Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Joe Biden, The Diplomat In Action

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President Joe Biden demonstrated his diplomatic skills these past few days, having what is described as productive meetings with the leaders of China and Mexico at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference in California.

Twenty one nations are part of APEC, including, among others, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia.

Biden has had long experiences in diplomacy as Vice President under Barack Obama, and earlier was engaged in foreign relations in his 36 years in the US Senate, including time as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.

Along with George H. W. Bush and Richard Nixon, Biden stands out on a short list of Presidents since World War II with foreign policy expertise before becoming President, and that is a major asset for American national security!

Senator Bob Menendez MUST Resign: A Danger To American Foreign Policy!

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New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez must resign from the Senate, as he is a clear and present danger to American foreign policy!

He has been Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and being engaged in alleged deals with Egypt is very worrisome at the least!

This has nothing to do with party politics, just simply for national security and safety!

Menendez has already once before been indicted, although the case did not lead to conviction, but he is the first US Senator to have been indicted twice in his career!

He will not be able to be reelected, and it is time for him to pursue his defense, and end his political career, for the sake of the Democratic Party!

Foreign Policy Of America In Danger From Donald Trump!

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American foreign policy is in great danger from the threat of Donald Trump possibly being reelected to the Presidency in 2024.

His well known admiration for authoritarians in Russia, North Korea, and China; and his hostility toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are alarm bells in the night!

His willingness to abandon Ukraine, and allow Vladimir Putin to seize more of that nation, is an encouragement that will trigger World War III, as what would stop Putin from trying to restore the old Soviet Union, by attacking Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and more territory?

America’s relationship with Asian nations, which now are 60 percent of the world’s population are also in danger!

And our relationship with Canada and Latin America would be in disarray as well!

To imagine that Trump would be President again is like imagining that Charles Lindbergh or Henry Ford had been President in the 1930s and 1940s, cozying up to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during World War II!

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has worked very hard to promote and strengthen our alliances with nations around the world, and one must remember his vast experience in foreign policy, as a US Senator, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and eight years as Vice President under Barack Obama!

Joe Biden Interview With Fareed Zakaria Of CNN A Homerun!

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President Joe Biden just had an extensive interview with Fareed Zakaria of CNN, and it clearly was a homerun.

Biden was very clear, concise and on target regarding American foreign policy, as he is about to begin a five day trip to the NATO summit, visiting Great Britain on the way to Lithuania and then Finland, to promote increased support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Biden spoke about relations with China, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with Ukraine, and he demonstrated the tremendous advantage he has over anyone else in knowledge of American foreign policy.

Biden has had more experience and contacts with foreign leaders than any American President, more than George H. W. Bush, and at least equal with Richard Nixon.

One could argue more than Nixon, as Biden was Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and between that and being Vice President under Barack Obama for eight years, he has unparalled experience, and as he likes to say, when asked about his age, he also has “wisdom”.

No one on the Republican side of the aisle can match Biden, and certainly not Donald Trump, who undermined American foreign policy in so many damaging ways in his four years in the White House!

Past Bipartisan Actions: Can This Happen Again As Joe Biden Hopes For, Or Is This A Mirage?

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In the past, despite political party conflict on beliefs and principles, we saw bipartisan actions and crossing party lines to accomplish major goals.

Here are four examples of such situations since World War II where a President of one party and a Congressional leader of the opposition party cooperated, and brought along other votes from their party to back the President of the opposition party.

When Democratic President Harry Truman was in office, and the Cold War with the Soviet Union was evolving, Truman was able to gain key Republican support from the Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 80th Congress, Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, for the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan in 1947-1948.

When Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office, he was able to work cooperatively with the Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress from 1955-1961 on many matters. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, both from Texas, worked across the party lines in many situations, particularly on the first Civil Rights Acts (1957 and 1960) since Reconstruction after the Civil War.

When Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson was in office, he was able to gain support of Republican Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois on gaining necessary support on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Medicare passage in 1965.

When Republican President Ronald Reagan was in office, he was able to come to an agreement with Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill to protect Social Security long term by a bipartisan agreement in 1983.

Since the 1990s and the hardline partisanship of the Republican Party and then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in the Republican Revolution of 1994, we have seen unwillingness by that party to have any willingness to cross party lines, and his early efforts were also pursued by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell right up to the present!

So President Elect Joe Biden’s publicly expressed hopes for bipartisan actions in these disastrous times to be accomplished, is it a mirage? We shall find out soon!

Suddenly, Age And Experience Are Positives In A Time Of Turmoil

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Suddenly, age and experience are positives in a time of turmoil.

Joe Biden has had the most elected government experience of any President in American history, a total of 44 years, including 36 as a US Senator, 18th longest in history, and 8 years as an exceptional Vice President to Barack Obama, totally engaged, and the last person in the room with his President, similar to Walter Mondale under Jimmy Carter.

Only John Quincy Adams has more total government experience, with 49 years, with 23 years in appointments as ambassador to five nations, and Secretary of State.

Joe Biden has more foreign policy experience before becoming President than any modern President, except Richard Nixon and George H. W. Bush, and one could argue that he has more of it, including being Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman. Nixon and Bush also served as Vice President for eight years each, but neither had the 36 years total of elected experience otherwise, with Nixon having six years and Bush having four years.

Biden also has more connections and contacts with foreign leaders and government agencies, with his long 44 year career than any modern President.

So being older, 78 in one week, is NOT necessarily a negative factor for Joe Biden, and it is ironic that his 44 years in government put up against Donald Trump’s ZERO government experience, the only President to have no government or military experience, makes Biden ever more exceptional.

We are fortunate to have Joe Biden becoming the 46 President of the United States in 68 days, as we move beyond the literal nightmare of Donald Trump’s Presidency!

The Ten Most Disgraceful United States Senators In The 116th Congress

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The United States Senate is a great institution, which has had 1,984 members in its 232 year history since 1789.

It has had its heroes and champions, but also some of the worst demagogues and villains imaginable.

As we come up to the 2020 elections, this is a time to look at who this author and blogger considers to be the ten most disgraceful US Senators in the 116th Congress.

There will be disagreement on any such list, of course, but this author and blogger sees the top ten most disgraceful US Senators to be all Republicans, unconcerned about the COVID 19 Pandemic, the economic collapse in what is fast becoming the Second Great Depression, and the racial injustice that prevails in our society.

So here goes the list, with ranking of the level of evil being attempted below:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky—who has shown complete hypocrisy on the Supreme Court regarding Merrick Garland in 2016 and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, and is someone who should be defeated for reelection in November, but in Kentucky it is hard to get people to understand the depth of his venality on so many matters and issues. Were he to lose next month, it would be a massive victory of major proportions!

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina—who has a much tougher challenge to reelection, and has gained the enmity of many people who see him as having totally abandoned any sense of ethics or morality regarding President Donald Trump, including allowing his former friendship with the late Senator John McCain to be thrown aside with abandon, since McCain’s passing in 2018.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas—who this author and blogger thought in 2016 was more dangerous and terrifying than Donald Trump, and who remains a truly evil, dangerous, egocentric threat, and with plans to run for President in 2024.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas—also seen as certain to run for President in 2024, and perceived as particularly dangerous in his views and outlook on just about any major issue that arises.

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin—who has been an outrage and totally corrupt and manipulative, and makes one wonder why his state chose him twice for the Senate in 2010 and 2016 over their exceptional Senator Russ Feingold.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri—who is the youngest Senator at present, having defeated Claire McCaskill in 2018, and with grand ambitions to run for President in 2024, with a very hard Right set of values that makes him totally terrifying to any sane person!

