It must be nice to be a Republican Senator these days. You get all the perks of being a Senator, but you don’t really have to do your job. You just do whatever the President tells you to do.

Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer did just that once again.

The same people who rubber-stamped Kristi Noem to be the head of DHS, Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense ..er, I mean the Department of War, and RFK Jr. to lead the reemergence of measles, have rubber-stamped President Trump’s call to war.

I mean, Trump’s call for military action (or whatever they’re calling it today)

Even though President Trump, Pete Hegseth, the media, and pretty much every other person around the world is calling it a war, Republican Senators can’t call it that because if Pete Ricketts, Deb Fischer, and the rest of the lot actually called it a war, they would have to do something about it.

They would have to go on the record and declare war. You know, like the Constitution said they’re supposed to do.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution explicitly states that Congress, not the President, has the power to declare war.

But these feckless Republican Senators don’t dare do their job and act as a separate but equal branch of government. No, they act like a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump Inc.

The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not bow down and surrender.

The Washington Post reported that a classified document said a large-scale war was unlikely to upend Iran’s regime. If the President had read his intelligence briefings, he might have known that.

If the Senate were doing its job, it might have been able to stop this war, I mean, military action from beginning in the first place.

Yes, the Iranian regime are bad people, but killing one Ayatollah isn’t going to get the rest of the regime to love us, any more than the attack on 911 turned fundamental Christians into Muslims.

I don’t think Pete Ricketts, Deb Fischer, and most of the other Senators are dumb people; they’re just cowardly Senators.

They knew what they were getting when they approved Pete Hegseth to head up the military. They knew that Kristi Noem wasn’t qualified to head up the Department of Homeland Security, and I’ll bet they had serious doubts about Tulsi Gabbard overseeing National Intelligence.

But Donald Trump demanded loyalty, and like the good loyal subjects that they are, they threw America under the bus to approve the King’s appointees.

Shakespeare said it best. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” To paraphrase that for today’s news, “A war by any other name is still a war.”

And Congress is supposed to declare war, not a rogue President who is desperately trying to deflect attention from the Epstein Files or try to cancel the midterm elections by declaring a national emergency.

If the Senate was doing its job, they could tell the American people why we went to war, why Bellevue resident Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens and the other brave soldiers had to die. There needs to be a better reason than “Because President Trump told us to.”

The reasons why we went to war and how long they project it to last keep changing depending on the day.

Yes, Iran was building up its nuclear capabilities. Lots of other countries have nuclear weapons, and we don’t attack them. Besides, weren’t we told that Trump “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities 8 months ago?

Military experts say you can’t have a regime change without boots on the ground. You can bet those boots won’t be filled with anyone whose last name is Trump, Ricketts, Fischer, or related to most any other Senator or Cabinet official.

There are times when war is necessary. Is this one of those times? Who knows?

The House and Senate don’t know. If they were consulted before we put troops in harm’s way, they sure didn’t let us know.

President Trump says he may go after Cuba next. If he does, will the Senate try to stop him? Or will they continue to be presidential lapdogs?

Yes, it must be nice to be a Republican Senator these days.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.