Swamp thing Fiona Hill claims Republicans just want Joe Biden to fail on Ukraine

Democrats blaming Republicans for not handing over another $61 billion in aid to Ukraine in a now-debated $106 billion supplemental security package in Congress.

They’re going chicken little and saying the sky will fall if they don’t hand it over exactly the way the Democrats want it handed over. 

Here’s a typical narrative from the Associated Press:

The White House is seeking nearly $106 billion, but the bill has gotten bogged down in negotiations over border security and because of increasing reluctance from Republican lawmakers to approve significant spending on the Ukraine war. GOP lawmakers are insisting on policy changes to halt the flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as a condition for the assistance.

Bogged down? Over that pesky, boring, border? The AP likes to use that term ‘bogged down’ a lot. Narrative, baby.

It gets worse when leftist former National Security official Fiona Hill recrudesces into the picture. 

According to a fawning interview with Politico, where Trump-hating impeachment goddess Hill is portrayed as dispassionate and wise, Republican opposition is simply personal:

“The problem is that many members of Congress don’t want to see President Biden win on any front,” she said. “People are incapable now of separating off ‘giving Biden a win’ from actually allowing Ukraine to win. They are thinking less about U.S. national security, European security, international security and foreign policy, and much more about how they can humiliate Biden.”

Having blown through $73 billion in U.S. military and non-military aid, Ukraine has come calling for yet another aid package, because the last still hasn’t managed to send the invading Russians packing, and somehow this is personal.

Her premise is that Biden would succeed in Ukraine if Republicans would just hand the money over, is weird stuff. She seems convinced that somehow doing the same thing over again will lead to a different result.

And humilate Joe Biden? Like he hasn’t done that pretty well on his own with his Afghanistan pullout?

Not with these specific conditions such as are being attached to this package — border security policy changes, a plan of victory from Ukraine, and an appointed auditor to find out where the last $73 billion went, which is a reasonable compromise, and winnable in Congress.

Biden has refused.

Yet those are reasonable demands, particularly since a Ukraine advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky actually said the aid cash has brought “stealing like there’s no tomorrow.“

Rather than this being personal, which is a really schoolgirl-like argument from someone who’s probably never been exposed to a real Republican since the Trump administration, the real question is whether Joe Biden is serious at all about winning the Ukraine war.

He could win what he wants if he’d allow an auditor and demand a plan of victory for Ukraine. After all, if you really, really, want something, you usually are willing to give something else up.

Not Joe.

But the conditionality is necessary to help “Joe win” actually, ensuring that Ukraine does win and does not become an endless perma-war and rathole of aid where nothing ever changes, the way Afghanistan, Vietnam and Iraq once did.

Biden refuses to budge on any of these matters, telling Republicans to just sign off on another boondoggle the U.S. can’t afford because “democracy” along with Putin must not win.

Who’s the unserious one, here?

At least the Republicans are demanding that Ukraine win that war and account for its spending if they’re going to go Daddy Warbucks for them and shell out more aid.

Biden doesn’t care if those things don’t happen. Just having a money spigot to reward his political cronies involved in Ukraine matters, is all that matters to him as he seeks aid.

It’s telling that much of the swamp that benefits from this aid through consultant contracts and that does include the impeachment crew. One wonders if Hill has an interest, given her ties to Biden, who wrote a book blurb for her when she was just getting her start. Politico didn’t ask.    

The Republicans are being reasonable here, and no, it’s not personal. Biden is perfectly capable of failing on his own, he doesn’t need Republicans to help him. His refusal to budge on a matter he insists is utterly important to him makes him the unserious one. And no, Fiona, it’s not personal.

Image: Munich Security Conference, via Wikipedia (cropped) // CC BY-SA 3.0 DE DEED