MR. CONSERVATIVE.

Unlocked here is today’s Roy Edroso Breaks It Down item on the now-traditional lovefest between American conservatives and Vladmir Putin and how I expect it to inform the Ukraine discourse. And since it came out it looks like I called it:

The first of the high-circulation wingnuts to rise fully to Russia’s defense is Candace Owens (“NATO [under direction from the United States] is violating previous agreements and expanding eastward. WE are at fault”). I expect there will be more. (Charlie Kirk is playing with it.) 

I'd say this is an instinct, if not a legacy. The double backflip will be “Russia is justified and it’s Biden’s fault,” as Donald Trump’s Gotta Hand It To ‘Em remarks suggest.

My position is the same as it was in 2003, when I was no fan of Saddam Hussein but didn’t see a reason for the U.S. to fight him. It would never have occurred to me, though, to defend my position by saying what a great, godly, manly leader Saddam was.