Like I said…

I don’t usually like to repeat myself (or at least not too often), but the antics of Senators Inhofe, Cruz, McCain, Graham, et al. really do exemplify the irresponsibility of today’s GOP, as well as the extraordinary margin of security that Americans enjoy.

(See in particular point #2 in my last post).

Only in a country that was largely safe from serious harm could senior elected officials engage in the fact-free McCarthyism of Sen. Ted Cruz, who keeps inventing inane accusations that Chuck Hagel — a decorated war veteran — has somehow been bought off by foreign powers. I suspect Cruz has been watching too many episodes of Homeland back to back.

Only in a country that was really safe could someone like Sen. Lindsay Graham keep threatening to leave the Pentagon leaderless so that he can get more "answers" about Benghazi, even after the secretary of state and a bunch of other officials have testified at length on that tragic matter. And what exactly does Benghazi have to do with Hagel’s fitness for office anyway, given that he wasn’t in the Obama administration when our consulate was attacked?

Only in a country that was very, very secure could a senator like James Inhofe invoke a crackpot interpretation of the Old Testament to justify U.S. support for Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank without having his constiuents hound him from office for endangering the United States and Israel alike. Remember, Inhofe is defending an occupation that many Israelis — including several former prime ministers — believe threatens Israel’s long-term future. With "friends" like Senator Inhofe, Israel doesn’t need enemies (it has those in abundance already). But because America is so secure, he can say silly things like this and not be seen as endangering the country.

I’m pretty sure Hagel will be confirmed, as he should be. And I hope every one of the senators who voted against him get peppered by questions from their constituents about why they behaved so shamefully … from start to finish.