OPINION: Rep. Fulcher receives an F for opposition to Ukraine funding

JEERS ... to Congressman Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho.

His opposition to the cause of freedom in Central Europe has become painfully clear.

As compiled by Republicans for Ukraine, Fulcher’s voting record earned him the lowest grade possible — “F-Very poor.”

If the rest of the United States government followed Fulcher’s lead, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be attending victory parades today rather than facing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s albeit slow but progressing counter-offensive.

About two months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Fulcher supported an initial measure — the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022. At the time, only 10 Republicans opposed the measure. Since then, the Idaho Republican has joined figures such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Thomas Massie, R-La., in undermining the financial and military lifeline that has kept Putin at bay.

Among Fulcher’s actions:

On May 10, 2022, Fulcher was among 57 House Republicans to oppose a $40.1 billion aid package to Ukraine.

On July 13, Fulcher was among 89 Republicans who supported Greene’s attempt to strip $300 million of aid.

Also on July 13, Fulcher joined 69 other Republicans in backing Florida Republican Matt Gaetz’s attempt to block security assistance to Ukraine.

That same day, Fulcher, along with 70 other Republicans, voted for Tennessee Republican Andrew Ogles’ amendment to drop the extension of lend-lease authority to Ukraine.

In contrast, Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., received scores of “A-Excellent.”

Long gone is the naive assumption that Fulcher’s actions have no consequence. He’s among 71 House Republicans with this abysmal rating of opposing aid to Ukraine — roughly a third of the House GOP majority. Along with the prospect of former President Donald Trump returning to office in next year’s elections, that’s sufficient encouragement for Putin to hold on.

We’ve been here before: In 1938, Western democracies learned a painful lesson when they sought to appease German aggression with the Munich agreement.

At the time, Winston Churchill observed: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

Those are words Rep. Fulcher should consider.

CHEERS ... to Congressman Simpson.

As his party careens toward yet another government shutdown, the Idaho Republican — and veteran Appropriations Committee member — is standing out as a voice of reason.

He knows shutting down the federal government will hurt people at home: contractors at the Idaho National Laboratory, military installations such as Mountain Home Air Force Base, and firefighting operations on federal lands as well as individuals who need services or permits via government agencies.

“It would be disastrous,” Simpson told The Associated Press. “I’ve never seen a time when a shutdown is good policy or good politics.”

He’s also pointing out the political pitfalls for the GOP.

“We always get the blame,” Simpson told Politico. “Name one time that we’ve shut the government down and we haven’t got the blame.”

Perhaps Simpson is mindful of the math: The GOP’s slim hold on the majority is because of 18 Republicans elected from districts carried by President Joe Biden. Placating a half-dozen obstructionists is putting those swing-district Republicans at risk.

Simpson told CNN it was “frustrating that the place doesn’t work anymore. ... We’re being dragged around by 20 people, but 200 of us are in agreement. … They want their way or the highway. And that’s not the way this government works.”

What’s noteworthy is Simpson’s solution. As the AP reported, the Idaho Republican said it was time for Speaker Kevin McCarthy to cut a bipartisan deal with House Democrats.

Doing so would present an existential risk for the speaker, but it’s the way Congress used to conduct business when it put the people ahead of the political parties.

JEERS ... to U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.

The 80-year-old Risch has been in public life for more than five decades. How does such a seasoned politician make such a rookie mistake as the blunder the Idaho Statesman’s Kevin Fixler documented last week?

Risch not only put his selfish interests ahead of his constituents, he lobbied, cajoled, pressured and even attempted a backchannel piece of legislation to steer commercial and military aircraft approaching Boise’s airport away from his 44-acre ranch in southwest Boise and toward Meridian and Nampa. Claims that the senator was acting on behalf of ordinary people rather than himself vaporized as soon as the Statesman went looking for other complaints.

As the Statesman editorialized, it was petty. It was corrupt. It was arrogant. It endangered flight safety.

And it was politically foolish. How did Risch expect to keep this quiet? Someone among the aviation community was bound to notice his self-dealing.

Where was his million-dollar Senate staff to warn him off?

Nor is this happening in a vacuum.

Five years ago, Risch had a temper tantrum on the floor of the U.S. Senate when he threatened to derail a $1.3 trillion spending package because it renamed the White Clouds Wilderness in honor of the late former Idaho Gov. Cecil D. Andrus. A Lewiston Tribune headline summed it up: “Risch picks fight with dead man, loses.”

Eighteen months later, he tried to gaslight the entire affair by claiming he had no grudge against Andrus. The governor’s daughter, Tracy Andrus, called out Risch: “Mr. Risch is trying to rewrite history. I’m comfortable letting history speak for itself.”

Then there was Trump’s second Senate impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. Among the 100 members of that body, Risch was the first to take a 15-minute snooze on the floor — long enough for a sketch artist to capture it.

And don’t forget last year when Risch pontificated for seven minutes at the groundbreaking ceremony for Micron Technology’s $15 billion chip manufacturing plant in Boise.

That expansion was made possible by passage of the CHIP Act, providing billions to restore the nation’s memory-building infrastructure. Without it, Micron officials warned more manufacturing would be offshored.

Risch voted against it.

What’s going on here? — M.T.