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky— who is a fake libertarian and total phony, but seems likely to run for President again in 2024, and one wonders why anyone would go to this privately licensed eye doctor, who is not accredited by national organizations which he has repudiated, and who expresses the weirdest ideas imaginable, not impressing anyone who has intelligence!

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma—who is running for reelection at age 86, and rejects science and climate change, and if he survives, would be one of just a few who would be in office in their 90s, a horrific thought! Oklahoma can do better than this, but unlikely Inhofe will lose next month, sadly!

Senator Rick Scott of Florida—-a felon who got away with Medicare and Medicaid fraud, and was elected twice as Governor and now to the Senate by less than one percent of the vote each time, and who did great harm in the Sunshine State when Governor, and is often called “Lord Voldemort” of the Harry Potter series, as Scott resembles him in appearance, but without the smashed nose, lol!

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee—the only woman in the group, but with a long held reputation as an extremely nasty, mean spirited Congresswoman, who sadly was elected to succeed Bob Corker, who was a reasonable conservative Republican and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, who turned against Donald Trump, and retired in 2018.

I welcome commentary and viewpoints on this list!

Richard Lugar, A Rare Decent Republican, And True Statesman, Remembered For His Principles, Courage, Bipartisanship

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Former Republican Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, who served 36 years in that chamber from 1977-2013, passed away over the weekend at age 87.

Lugar was that rare Republican, considered a moderate, who became highly renowned as a foreign policy expert, and headed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1985-1987 and 2003-2007.

While usually considered a conservative, he was the kind of Republican who no longer exists now in that party. He “crossed the aisle” and worked with Democrats, including President Barack Obama, who he had come to be close to in the four years Obama was in the Senate before being elected President. He was co-chairman of the Obama Inaugural Committee.

His major commitment was to work with Georgia Democratic Senator Sam Nunn toward the dismantling of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons around the world after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

His views on immigration, climate change, and Cuban policy were outside the norm of his party. He supported Obama’s two Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, one of a very few Republicans to do so.

He was Mayor of Indianapolis from 1968 to 1976, and gained a reputation as Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor. He was overlooked by George H. W. Bush in 1988, who picked fellow Indiana Senator Dan Quayle, a total lightweight selected for Vice President, and gave America four years of concern were anything to occur to Bush.

The longest serving Senator in Indiana history, and one of the longest serving in American history, his defeat in the primary in 2012 was another sign of the deteriorating nature of the Republican Party. And Lugar in retirement was a critic of Donald Trump, who represented every trait that Lugar was the exact opposite of, as Lugar was a man who fit the image of being decent, reasonable, intelligent, well mannered, principled, and highly respected.

Lugar even challenged President Ronald Reagan on the issues of the Philippines and South Africa policies during the mid 1980s, and never felt he must be slavishly loyal to the party line, and that is what his legacy will be, a remnant of what the Republican Party had once been, but no longer is, a party of principle and mainstream ideas, now lost in the age of Donald Trump.

Can Joe Biden Overcome The Obstacle Course Awaiting Him In 2020?

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Former Vice President Joe Biden finally announced his campaign on Thursday, starting off as a front runner in polls.

But can he overcome the obstacle course awaiting him in 2020?

In his long career of 44 years in national office, 36 in the US Senate and eight years as Vice President, the longest public service record of any Presidential candidate in modern history, Biden came across as genuine, sincere, decent, and compassionate, and gained millions of fans, including this blogger and author.

But he also made judgments that are problematical, including being against school busing in Delaware; supporting the credit card industry in his state, and in so doing, undermining the ability of debtors to protect themselves by bankruptcy; his lack of protection of Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991, for which he continues to apologize but in an unsatisfactory manner; his support of an interventionist foreign policy in Iraq; his many gaffes, many of them harmless but still giving him a reputation for loose and thoughtless language; and his habit of being too touchy feely with women and girls, although never accused of sexual improprieties.

