Ken White: Republicans committed the classic cross-examination blunder

The contrast between Gaetz and Gallagher is much more interesting. Gaetz, a product of William & Mary Law School, is a fierce defender of all things military. His website touts his A+ rating from the National Rifle Association, of which he is a lifetime member. He voted to support the president, of course, and avows his determination to root out corruption in the Justice Department and the FBI, institutions that Republicans like him once supported.

Gallagher might or might not have the same ardent love of guns that Gaetz has; he certainly does not have the same morbid suspicion of federal law-enforcement officers. But he actually carried a weapon in the service of his country, which so many of the summer soldiers and sunshine patriots of the GOP have inexplicably avoided. After graduating from Princeton, he joined the United States Marine Corps and served several tours in the dusty, dangerous Anbar province in Iraq before getting a doctorate at Georgetown University. He is one of the thoughtful voices on national defense in Congress, although he does not boast about it. He just does his job.

And then there is the gray mass of Republicans in the middle, the ones in the House who voted with the president in favor of declaring a national emergency, and the ones who will do so in the Senate. They are not as sleazy as Cohen, as pugnaciously nasty as Gaetz, or as principled as Gallagher. They are simpler souls: They are cowards.

Talk to them privately, and they will confess that there is no emergency at the southern border—there is a problem, to be sure, but one whose seriousness has actually diminished over time. They know that the congressional leadership had the votes to build walls there for the first two years of the administration but did not manage it. They know, for that matter, that border security involves much more than walls. They know that the president is invoking emergency powers as an electoral ploy, and because he is impatient.

Read: Trump’s emergency declaration is a test Republicans didn’t want to take

They know, in their timid breasts, that they would have howled with indignation if Barack Obama had declared a national emergency in such a circumstance. As they stare at their coffee cup at breakfast, the thought occurs to them that a future left-wing president could make dangerous use of these same powers—because Speaker Nancy Pelosi rubbed that fact in their face. Some of the brighter ones might even realize that emergency powers are a favored tool of authoritarians everywhere.

But they are afraid. They are afraid of being primaried. They are afraid of being called out by the bully whom they secretly despise but to whom they pledge public fealty. They are afraid of having to find another occupation than serving in elective office. And the most conceited of the lot—and there are quite a few of those, perhaps more in the Senate than in the House—think that it would be a tragedy if the country no longer had their service at its disposal.