Deja vu all over again

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first addressed a joint session of the US Congress during his first term, way back in 1996. Behind him on the rostrum that day sat House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Vice President Al Gore, who was fulfilling his Constitutional duties as the President of the Senate.

Since that occasion, upwards of 30 foreign leaders have spoken to America’s lawmakers in similar fashion. They’ve included prime ministers, presidents, a chancellor, a king and a Pope.

Almost invariably, the sitting Vice President has attended.

Dick Cheney might be forgiven for having skipped the 2007 visit by France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, as he was undergoing a heart procedure that day.

The next time the VP managed to be someplace other than in his Constitutionally assigned seat was on March 3, 2015, when Senator Orrin Hatch graciously filled in for Vice President Joe Biden.

Joe was away on some very important business in Guatemala that day, working on something called the Alliance for Prosperity, which was a lot like the “root causes” boondoggle that Kamala Harris briefly dipped a toe in before returning to a more comfortable routine of utter uselessness.

The reality, though, is that Biden’s March 2015 schedule wasn’t exactly etched in stone.

Just a few weeks before the event, a Biden spokesman said, “The Vice President’s office expects that the Vice President will be traveling abroad during the joint session of Congress.”

So yeah, Joe was a no-show.

Hey, wanna take a stab at who the guest speaker was that day, you know, when Biden was down in the Northern Triangle?

Nice guess! Yeah, Bibi freakin’ Netanyahu.

I know, that’s so weird, right?

Wanna hear something else crazy?

Biden wasn’t alone in his absence from the Capitol that day, as 58 Democrat members of Congress blew off the leader of the Jewish state, as well.

8 senators and 50 representatives.

That’s nearly as many truant idiots as there were yesterday.

And, that was a long, long time before Israel began its response to Hamas’ October 7 atrocities.

No, they weren’t all accompanying Joe on his Central American junket. Most of them were following strict orders from Barack Obama, who said he was pissed off that Speaker John Boehner had extended the invitation to Netanyahu without clearing it with the White House first.

Well, that’s what he claimed the reason was.

The reality is that Obama wasn’t simply offended by the impolite breach of protocol. What really got under his skin was that Netanyahu was displaying a bit too much chutzpah in warning the world about the JCPOA, the disastrous Iran nuclear deal that the administration was putting the finishing touches on.

The leader of the Jewish state had been cautioning about the world about the asinine deal for months, and Barack was well aware that it would be the centerpiece of his remarks to Congress.

In the weeks leading up to Netanyahu’s arrival, National Security Advisory Susan Rice called the upcoming visit “destructive to the fabric of the relationship” between the two countries.

Obama was so miffed about the whole thing that he wouldn’t even agree to meet privately with the Israeli leader during his visit.

Netanyahu was not deterred. How could he be? A neighboring country, hell-bent on Israel’s destruction might soon see the removal of essentially every last obstacle to its acquiring a nuclear weapon.

“I respect the White House and the President of the United States,” he said. “But on such a fateful matter that can determine whether or not we can survive, I must do everything to prevent such a great danger for Israel.”

Our shit-for-brains Secretary of State at the time, John Kerry, attempted to rebuff the PM’s misgivings about the nuclear deal, saying, “He may have a judgment that just may not be correct here.”

Kerry later told senators, “The President has made clear —I can’t state this more firmly —the policy is Iran will not get a nuclear weapon.”

Is it just me or does it seem like we maybe should’ve listened to to Bibi back then?

When Netanyahu used the term “Iran’s useful idiots” yesterday, he was referring to “pro-Palestinian” protesters, such as the geniuses who “hold up signs saying, Gays for Gaza.”

However, aren’t the anti-Israeli protests, statements and other moronic behavior by our elected officials so much worse?

Yesterday, for the first time since Biden played hooky back in 2015, our sitting Vice President found a reason not to attend an address by our closest and most strategically important ally in the Middle East.

Since 2008, only Netanyahu has been treated that diplomatically disdainful gesture, and he’s gotten it twice.

That’s just so wrong for so many reasons.

But, maybe even worse, think about the fact that this is a woman who’s hoping to be inaugurated as our next President in January and she just deliberately snubbed a man whom she intends to number among her counterparts in a matter of months. A man who is currently leading his nation in an existential struggle against “barbarism;” a man who rightly pointed out yesterday that his nation helps to “keep American boots off the ground while protecting our shared interests in the Middle East.”