Biden also promoted tough crime and drug laws in the 1990s, which are now looked at as blunders that put too many African Americans in prison unjustifiably, and his leadership at different times of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been criticized. His ability to “cross the aisle” and work with many Republicans is seen by some as a weakness, while others see it as a strength.

Biden is a centrist Democrat in 2019 at a time when many progressives are much further to the left than him, and one wonders if he could gain the support of those to his left if he wins the nomination, as he is perceived as too close to the traditional power centers of the party.

Joe Biden has many positive attributes, but his negative side and shortcomings, as seen by many critics, could doom him in a race against Donald Trump, when the most important thing possible is to insure that Donald Trump does not gain a second term, as that would be destructive of every progressive goal in the short run and long run.

This blogger and author has always looked at Joe Biden as a hero of his, as much as earlier, Hubert Humphrey was his model of what a political leader should be like. But Humphrey had the same problem 50 years ago of being admired and praised, but seen by many as not the best choice to oppose Richard Nixon in 1968, against Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy.

So the same quandary of 1968 awaits us in 2020, to find the best person to be successful against the greatest menace, Donald Trump, that we have had in a half century of American political history, far more damaging than Richard Nixon.

And while Hubert Humphrey was 57 at the time he ran for President in 1968, Joe Biden will be 78 shortly after the election, and as in 1960, 1976, 1992, and 2008, Democrats were able to elect a “new generation” leadership of John F. Kennedy (age 43); Jimmy Carter (age 52); Bill Clinton (age 46); and Barack Obama (age 47).

Should that be the direction for 2020 is the ultimate challenge for the Democrats.

And will Joe Biden be able to win the white working class of the Midwest and Pennsylvania? Will he be able to keep the African American community around him? Will he be able to draw moderate independents and alienated Republicans, who do not wish to vote for Donald Trump? Will he be able to win suburban whites, who veered toward Democrats in 2018? Will many seniors who supported Trump come back to the Democrats they once supported? And will enough young voters who have supported Bernie Sanders, who is 14 months older than Joe Biden, extend their allegiance to Biden if he stops the Sanders juggernaut?

These are the questions that will dominate the upcoming Presidential campaign of 2020.

Bob Corker And Jeff Flake Both Retiring, Should Use Their Influence On The Senate Foreign Relations Committee To Quell Donald Trump

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Two Republican Senators have decided not to run for reelection, and both have been critics of Donald Trump.

Bob Corker of Tennessee is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, and Jeff Flake of Arizona is on the committee.

Both have no reason to cooperate with Donald Trump, now after this horrific week of foreign policy. We have witnessed the trashing of NATO and the European Union, and criticism of leaders of major allies, including Angela Merkel of Germany, Theresa May of Great Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France, and Justin Trudeau of Canada by Trump. At the same time, we have seen the praise and secret diplomacy of Trump with Vladimir Putin, causing an uproar, and now Trump’s invitation to Putin to come to the White House in the fall, possibly before the midterm elections, or alternately to witness the military parade ordered by Trump for Veterans Day, to be celebrated Saturday November 10 in Washington DC.

Corker and Flake, along with others, should denounce the Putin invitation and the wasted money on an unnecessary military parade, so that Donald Trump’s ego is further glorified.

The two Senators should do everything possible to make life for Trump more difficult, and should refuse to move forward on any policy, foreign or domestic, where their votes are needed to make a majority.

Both should order more subpoenas to require administration cabinet members to testify under oath, and make clear that they have declared war on the corrupt Presidency of Donald Trump!

Their leadership could make a difference in so many ways, and encourage more Senators on the Republican side to join them and the ill Senator John McCain of Arizona, and the principled Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who has been a never ending critic of Donald Trump, and could face retribution when he faces his own reelection in 2020.

Of course, it is possible to imagine that Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and Ben Sasse could end up challenging Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination of 2020 against Trump, or Vice President Mike Pence, were he to become President later in this term.