"The Cowardice of Republican Partisanship" - oped by former Tennesses federal prosecutor
From Jan.29 but I don't remember seeing this posted and it's really good.
Formatting of article is a little weird; you have to scroll down a bit to get to it but well worth a read:
Thomas Paine wrote in the dark winter of 1776 that "these are the times that try men's souls."
In those early days of our country, when its birth was not assured, Paine observed that "the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country."
These words describe well our Republican politicians in Washington, including Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker.
Make no mistake: We are facing a crisis in the United States. We have placed a disturbed, authoritarian charlatan in the White House, and the Republican Party's leaders are more interested in using his election to aggrandize themselves than to serve the people of the United States.
(snip)
At a time when our country needs what Paine might describe as "winter soldiers," who stand up when weaker men and women stand down, Senator Alexander and Senator Corker sit by the fire and smoke cigars.
They have chosen to acquiesce to partisan motives, unwilling to muster even a gesture of support for religious equality, the moral righteousness of protecting refugees, or the baseline expectation that a President should behave more like a statesman than a Kardashian.
The unwillingness of our Senators to stand up to President Trump is a personal moral failure. (The history books their grandchildren read will judge them harshly, and rightfully so.) But more troubling is the impact of their cowardice on others in Congress.
More:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2017/01/29/cowardice-republican-partisanship/97219982/