement it. According to Hawley this spring, Biden erred because he wasn’t withdrawing quickly enough. The moment that he saw that there was a partisan angle in attacking Biden because of problems with the evacuation, he took the exact opposite position, denounced Biden, and demanded his resignation. As Alex Shephard put it a few weeks ago:

Hawley is demanding that Biden resign for enacting a policy that Hawley himself has advanced, repeatedly.

This is everything most Americans despise about politicians. Now he is demanding the resignation of Blinken and Austin for carrying out the policy that he said ought to have been carried out months earlier. Hawley is treacherous and should not be given an inch. Blinken and Austin were doing their jobs and implementing the president’s policy, and there is no reason why they should resign.

The State Department has already been suffering from Ted Cruz’s irresponsible blockade of nominees because of his fixation on sanctioning Nord Stream 2. Hawley wants to add to that dysfunction by blocking all nominees for two departments. Between the two of them, they threaten to bring the confirmation process for national security positions to a grinding halt, and that will inevitably undermine the Biden administration’s ability to conduct its foreign policy. They prate about accountability, but where is the accountability for the damage that they are doing?

Hawley’s response to the withdrawal from Afghanistan is not only irresponsible, but it is also deeply stupid. Biden is not going to throw his top Cabinet members under the bus to satisfy a gremlin like Hawley. All that Hawley accomplishes with this stunt is to prove that he has no principles except partisanship and self-promotion. If he wanted to vindicate his harshest critics, he has succeeded.

Hawley is a political coward and a disgrace to his office, and if he had any integrity he would resign. Since he has none, we are unfortunately stuck with him for the next few years until the voters in Missouri have a chance to make a change. He makes a mockery of Congressional oversight with his ridiculous performances, and he has proven beyond any doubt that his rhetoric about ending forever wars was just so much hot air.