Donald Trump (at left, with purple highlights) was so eager to take credit for his endorsed candidates winning in Tuesday’s primaries that he bragged about some who didn’t even win– like Congressman Cline, who wasn’t on the ballot on Tuesday because he was the only candidate to file for the Republican nomination in the Sixth District.

Congressman Cline joined the overwhelming majority of House Republicans to vote to reinstall a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

The vote Thursday was on an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that’s seen as a must-pass piece of legislation. It would have required the secretary of the Army to reinstall the memorial in its original location in the nation’s most celebrated military veteran graveyard and not designate it as anything other than a “reconciliation” memorial or monument.

The amendment, though, failed to get a majority, as Democrats voted unanimously against it and were joined by 24 GOP House members. But 192 Republicans, or about 87% of the party in the House, voted in favor…

A defense policy bill that passed over then-President Donald Trump’s veto in the waning days of his administration required the monument’s removal.

The art piece was unveiled in 1914 and sculpted by a Confederate veteran, Moses Jacob Ezekiel. Made of bronze and resting on a 32-foot granite pedestal, it featured a woman symbolizing the South holding a laurel wreath, a plow handle and a pruning hook, a reference to the biblical promise of a time when swords would be turned into plowshares.

Below her was a frieze of 32 figures, which “depict mythical gods alongside Southern soldiers and civilians,” according to the cemetery’s website. Among those figures are a Confederate soldier handing off his infant to an enslaved African American woman for caretaking and an enslaved man in uniform following his owner into battle.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries asked: “What Confederate tradition are you upholding? Is it slavery? Rape? Kidnap? Jim Crow? Lynching? Racial oppression? Or all of the above? What exactly is the Confederate tradition that extreme [Make America Great Again] Republicans in 2024 are upholding?”

In the debate on the amendment, Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) said the memorial’s dedication in 1914, well after the Civil War and Reconstruction, and its subject matter show it was not meant to be unifying.

“When this monument was placed, the gentleman said it was for reconciliation, but for who? Not for the Black Americans who saw that monument then, and even today, and see the images of a mammy and a loyal slave following his master into battle. They know what that means,” she said.

Ironically the vote came on Flag Day, which Congressman Cline recognized with a post on his Facebook page.

Among those who served under that banner are the forces who defeated the Confederates that the memorial mythologizes.

Instead of honoring those who seceded from and fought against the union represented by that flag, Cline should pay tribute to some of the true heroes: the people of the Shenandoah Valley who dared to oppose and resist the Confederacy and to stand with the union.

Congressman Cline has announced his candidacy to chair the House Republican Study Committee, “the largest conservative caucus in Congress” that “has provided past chairs with a seat at key meetings with leadership.”

• The chairmanship has served as a springboard into high-profile positions within the House GOP, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and former Vice President Mike Pence having served in the role.

• The group has played an influential role in shaping the House GOP’s policy agenda, laying out conservative proposals that have been utilized in Republican messaging and pushed legislation to the right.

Cline currently serves as the RSC’s Budget and Spending Task Force chair. In March the RSC released a report (which Cline happily introduced) that included plans to:

• Slash Social Security and Medicare benefits for future retirees.

• Ban universal free school meals.

• Shred the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which funds local law enforcement and community safety.

• Enact the Life at Conception Act, which would ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy after conception for any reason and make in vitro fertilization impossible.

Of course Cline can’t become RSC chair, and achieve greater GOP glory, if he is defeated for reelection in November.

On Tuesday, Congressman Cline and 45 other House Republicans voted for an amendment sponsored by his bizarre and chronically deranged colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene to slash funding for NATO.

“My amendment strikes funding for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO Security Investment Program. My amendment would strike over $433 million in NATO funding from the bill. America should not be doling out hundreds of millions of dollars to international organizations to help them fight their enemies, especially when they are unwilling to fight for themselves,” Greene began, echoing rhetoric from former President Donald Trump.

Greene concluded her remarks, saying, “But yet, America is beyond our pledge. We are spending in 2023, 3.5% of our GDP. But yet we don’t do anything to defend our own country and our own borders. This is why Americans would love to see Congress take action, action to defund NATO, and stop spending hundreds of millions of their hard earned money to foreign countries to defend these foreign countries, while we don’t defend our own country and our own people.”

 Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz responded: “I think the sponsor of the amendment has shown pretty clear evidence that she has no idea what the NATO Security Investment Program is actually funding.”

“So that we can make sure that we invest properly in infrastructure for a vast array of training facilities, of national security facilities, of hangars that contain our airplanes, military aircraft that cost billions of dollars. So everything about what the amendment does actually makes our own service members who are fighting overseas to defend our national security interests and to defend our country less safe…

“Madam chair, we have a responsibility to make sure that the infrastructure that we fund is in pristine, well-kept, well-kept condition. And what the sponsor of the amendments would do is decimate our ability to do that. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic. And we should not not support this amendment, and members should vote against it.”

Voting to make American service members less safe is, as Wasserman Schultz said, irresponsible and unpatriotic. Yet that’s exactly what Ben Cline did.

The amendment was defeated by a vote of 354 to 46.

Since his election to Congress, Cline has had a history of voting against NATO, an alliance which protects the US as well as other member nations and which is needed now as much as it was during the Cold War to stand up to Russian aggression in Ukraine and threats to other countries.

Someone should ask him why he detests the alliance so much.

