What Can — and Should — We Do about Russia?

Today on NRO VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama admirers have created a complete distortion of "the Eisenhower era." Obama: Ike Redivivus? THE EDITORS: After the U.S. out-banana-republics Ecuador. Finally, Justice for Chevron. MARY EBERSTADT: The Sexual Revolution trumps all. Progressivism's War on Winners. PHILIP HAMBURGER: Religious Americans have been politically excluded. Underlying Hobby Lobby. ALEX ALEXIEV: Putin may seem to be riding high, but he and his empire are doomed. For Whom the Maidan Bells Toll? SLIDESHOW: Ulysses S. Grant. Morning Jolt . . . with Jim Geraghty March 11, 2014 What Can — and Should — We Do about Russia? If you live in Florida's 13th Congressional District, get out and vote today! And may all your votes be Jolly! Have a holly, Jolly special Election Day. Revealed: The Secret, Off-the-Books, Get-Out-the-Vote Money of Hillary 2008 Ahem. Dear national media, this sort of thing is rather important: That's from Jeffrey Thompson, in a "statement of offense," so this is no longer in dispute. Some of the backstory: Jeffrey E. Thompson, a former city contractor who allegedly financed a secret campaign for then-mayoral candidate Vincent C. Gray (D) in 2010, financed an independent effort to reach urban voters on behalf of Clinton in Texas and at least three other states during the 2008 Democratic primaries, according to the interviews and documents. A search of federal campaign records found no evidence that Thompson or White disclosed the alleged expenditures or activities to the Federal Election Commission, as required by campaign finance laws. The Hillary folks said back in September they had no idea Thompson was doing this. Keep this in mind the next time Harry Reid or somebody else yammers on and on about the Koch brothers trying to buy elections or nonsense like that. Joy in Cheddar-Land: New Surpluses and New Tax Cuts in Wisconsin! Our first bit of good news for the states: This week, the Wisconsin State Assembly will approve another big tax cut, amounting to $541 million and give Scott Walker another feather in his cap as he heads into his reelection campaign: The tax decreases — the third round of cuts by Republicans in less than a year — passed 17-15 with GOP Sen. Dale Schultz of Richland Center joining all Democrats in voting against the proposal. The proposal now goes to the Assembly, which passed a different version of the tax cuts last month with two Democrats joining all Republicans in supporting it. With growing tax collections now expected to give the state a $1billion budget surplus in June 2015, Walker's bill will cut property and income taxes for families and businesses, and zero out all income taxes for manufacturers in the state. This isn't exactly stunning news, but reassuring: Walker enters the 2014 campaign season with a sizable financial advantage: Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch together raised more than $9 million in 2013. As of December 31, Walker and Kleefisch had a combined $4.97 million in their campaign accounts. Democrat Mary Burke, who is challenging Walker, raised $1.8 million in 2013 and has $1.32 million in her campaign account. Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, who has challenged Kleefisch, raised $9,340 in 2013 and has $10,647. Also, "Republicans, who hold a majority in both the Senate and Assembly, started the 2014 election year with three times more cash in their campaign accounts than Democrats, the report shows." Get Ready for a Massive Fight over Abortion -- Among Democrats! So at what point can we declare that there's a civil war within the Democratic party over abortion? Because West Virginia Democrats in the state legislature just voted to ban abortion after twenty weeks. Are the Democrats elsewhere just going to avert their eyes? Will NARAL give them a pass because there's a D after their name? Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat and perhaps the worst governor you've never heard of, is now going to be one of the most scrutinized governors in the country: Another bill Tomblin said he would carefully scrutinize is House Bill 4588, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. That bill bans abortions after 20 weeks except in the case of non-viable pregnancies. The law is similar to others that have passed state legislatures across the country, but some of those bills have faced legal challenges. The attorney for the Senate Judiciary Committee last week cautioned against passing the bill to the full Senate, saying it is unconstitutional. "The abortion bill obviously is one that causes me some concern because the legislative attorneys and others have said the bill is unconstitutional," Tomblin said. "So I'll be looking at all those aspects of it once I receive the bill." Note that the legislative votes weren't even close: "The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, HB 4588, passed in the West Virginia Senate on the final day of the session, Saturday, March 8, by a vote of 29-5. The Senate approved an amended version of the bill, which had been passed earlier by the House of Delegates. The