Republicans seem determined to ride their condemnation of the Bergdahl prisoner swap as if it's the next IRS, Benghazi and/or secret government plan to hoard ammunition so that true patriots can't get any. I'm not sure anything Secretary of Defense and former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel can say to talk them out of it, but
kudos for trying.
“We made the right decision, and we did it for the right reasons — to bring home one of our people,” Hagel said at the first public hearing on the Bergdahl swap. “War is a dirty business. And we don’t like to deal with those realities, but realities they are.”
Republicans are particularly upset that the military did not inform Republican congressional representatives of the prisoner exchange in sufficient time for House Republicans to leak it and botch the whole thing. The House Republicans, realizing the danger it would put a POW in, wouldn't have leaked it? Yeah, I don't think even other Republicans can say that with a straight face anymore.
[House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon] said his committee is launching an investigation into the swap that will look at the larger implications as well as the decision to ignore the 30-day notification requirement, included in the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act.
They've bypassed Darrell Issa's regular clown show on that one, too? I can't imagine how pissed off he is right now.
In more bipartisan news, two Republicans and two Democrats say they will be introducing a resolution explicitly condemning Obama for the exchange that released Bergdahl.
Reps. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), John Barrow (D-Ga.) and Nick Rahall (D-W. Va.) plan to introduce the resolution later Wednesday, according to a statement obtained first by The Washington Post and aides familiar with their plans. [...]
But the resolution should prove popular with Americans: A majority disapprove of the deal that freed Bergdahl from his Taliban captors, and nearly three-quarters think he should face criminal charges if he deserted his unit, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
POW exchanges are now condemnable actions, and a majority of Americans think we should have left Bergdahl there because some television blowhard said maybe he deserves it, and so that we can keep our own prisoners indefinitely. Every time you think the country can't get more nuts, or more partisan, or more outright bloodthirsty, it seems something pops up to prove us all wrong. Jeebus, people.