I was going to write that Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is completely dead to me, but perhaps she really was screwed by members on her staff. If so, then Paul Campos is correct and “some people obviously need to be fired, and replaced by higher quality personnel.” The error is so egregious and untimely, however, that Jayapal should still face consequences. Any consideration she may have had for a larger role in leadership should be off the table, and the Progressives ought to seriously consider finding someone else to be the face of their caucus in the House of Representatives.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus has withdrawn a letter, signed by 30 House liberals and sent to the White House on Monday, that urged President Biden to negotiate directly with Russia to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

You won’t believe this, but this letter was created over the summer and circulated for co-sponsorship in early August. Somehow, thirty members attached their names to it, including some of the larger lights in the Progressive firmament like Reps. Jamie Raskin (Md.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Ro Khanna (Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.). But the letter was not released in August. Instead, it was dated October 24, 2022, and sent out on Monday.

Of course, between early August and this Monday, the Ukrainians turned the tide of the war, forcing Vladimir Putin to attempt a massive conscription of hundreds of thousands of troops which has proven both massively unpopular and almost comically bungled. At this point, Putin’s best hope appears to be if Elon Musk can convince the West that nuclear war is inevitable if Ukraine doesn’t stop reclaiming its territory.

In light of these developments, several of the original signatories of the letter no longer support it, and they were blindsided when it was released. What’s worse is that House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who is likely come January to be the Speaker of the House, recently suggested that U.S. aid to Ukraine may cease next year. It’s a position that rightly badly divides the Republican Party, and one that might have been effectively exploited by the Democrats in the last days of the midterm campaign. Instead, Jayapal effectively joined hands with McCarthy in raising doubts about the present course.

The Biden administration’s position is that only the Ukrainians can agree to cede any of their territory to Russia in exchange for peace, and that Putin is both losing and in no mood to make acceptable concessions. While the threat of escalation to a nuclear conflict is real and gravely concerning, succumbing to nuclear blackmail in these circumstances is not going to be their policy.

Even Jayapal recognizes that the timing here is bad.

“As Chair of the Caucus, I accept responsibility for this,” Jayapal said in a statement. “The proximity of these statements created the unfortunate appearance that Democrats, who have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people, are somehow aligned with Republicans who seek to pull the plug on American support for President Zelensky and the Ukrainian forces.”

Let’s be clear that Putin is responsible for all of this. Someone in Russia with the power and wherewithal to remove him from office should do so and then negotiations can begin. In any case, there’s nothing to do put keep the pressure on him, since rewarding him any way would be utter foolishness, and also morally wrong in every way. If the Republicans win the midterms and come to his rescue, we need a completely united front in opposition, and the Progressives have fucked up here to a staggering degree.