Caucus Click: Coburn’s Got a Gun

Susan Walsh/Associated Press Senator Tom Coburn held a rifle given to him by Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., on Thursday. Mr. Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, plans to leave office at the end of this congressional session as he undergoes treatment for cancer.

Clinton Ratchets Up Criticism of Putin and Backs Obama

LOS ANGELES â€" Hillary Rodham Clinton continued her sharp condemnation of Russian President Vladamir V. Putin here on Wednesday, calling him “a tough guy with a thin skin” and saying she supports the Obama administration’s call for Russia to resist further intervention in neighboring Ukraine.

“His political vision is of a greater Russia. I said when I was still secretary that his goal is to re-Sovietize Russia’s periphery,” Mrs. Clinton said at the top of remarks she delivered at the University of California. In the process, she said, Mr. Putin is “squandering the potential of such a great nation. The nation of Russia.”

Mrs. Clinton, who spoke as part of the university’s Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership, said Russia’s tactics threatened stability in the region and in Europe. “We want to find a path towards de-escalation and a return to a process that leads to elections in Ukraine that represent the will of the Ukranian people,” she said.

The comments came a day after Mrs. Clinton drew comparisons between Russia issuing passports to Ukrainians with allegiances to Russia to what Adolf Hitler did before Germany began invading bordering countries. She did not compare Mr. Putin to Hitler, though the comment, made at a closed-press fund-raiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach, and first reported by BuzzFeed, promptly generated a polarized response.

Senators John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida, both Republicans, agreed with the comparison to Nazi Germany. “The point is that if Putin is allowed to go into a sovereign nation on behalf of Russian-speaking people, this is the same thing that Hitler did prior to World War II,” Mr. McCain said. “So I’m pleased Hillary Clinton is commenting on it.”

Pundits on the other side of the aisle squirmed at the comment, pointing to the Nazi comparison as additional evidence that Mrs. Clinton, who voted to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002, remains more hawkish on foreign policy than the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Mrs. Clinton, when asked about her earlier remarks, said she did not compare Mr. Putin to Hitler. “I just want everyone to have a little historic perspective. I am not making a comparison, certainly,” she said.

Mr. Putin’s claims that Russia had to go into Crimea in order to protect Russian minorities, however, “is reminiscent of claims that were made back in the 1930s” when the Nazis said they had to invade sovereign Eastern Europe countries “to protect ‘German minorities,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I am recommending that perhaps we can learn from this tactic that has been used before.”

The situation in Ukraine underscores how Mrs. Clinton, as she contemplates another run for the presidency in 2016, cannot untether herself from the successes and challenges of the Obama administration, be it domestic policies like the Affordable Care Act or foreign crises in Syria and Ukraine. As she derided Russian aggression on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton also delivered a strong endorsement of her successor, Secretary of State John Kerry.

Of the ousted Ukrainian president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, Mrs. Clinton said: “He has lost his legitimacy and abdicated his responsibilities.” She added that: “Security forces under his control used snipers in downtown Kiev to kill dozens of protesters.”

Clinton Ratchets Up Criticism of Putin and Backs Obama

LOS ANGELES â€" Hillary Rodham Clinton continued her sharp condemnation of Russian President Vladamir V. Putin here on Wednesday, calling him “a tough guy with a thin skin” and saying she supports the Obama administration’s call for Russia to resist further intervention in neighboring Ukraine.

“His political vision is of a greater Russia. I said when I was still secretary that his goal is to re-Sovietize Russia’s periphery,” Mrs. Clinton said at the top of remarks she delivered at the University of California. In the process, she said, Mr. Putin is “squandering the potential of such a great nation. The nation of Russia.”

Mrs. Clinton, who spoke as part of the university’s Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership, said Russia’s tactics threatened stability in the region and in Europe. “We want to find a path towards de-escalation and a return to a process that leads to elections in Ukraine that represent the will of the Ukranian people,” she said.

The comments came a day after Mrs. Clinton drew comparisons between Russia issuing passports to Ukrainians with allegiances to Russia to what Adolf Hitler did before Germany began invading bordering countries. She did not compare Mr. Putin to Hitler, though the comment, made at a closed-press fund-raiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach, and first reported by BuzzFeed, promptly generated a polarized response.

Senators John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida, both Republicans, agreed with the comparison to Nazi Germany. “The point is that if Putin is allowed to go into a sovereign nation on behalf of Russian-speaking people, this is the same thing that Hitler did prior to World War II,” Mr. McCain said. “So I’m pleased Hillary Clinton is commenting on it.”

Pundits on the other side of the aisle squirmed at the comment, pointing to the Nazi comparison as additional evidence that Mrs. Clinton, who voted to authorize the war in Iraq in 2002, remains more hawkish on foreign policy than the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Mrs. Clinton, when asked about her earlier remarks, said she did not compare Mr. Putin to Hitler. “I just want everyone to have a little historic perspective. I am not making a comparison, certainly,” she said.

Mr. Putin’s claims that Russia had to go into Crimea in order to protect Russian minorities, however, “is reminiscent of claims that were made back in the 1930s” when the Nazis said they had to invade sovereign Eastern Europe countries “to protect ‘German minorities,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I am recommending that perhaps we can learn from this tactic that has been used before.”

The situation in Ukraine underscores how Mrs. Clinton, as she contemplates another run for the presidency in 2016, cannot untether herself from the successes and challenges of the Obama administration, be it domestic policies like the Affordable Care Act or foreign crises in Syria and Ukraine. As she derided Russian aggression on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton also delivered a strong endorsement of her successor, Secretary of State John Kerry.

Of the ousted Ukrainian president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, Mrs. Clinton said: “He has lost his legitimacy and abdicated his responsibilities.” She added that: “Security forces under his control used snipers in downtown Kiev to kill dozens of protesters.”