John McCain voted to end the filibuster today. He claimed to do so with great regret. He claimed to have no choice.

Lindsey Graham voted to end the filibuster today. He said they had “no other option.”

The Republican party has long claimed to stand for personal responsibility. The words are enshrined in the name of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. The idea is a core tenet of the 90s Republican Contract with America. Personal responsibility is apparently a virtue among people struggling to feed their families. Strangely it seems not to apply to Senators who talk out of both sides of their mouths and refuse to accept responsibility for their own actions.

McCain, Graham, and others consistently criticize the president’s choices and actions publicly and then vote to support his agenda in the Senate. If an action is necessary however unpopular, our representatives owe it to us to have the courage to defend it publicly, to explain their support for it. Yet these Senators want headlines for speaking out against the president while they quietly vote to support him and hope he takes the blame for actions they aided.That isn’t personal responsibility. That is conduct unbecoming of a United States Senator.