The June Rockbridge Advocate reports:

The estimate for repairs to the Glen Maury Park swimming pool came in at $650,000. The money for the repairs will come from the city’s federal American Recovery Act funds. (Congressman Ben Cline voted against the measure.) The Health Department said without the repairs, the city would have to close the pool.

Here’s what Congressman Cline had to say on X about the criminal conviction of Donald Trump in New York on Thursday.

Reminder to Cline:

“The radical left” did not convict Trump.

The prosecutor did not convict Trump.

The judge did not convict Trump.

The “mainstream news media” did not convict Trump.

A jury of seven men and five women who spent weeks hearing and viewing evidence and arguments from both the prosecution and the defense unanimously convicted Trump.

Ultimately what Trump himself did to illegally falsify documents in an effort to hide damaging information before the 2016 election is what convicted Trump.

Cline’s cringing and cringeworthy statement in support of the convicted felon was entirely predictable.

But it’s ironic considering how Trump disrespected Cline, who endorsed the former president in January.

In February Cline endorsed Virginia’s 5th District Congressman and his fellow Freedom Caucus member Bob Good for reelection. Good is facing a tough primary election against State Senator John McGuire.

If Trump knew about this, it clearly made no difference. He recently backed McGuire over Good.

So now Cline is in the position of supporting for President a convicted felon who called Cline’s pal Good “BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA.”

Rather humiliating, isn’t it?

WXFR reports:

Roanoke’s corridor of the Blue Ridge Parkway is set to go under renovation after receiving approximately $75 million.

The Blue Ridge Parkway says the money came from the  Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) Legacy Restoration Funding. It will be used for major road and safety improvements.

The three-year repaving and rehabilitation program will improve the condition of 24 miles of the BRP from milepost 97 at Blackhorse Gap to milepost 121 near U.S. 220 in Roanoke. Park officials said the project includes slope stabilization, road resurfacing, and repair or replacement of draining structures.

Crews will also work on walkers, shoulders, guardrails, stone walls, overlooks, pavements markings, and signage.

The stretch of the Parkway set to undergo these improvements is almost entirely within the Sixth Congressional District represented by Ben Cline.

So a smoother and safer road, improved overlooks, repair and construction jobs for Cline’s constituents, a more enjoyable experience for visitors from outside the region and local people alike, a boost to nearby businesses. What’s not to like?

Interestingly there has been no mention of this on Cline’s congressional website or on his Facebook or X accounts.

Perhaps that’s because he voted NO in 2020 on the Great American Outdoors Act.

The April 24 edition of The News-Gazette, which circulates in Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista, features an excellent editorial praising the US House of Representatives for overwhelmingly approving new military aid to Ukraine in its existential fight against murderous Russian aggression. This comes after months of unconscionable delay by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who clearly feared the wrath of Donald Trump.

The editors rightfully call out our Sixth District Republican congressman:

We note that our own Congressman Ben Cline voted in favor of aid to Israel, aid for Taiwan and other Asian nations, and to force the sale of TicToc, but voted against assistance to Ukraine. We think an explanation is in order. If Representative Cline had a problem with foreign aid as a matter of fiscal responsibility, it would follow that he would have voted against the other two aid bills, but he did not.

The week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Representative Cline wrote in his Sixth District Perspectives newsletter, “We must continue to prod the Administration and the world community to stand strongly against this aggression. The Ukrainian people have shown tremendous resiliency and determination in their efforts to repel the invaders and defend their homeland. I am pleased that countries throughout Europe have condemned the actions of the Kremlin and are giving the Ukrainian resistance some of the tools needed to fight. As the situation unfolds, our thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainian people.”

What’s changed from 26 months ago?

What, indeed?

Perhaps there’s a hint of the answer in this new post on Cline’s campaign Facebook page:

Congressman Cline on Saturday continued his shameful record of voting to betray the Ukrainian people in their fight aaginst Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s brutal aggression.

Cline joined 111 other House Republicans to vote NO on a $60.8 billion bill to aid Ukraine. With all Democrats voting YES, the measure passed by 311-112 and goes to the Senate for final approval.

But disgraceful as it was, it wasn’t contemptible enough for Cline. He gave Ukraine another kick in the teeth by voting YES on a failed amendment by his loony colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene to reduce the dollar amount in the legislation to zero.

A little more than two years ago, Cline bragged about being sanctioned by Russia (along with almost every other member of the House). He used that fact to raise money for his reelection campaign.

What changed, Congressman?

Congressman Cline regularly makes a fool of himself at House committee hearings with his partisan questions designed to score political points rather than elicit information.

Such was the case when Cline interrogated Attorney General Merrick Garland and tried to make an issue of President Biden’s alleged mental impairment.

Cline: Have you ever seen evidence of impairment in your meetings with the president?

Garland: I’m sorry. I’ve testified and I’ll repeat again what I just said.

Cline: Well, that’s different than my question.

Garland: Well, I have seen the president effectively guide the members of the Department, of his cabinet and his military through…

Cline: But you won’t say you’ve ever seen any impairment on his part?

Garland: The president has no impairment. The president…

Cline: You’ve never seen any.

Garland: I don’t know how many ways I can say this. I have complete confidence in the president and I reject your characterization.

What makes this darkly amusing is that while Cline seeks to raise concerns about Biden’s mental fitness, he enthusiastically endorsed Donald Trump– whose cognitive decline is plain for everyone to see almost every time he appears in public– for another four years as president.