“I think both Russia and Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election.” — Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana on Meet the Press

In carrying Donald Trump’s water, Senator Johnson – along with many of Trump’s Republican allies – is also carrying Vladimir Putin’s.

Fiona Hill testified last month:

“Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country—and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.

The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan Congressional reports. It is beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified.”

An incredulous Chuck Todd asks the Senator from Louisiana, “Are you at all concerned that you’ve been duped?”

Nope!

We are witnessing a disgraceful charade in the service of political partisanship.

Mark Shields, whom I’ve long regarded as a savvy observer of U.S. politics, astonished me (on November 8) when he dissented from the view (expressed by David Brooks) that, no matter what testimony was presented to the House Intelligence Committee, Republicans would not change their minds.

Shields responded, when Judy Woodruff asked if he agreed:

No, I don’t. I like to agree with David, but I don’t on this one.

(LAUGHTER)

I don’t think you can understand the impact until you see the face and hear the voice of the people making this case and, as I say, putting their own careers, their own professional lives at risk to do so.

And these are people with very impressive credentials, resumes of long public service. And I think I recall — David was too young. I recall Watergate, which was 45 years ago, when, all of a sudden, there was a voice that said, yes, there is — Alexander Butterfield — there is a taping system in the White House, and the impact that had on people.

And when John Dean said, yes, the president — I told the president there’s a cancer on the presidency. And I just — I don’t think you can overstate…

(CROSSTALK)

A week later (November 15) this exchange occurred:

David Brooks: There has to be a surprise for this to change. And Trump’s behavior today and over the course of this episode is totally in character.

Mark Shields: Stay tuned, David.

Last week (November 22) Shields offered this mea culpa:

“What I have underestimated — and I think David was right — is the fear that David — that Donald Trump exercises over Republicans. I mean, people talked about Lyndon Johnson being a fearsome political leader. They don’t even approach. I mean, he strikes fear into the hearts of Republicans up and down the line. And I think that is — that, to me, has been eye-opening in its dimensions.”

Although I was flabbergasted by Shield’s belated recognition of the state of Trump’s Republican Party, give him credit for the perfect comparison. The fearsome Lyndon Johnson’s political influence over the Democratic Party (in the first two years of his presidency, when LBJ pushed through the Civil Rights Bill and other programs comprising the Great Society) was puny compared with the hold Donald Trump — an extraordinarily weak president in the judgment of political scientists: see Jonathan Bernstein — wields over sycophantic Congressional Republicans who anticipate a primary election in their futures.

(Photo of LBJ and Senator Green: Smithsonian on Pinterest.)