Well, anyway, Kamala had more important business to attend to in Indianapolis yesterday. Her office called it a simple scheduling conflict

Oh, okay then. What was she in Indianapolis for?

Well, like I said, it was important. Very important. She urgently needed to address about 6,000 members of —wait for it…

Zeta Phi Beta sorority.

No, I’m not making that shit up. Seriously, a sorority.

And yes, as you might’ve guessed, it was nothing but a campaign stop. She talked to a sorority about shit like student debt forgiveness and access to abortion.

Meanwhile, back at the Capitol, Netanyahu spoke of our being at a crossroads of history, and about the existential threat posed by our common enemies, Iran and its axis of terror.

Kamala chose to yuck it up with sorority sisters, rather than to be present when Netanyahu introduced Noa Argamani, the beautiful 26-year-old Israeli girl who was kidnapped by Hamas savages on October 7, and spent 246 in captivity.

Harris was scheduled to begin her 15-minute address —fifteen minutes (!)— at 12:30 yesterday (she managed to kick it off 20 minutes late).

Now, don’t you think that if someone from the office of the Vice President of the United States called a sorority and politely asked if the time slot could be moved just a bit, that some accommodation probably would have been made?

“Hey, um, Madam Sorority Lady, I hate to inconvenience you and the girls, but the Vice President has, you know like, official business in the House Chamber that day. Yeah, it’s just the leader of one of our greatest allies in the world. Is there any way we could…?”

When the VP is unavailable (or unwilling) to preside over the Senate, the job would normally fall to the President pro tempore.

Unfortunately, Patty Murray of Washington is also on the idiot roster, and joined with the other 69 of them in just not being at her appointed place of duty yesterday afternoon.

Instead, Maryland’s Ben Cardin stood in, which is also notable in that his colleague, Chris Van Hollen, another proud idiot, chose to boycott the whole event, as well.

Now, while he may have been cleverly looking to leverage her absence for political reasons, Speaker Johnson was well within his rights to say, “It’s outrageous to me and inexcusable that Kamala Harris is boycotting this joint session.”

Hey, she handed him the cudgel, so why not use it, right?

Despite having skipped the address, Nancy Pelosi later posted to X, calling it “by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States,”

Obviously, the dolt didn’t bother to watch it because, at least in my estimation, it was one of the greatest such addresses I’ve ever seen, and in so many ways.

During his remarks, Netanyahu reminded his American audience of the obvious truth that, “Our enemies are your enemies.”

And he couldn’t have asked for a better visual aid as, just down the block, at Union Station, mindless nihilists weren’t just burning effigies of the Israel leader, but the Stars and Stripes, as well.

What inspired the congressional no-shows yesterday is a strain of ignorance very similar to the one that encouraged Stanford law students to shout down a federal judge last May.

“I know I’m not going to like what you have to say, so I just ain’t listening.”

Of course, it’s also quite like the uninformed inspiration behind college encampments and slogans like, “from the river to the sea” being chanted by Anglo-suburban Gen-Z shitheads.

But this is so much worse because, not only are we talking about adults, but these are the people we hired to represent us.

Yesterday, they embarrassed us. They embarrassed our nation and they sent a signal to our enemies —most notably, of course, Iran— that our alliance with Israel ain’t exactly air-tight.

Nobody is more guilty in that regard than Vice President Harris herself.

For knucklehead House members, and even senators, not to show up was childish but, maybe, not all that unexpected.

But, think about this. Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of a nation that is absolutely critical to US national security and —oh, by the way— the only democracy in the Middle East, has addressed Congress twice in the past nine years.

In each case, his visit took place during a Democrat administration which, of course, meant that we had a Democrat Vice President.

And, in each case, during his address, someone other than the sitting VP was seated behind him.

I hope my Jewish friends are paying attention.

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Brian O’Leary is a retired Marine Corps colonel, who served for 30 years, including combat deployments to Somalia and Iraq, and command of an infantry battalion in Afghanistan. Additionally, he has spent 25 years in the financial services industry. Brian earned his BA in English from Penn State University and his MA in National Security Studies from the US Army War College.

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