House had to concur with the Senate changes before final passage, 83-15." Just in case there wasn't enough pressure on Tomblin: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is "supportive" of a West Virginia bill banning abortions after 20 weeks and is considering backing a similar federal ban in the Senate. "I am pro-life and supportive of the principles in the bill that was just passed in the West Virginia Legislature," Manchin said in a statement. What Can — and Should — We Do about Russia? Didn't expect this policy proposal in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine, did you? First, NATO should reconsider its so-called Three Nos from the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act. The Three Nos were shorthand for the NATO allies' joint declaration that they had "no intentions, no plans, and no reason" to station nonstrategic nuclear forces in new member states. But NATO left the door open to future deployments if front-line allies were threatened. While NATO still lacks the intention and plans to station nuclear forces in new member states, such as Poland, it now has more than sufficient reason to do so. A preliminary step should be making the Polish air force's F-16s capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons so that they could participate in NATO's nuclear mission. That should quickly be followed by site surveys to identify suitable locations for potentially storing nuclear weapons on the territory of front-line allies, including Poland, if relations with Russia further deteriorate. That's from Jim Thomas, vice president and director of studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in the Wall Street Journal Monday. I won't pretend to be an expert on Russia or Eastern Europe, but doesn't the path he's laying out here feel both extremely unlikely and more than a little high-risk? NATO's eastern flank, consisting of the countries that joined after the end of the Cold War includes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, and Croatia. How many of those countries would get nuclear weapons and deployment systems based on their soil? How many will want them? A 2005 study estimated that the United States has 480 nuclear weapons based in Europe. U.S. personnel maintain and guard the weapons, but if war breaks out, the plan is to deploy the weapons on the planes of the host countries. In other words, countries that border Russia — Latvia, Estonia, and if we're counting Kaliningrad Oblast, that little stub of Russia that is separate from the rest on the Baltic Sea coast, Poland — would have nukes on their soil, ready to be deployed on their air force jets if Russia crossed the border. The upside is that it would certainly provide a giant deterrent to Russian aggression against these countries. The downside is that if Russia thought these countries joining NATO was provocative, I can only imagine how Putin would perceive a bunch of countries on his border getting a step closer to having their own nuclear arsenals. (I seem to recall another high-stakes showdown with Moscow stemming from the decision to deploy Jupiter nuclear missiles near Izmir, Turkey in the early 1960s.) And it would take time to get those countries military installations and air forces ready for a move like this; one could easily imagine Moscow viewing it as now-or-never opportunity to exercise control over these countries (by invading) and preventing them from getting nuclear weapons. By attempting to prevent a conflict, a move like this could actually trigger one. We can also expect a great deal of clucking about our conveniently spotty commitment to nuclear nonproliferation, and perhaps Russia would get into the nuclear-arms-sales business. Now, there are a bunch of steps short of deploying nukes, and Thomas mentions some of them — building up these countries' conventional defenses, adding missile defense, establishing permanent NATO bases in Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Our security interest in this conflict isn't really about Crimea. It was already technically an "autonomous Republic" and some significant chunk of the population is eager to join Russia. No, our security interest really revolves around Russia, and what kind of actions they use to pursue their interests. ADDENDUM: Ken Gardner: "PPP finds that people who have reported seeing a UFO supported Obama by 15 points over Mitt in 2012. This explains a great deal." To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com Why not forward this to a friend? Encourage them to sign up for NR's great free newsletters here. Save 75%... Subscribe to National Review magazine today and get 75% off the newsstand price. Click here for the print edition or here for the digital. National Review also makes a great gift! Click here to send a full-year of NR Digital or here to send the print edition to family, friends, and fellow conservatives. Follow Tweet NR Podcasts Send National Review, Inc. Manage your National Review subscriptions. We respect your right to privacy. View our policy. This email was sent by: National Review, Inc. 215 Lexington Avenue, 11th Floor New York, NY 10016