Retiring lawmakers must find courage to call out Trump on dangerous behavior.
Congress has a duty to assert itself against an out-of-control president.
One of the bracing effects of congressional retirement, as several of the 40-plus Republican officeholders choosing to leave office are discovering, is a strengthening of the spine more effective than any potion advertised on late-night TV. U.S. Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona, along with U.S. Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, are among a handful of lawmakers standing straighter these days, the burdens of incessant fundraising lifted from their bowed backs. As their time on Capitol Hill comes to a blessed close, they are overcoming their reluctance to speak out about the disorder, chaos and dysfunction their man in the White House is promulgating.
Would that the most prominent of the recent retirees, the newly liberated House Speaker Paul Ryan, stand up and speak his mind about a dangerous president. Ryan has been critical before — before Donald Trump was elected, that is — and we’re hoping he’ll stand on principle again. The need for straight talk, and action, grows ever greater.
As Ryan contemplates life with his family back in small-town Wisconsin — or, more likely, lobbying life in Washington — here’s the dire situation he’s walking away from:
President Trump responds to Syria’s use of chemical weapons against his own people by taunting Russia with a tweet, warning Syria’s chief sponsor to “get ready” because American missiles “will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” He follows this absurdity with another the next day: “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” Then Friday night, Trump orders airstrikes and promises the United States could “sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents.” Defense Department officials say, no, the strikes are done.
On trade policy, the president is just as impulsive, just as policy-ignorant and, when it comes to the nation’s economic health, just as dangerous. His threatened tariffs against China and other countries are likely to undermine an economy recovering nicely, as hog farmers in Iowa and sorghum growers in Texas are about to find out. In addition, his ongoing bull-inchina-closet efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement will not end well if he gets his way.
Last week’s FBI raids on the home, office and hotel room of Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, has reportedly driven the president into a frenzy. He seems to be contemplating a Watergate-style “Saturday-night massacre” at the Justice Department as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III closes in. Those privy to Trump’s private comments have told reporters he is looking to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the probe.
Ryan will be in office until January. That’s plenty of time for him and for his fellow retirees not only to stand up and speak out, but also to shore up institutions against the onslaught of an out-of-control president. (Lame ducks can still waddle.)
Their immediate task must be to back compromise legislation written by Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, and Chris Coons of Delaware and Cory Booker of New Jersey, both Democrats, that would make it harder for Trump to fire Mueller.
“Letting his investigation run its course is in the best interest of the country, and it is the only option to ensure that the American people have trust in the process,” Tillis wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last week.
The second pressing obligation of the soon-to-be-former lawmakers is to reassert congressional prerogatives. As Trump contemplates some kind of action against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Ryan and friends need to remind the White House that the Constitution gives the power to make war to Congress. These life-and-death matters are too grave to be left to an undisciplined president.
The nation’s lawmakers also can work to undo the harm caused by the president’s fickle and ill-informed notions about trade, whether NAFTA or the Trans-Pacific Partnership — which Trump now, maybe, favors?
Let the president tweet and bluster all he wants, but hem him in while you can, Speaker Ryan. Keep him corralled inside his reality-show presidency until voters — Democrats, Republicans, independents — ride to the rescue of their nation in November.
Take heart, Mr. Speaker, from the words of conservative columnist Michael Gerson. Writing in the Washington Post recently, the former speechwriter for President George W. Bush urged “principled conservatives to hear the call of moral duty and stand up for their beliefs until this madness passes.”
“As it will,” Gerson adds. As it will.