Gabbard looks the dupe as sole Dem on bipartisan trip

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s office issued a news release excitedly announcing that she’d be joining a bipartisan congressional delegation on a trip to Japan, China and South Korea.

After a lot of talk about partnerships, stability and prosperity, you found out at the bottom of the release that the only reason the junket could be called "bipartisan" was because Democrat Gabbard was on it.

The other eight House members on the April 18-24 trip were all Republicans, led by Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the House leaders aimed to overlap with President Barack Obama’s April 22 visit to Asia and provide a counterpoint as Republicans step up criticism of Obama’s foreign policy leading into this year’s midterm elections, in which the GOP hopes to take control of both houses of Congress.

In a recent speech, Cantor said allies are worried that the U.S. has "lost the will to live up to our values or stand up to aggressors."

A U.S. News blog suggested that other Democrats were invited under rules that require official delegations to include members of both parties, but apparently Gabbard was the only one Republicans could sign up for a trip intended to show up the president and take the partisan dysfunction of our nation’s capital to foreign capitals.

The trip was mostly uneventful, with Rep. Aaron Schock of Illinois, co-founder with Gabbard of the House Future Caucus, making the most news with Instagram posts that showed more play than work.

Schock, perhaps best known for his impeccable pectorals that have been featured in Men’s Health, went surfing with Gabbard in Waikiki during a Hawaii stopover for a military briefing and posted a shirtless photo that MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski said made him look "needy."

The photo of Schock navigating a small wave with Diamond Head in the background carried the hashtag "#icouldlivehere."

In China, Schock posted a selfie of himself and Rep. Kristi Noem of South Dakota mugging on the Great Wall.

Gabbard stuck more to business with a generalized report about challenges and opportunities in the region and the "surreal" experience of staring into the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.

She’s a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees and certainly has legitimate business visiting Asia, but it was questionable judgment to do so by serving as a fig leaf that allowed Republicans to call their junket bipartisan when it was actually shunned by Democrats.

Productive bipartisanship is a good thing that we need more of, but this trip wasn’t intended to promote bipartisan cooperation and Gabbard came off looking like a rube who got played.