Dan Sullivan and his failure to respond

Sen. Dan Sullivan unleashed a flood of new unresponsive letters this week to constituents who wrote him to complain about everything from Greeenland and Trump corruption to Venezuela, the federal shutdown last fall and the masked federal gunmen in Minneapolis.

There must be a second shift in the Sullivan word factory assigned to the Sullivan reelection campaign. The letters are campaign ads, distributed at government expense.

In every case the goals of Sullivan’s newly energized ghost writers are to use as many words as possible, say as little as possible and never give a clear response about Trump’s deficiencies.

We’ll get to several of these letters in days to come, as what Sullivan fails to say in each one is often more important than what he says.

Sullivan certainly succeeded in saying nothing of substance in his letter about Greenland, the theme of which is his tired “Greenland is nice, but Alaska is better” shtick. Greenland is important, but Alaska is much more important. Greenland has minerals, but Alaska has more minerals. Greenland has fossil fuels, but Alaska has more.

“Greenland has a role in missile-defense and early-warning networks. Alaska is the cornerstone of our missile defense. Missiles launched by our adversaries in China, Russia, and North Korea at the United States would likely fly over Alaska,” says Sullivan.

Yeah. The flight path of missiles is an Alaska advantage.

Much of the rest of his failure to respond is him bragging about how much federal spending he is getting for Alaska. Plus ANWR, the gas line, the one big beautiful bill and the rest of the usual suspects.

Nary a word about the recklessness of Trump.

“The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” Trump said on January 18, trying his Greenland desires to his failure to get a Nobel Prize to go with his FIFA prize.

And the U.S. has to own it, because ownership is “psychologically important for me,” as Trump told the New York Times last month.

The world is not secure with Sullivan and other Republicans pretending that Trump is of sound mind and body.

Sullivan claims that “purchasing Greenland is a reasonable suggestion if the price is right, the Danes are willing to sell, and Greenlanders would welcome U.S. governance.”

But the price isn’t right, the Danes are not willing to sell and Greenlanders would not welcome U.S. governance. That makes it perfectly unreasonable.

Many readers sent me copies of their letters in which they asked Sullivan to stand up and say something instead of cowering in fear. They talked about the danger of denigrating NATO and destroying America’s reputation.

Here is a typical letter to Sullivan from a long-time Alaskan who contacted me:

Leave Greenland alone! We have enough issues in our own country to deal with! I am 100 percent opposed to any move to acquire, harass, conquer, annex, or otherwise change our status with Greenland. Greenland is a NATO ally and has been a good friend to America. We have Pituffik Space Base — formerly known as Thule — in Greenland and have had numerous military and scientific partnerships with Greenland over the years. Greenland will remain our friend if we respect its autonomy. Pres. Trump has had a taste of power and it has gone to his head! The world is not his sandbox. Congress must stand up!”

Here’s another typical letter from an Alaskan on this topic:

I am beyond words to frame how appalling it is to witness President Trump’s bellicose threats toward our long standing NATO allies with his overt desire to grab Greenland. This not only threatens World Order but further isolates us as an imperialistic bad actor and emboldens Russia & China to act on their own bad instincts with NATO fractured.
Your appalling silence on this matter can only be viewed as silent complicity. Please stand up and be counted! As a former Marine, surely you see the foolish saber-rattling toward Denmark as unnecessary and foolish, unbecoming to a super power that used to be a beacon of hope to the free world. Your colleague, Senator Murkowski has taken a far different approach, traveling with an expanded bipartisan congressional delegation to reassure Danish and Greenlandic officials and business leaders that they’ll prevent Trump from taking hostile action against the Arctic nation. Lisa additionally has been focused on Alaska's proximity to Russia and its woefully inadequate arctic defenses.

The authors of those letters and many others who contacted me are on the same page as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who recently wrote in the New York Times with New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen that “President Trump’s threats to take Greenland have shaken public confidence in the United States and undermined the foundation of the trans-Atlantic alliance.”

“This is now a moment of risk for our shared security, and it is entirely unnecessary,” they wrote, calling upon Congress to act.

“This is not the future Americans want, and it is not the future we should accept. The United States has spent generations building alliances based on shared values, mutual respect and the rule of law. Those alliances remain our greatest strategic asset. The question now is whether Congress will defend them,” they wrote.

Sullivan is not on the same page as Murkowski and Shaheen. He’s on whatever page Trump tells him to be on.

For fear of Trump, Sullivan and most Republican senators won’t do a thing to defend the alliances that Murkowski and Shaheen say are in grave danger.

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