Speaking of cynically abusing the language of values, the House Republicans are poised to try another one of their obnoxious tricks in an attempt to undermine the antiwar Yemen resolution coming before the House today:

House Republicans are expected as soon as Thursday to try to add an amendment on anti-Semitism to a Yemen war resolution, giving Democrats a wrenching choice: Vote down the amendment amid charges that their party is coddling anti-Semites, or approve it and kill a hard-fought resolution aimed at ending American involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war.

The House GOP used this tactic in February to tack on an irrelevant amendment to H.J.Res. 37, and that amendment was then used by the Senate GOP to deprivilege the resolution so that they could prevent it from coming up for a vote. The Senate had to start the process over by passing S.J.Res. 7, and that is why the House has to vote again. It is disgusting that the House GOP would oppose the antiwar resolution in the first place. The war on Yemen has caused famine that threatens millions of lives, a cholera epidemic that is once again raging across the country, and a bombing campaign that has killed and injured tens of thousands, and the U.S. has been backing the Saudi coalition unconditionally for the last four years. To continue defending U.S. support for the war at this stage is inexcusable. To make things even worse, the House GOP has also chosen to weaponize anti-Semitism in one of the most obvious bad faith maneuvers I have ever had the misfortune to witness. No one genuinely concerned about combating anti-Semitism would try to exploit the issue by using it to sabotage a war powers resolution, and no one who took the Constitution seriously would seek to derail a debate about war powers and the war on Yemen by introducing this into a debate where it doesn’t belong.

The House majority has an opportunity to prevent war supporters from sabotaging another resolution, but they will have to call out their cynical maneuver for what it is and refuse to vote for any irrelevant amendments. Today the House has an opportunity to pass the antiwar resolution that the Senate passed last month, and that is what needs to happen:

Today the House needs to pass a clean #Yemen War Powers Resolution to call for an end to four years of a failed, heartless, and incoherent policy of unconditional support for a military intervention with no end

— Scott Paul (@ScottTPaul) April 4, 2019

Anything less than passing the resolution as it is and sending it to Trump’s desk is not good enough. It has already taken far too long in this Congress to get this done, and today the House can finally finish it.