Editorial: Unity needed in defending Ukraine

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Editorial: Unity needed in defending Ukraine

You might think the sight of Ukrainian parents carrying children in blood-stained blankets, hospitals, schools and apartment buildings destroyed by bombs, mothers, grandparents and children fleeing with the clothes on their back and a suitcase would be enough to at least lead to a temporary halt to the petty politics in Nassau County.

But you would be wrong.

The latest example of county officials seeking partisan advantage amid the catastrophe unfolding in Ukraine came last week in a press release announcing a humanitarian relief drive.

The drive would collect much-needed medical and physical hygiene items ranging from first-aid kits to coats, blankets and sheets. A commendable effort, no doubt.

But instead of announcing the drive on behalf of the entire Legislature, the release said the relief drive was being hosted by the “Nassau County Legislative Majority.” In other words, Republican legislators.

Why? Are Democratic county legislators siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin in his barbaric assault on Ukraine? Are Democrats opposed to relief efforts for Ukraine? Were they even asked to support the collection of these needed items?

We are certain that Democratic legislators and virtually any other American would have gladly joined the relief effort if asked. So why didn’t the Republicans ask Democratic county legislators, who have not undertaken a similar effort on their own.

Why would Republican legislators choose not to present a united American front in support of Ukraine’s heroic battle against a much larger and better-equipped Russian army acting routinely outside the bounds of international rules for warfare?

Led by a president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who risks his life every day in support of democracy in his country.

Adding insult to injury is that the press release was written and emailed by Nassau County, meaning that you, the taxpayer, paid for a message that sought to give political advantage in providing assistance to Ukraine.

Yes, both Democratic and Republican legislators routinely issue press releases that are at least in part partisan in presenting their side of a particular issue.

But are there really two sides to the issue of aiding Ukraine in its moment of need?

This behavior might be excused as an oversight by Republicans if it wasn’t part of a disturbing pattern of hypocrisy on Ukraine illustrated by the county and state Republican parties’ embrace of Lee Zeldin for governor.

Zeldin, a Republican congressman from Suffolk County, rose to national prominence by opposing the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.

That was the impeachment in which Trump was charged with delaying the delivery of military equipment already authorized by Congress to Ukraine as he tried to force Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter for corruption that never existed.

“I would like you to do us a favor,” Trump told Zelensky when asked for the necessary arms.

The military equipment was much the same weaponry being requested and delivered now to Ukraine, which had been fighting a low-scale war with Russia since 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea and was supporting separatists in two provinces to the east.

Zeldin called the impeachment probe into Trump a “charade,” a “clown show,” and “a cocktail” that is House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff’s “favorite drink to get America drunk,” according to an NBC report.

In seven impeachment deposition transcripts released early in the probe, no Republican spoke more than Zeldin, who is referenced more than 550 times, according to an NBC News tally.

Zeldin repeatedly tried to steer the depositions away from Trump’s conduct and toward a host of tangential matters – including a conspiracy theory about the Biden family’s role in a Ukraine energy company.

Zeldin was rewarded for his efforts by becoming one of Trump’s point men in battling impeachment, teaming up with then-House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

As we have already pointed out, Zeldin was one of 121 House Republicans to vote against certifying the presidential election results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania – after a mob incited by Trump assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6 to overturn the election.

Zeldin then became the lone dissenting vote in the Long Island congressional delegation on a bill to create a 9/11-type commission to investigate the most serious attack on our election system since the Civil War.

At a time when people are dying every day to defend democracy in Ukraine, do New Yorkers really want to be led by a Trump loyalist who supported overturning the 2020 presidential election?

Would anyone take his calls to support democracy in Ukraine seriously when he didn’t even support democracy in the United States?

Could we take anything Zeldin had to say about fighting crime or bail reform seriously when he didn’t want to investigate a threat to the country’s democracy that injured 150 Capitol Police officers and threatened the lives of members of Congress and the vice president?

One would even have to wonder if Zeldin would accept the results of a gubernatorial election in New York or would he incite the kind of mob that besieged the Capitol on Jan. 6 to assault the state Capitol.

Before calling that too outlandish, recall that the same right-wing extremists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 plotted to attack the Michigan Capitol and capture the state’s governor before the insurrection in Washington, D.C.

The Nassau County Republican Party had already embraced the Trump wing of the GOP by nominating Bruce Blakeman as its candidate for county executive before throwing its support behind Zeldin for governor.

A former Hempstead Town Board member, Blakeman had served as the Nassau County Republican Party’s liaison to the Trump presidential campaign – a role he filled with great gusto.

Blakeman defeated Laura Curran in a race in which the Democratic candidate never mentioned the GOP candidate’s support of Trump. This can only be described as gross political malpractice.

Since then Blakeman has appeared with Zeldin at several events in Nassau, which is considered one of the candidate’s focuses in the upcoming gubernatorial contest, including a rally in Great Neck honoring police.

Blakeman recently announced a drive to collect rifles, shotguns and AR-15 type weapons for Ukrainian citizens that also included an unnecessary partisan slight.

“We are doing our job here in Nassau County,” Blakeman said. “I am asking President Biden to do his job and help get these weapons to Ukraine immediately to those who desperately need them.”

So the Nassau County and state Republican parties have spoken in favor of Zeldin and his Trump brand of politics, but not GOP voters.

They will get their opportunity in the Republican primary in June to define their preference.

We hope Republican voters demonstrate their independence when given that opportunity and express their support for Ukraine and the values Ukrainians are giving their lives to defend.

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