While it has some fun turns of phrase, this isn’t one of Sen. John Kennedy’s more eloquent moments as an orator. That’s not to say he isn’t eloquent here; this piqued our interest because of the substance of what he’s saying more than the style in which he says it. Because Kennedy doesn’t really even take a position on Ukraine funding here; what he’s doing instead is asking for some controls on the billions of dollars being showered on our supposed ally in Joe Biden’s proxy war against Russia.

In his American Spectator newsletter this morning, Dan Flynn gives a pretty good summary of what the Senate has been up to where Ukraine is concerned…

Priorities

Senator Michael Bennet, who ostensibly represents Colorado in the U.S. Senate, affirmed he will “definitely” shut down the U.S. government if the Congress shuts off funds to the Ukrainian government. Cory Booker (D-Kiev) echoed his colleague. He told CNN that “we’re going to do whatever we have to do to fight to make sure Ukraine funding happens” when asked about a shutdown. A man must prioritize, right?

That seems to be evidence the members of the Senate think the Ukraine War is the most important thing the U.S. government has to do, which is a little bit strange seeing as though our economy is sputtering, we’re $33 trillion in debt, our southern border doesn’t really exist anymore, our cities are hellholes of crime, homelessness, hopelessness and corruption, we’re in societal retreat on innumerable fronts and our federal government is engaged in overreaches and abuses almost unprecedented in our history.

And so Kennedy is pushing a bill which at least attempts to impose some controls on the spending for Ukraine which is so important that Bennet and Booker are willing to shut down the federal government to secure it. That bill is the

Here’s his speech on the subject…

So how is that bill doing? Well, it was originally brought to the Senate by Kennedy in February of last year.

Did it go anywhere then? Nope.

Kennedy then tried to get it added to the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), the big annual defense spending bill. That was in July. He didn’t get anywhere then.

Now he’s working on it again. Did this generate any movement?

No.

So you have members of the Senate majority who want to shut down the American government unless we keep sending billions of dollars to the Ukrainian government to fund a war which that government is losing, and we’re doing absolutely nothing to seek a resolution of the war through peace negotiations despite the fact we’re coming up on two years and more than half a million people dead, and the Senate won’t even seriously consider a bipartisan piece of legislation aimed at insuring that the money spent on the Ukraine War isn’t stolen.

Kennedy has been a pretty consistent vote for Ukraine War money. Our own Nathan Koenig popped him on that a week ago. Regardless of whether Koenig was right about that, it’s a rather flimsy position Kennedy is being put in – he’s supporting this massive, open-ended expense which has only a tenuous connection to America’s national interests and might well result in an escalation of the war to include American boots on the ground in Ukraine and maybe even open hostilities with the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, and he can’t even get agreement on an inspector general or someone in charge of controls on this money?

A hypothetical John Kennedy might soon come to the point where he can’t support the Ukraine War anymore under such circumstances. And it may be that an open announcement that he’s changed his position on funding that war seeing as though he’s been rebuffed in his efforts to manage it responsibly is the only thing which moves his bill.

We’re going to look back on our management of the Ukraine War, particularly when it finally ends at a peace table, and wonder what the hell our leaders were thinking. At least Kennedy is thinking, as his advocacy of a spending watchdog indicates. He may need to think bigger.