Dana Rohrabacher is an embarrassment.
WASHINGTON — It is a lonely pursuit these days, defending Russia in Congress as outrage over Kremlin aggression grows louder. But Representative Dana Rohrabacher speaks up for Moscow with pride.
He is, he says, a bit frosted with the Russian government in one respect.
“I kind of wish I would get some sort of word back,” Mr. Rohrabacher, a California Republican, said Thursday shortly before the House voted 399 to 19 to offer aid to Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia. “But I haven’t even gotten so much as a thank you.”
Rohrabacher vigorously defended the Putin regime this week, accusing Russia’s critics of clinging to the threat communism and saying that the “churches are full” in Moscow.
Yeah, they’re full. Full of rabidly anti-gay fanatics. But that pleases Rohrabacher, doesn’t it?
Rohrabacher claims today’s Russia is a much better Russia and that there’s “opposition papers being distributed on every newsstand” in the country.
If you’ve paid even a shred of attention, you’d know that is a complete lie. There is no opposition in Russia now. Putin has silenced all opposing views and pushed every source of media to produce anti-western propaganda. Those who won’t go along with the Kremlin have been sacked. Independent newspapers and websites have been blocked or shut down.
In hindsight it shouldn’t come as a shock that a man who said Putin’s “muscles are just unbelievable” would go the extra distance for him.
Dana Rohrabacher is an international embarrassment.