Bob's Blog: Ongoing turmoil in Ukraine; Search for Missing Malaysian Flight

(CBS News) -- There are two big stories for us to cover this Sunday: the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine and the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In Congress on Thursday, a proposal to send an aid package to Ukraine stalled, as some members voiced opposition. Meanwhile, the hunt for Flight 370 continues, with some experts now saying the plane likely went down over the Indian Ocean.

Congress's lackluster response to Russia's aggression towards Ukraine is a very unusual way for a superpower to be reacting. But we find this time and time again, as the government lurches from one crisis to another: decisions that should be made are put off. It's just unbelievable sometimes. Washington seems so divorced - not just from what's going on in the rest of the world, but from what's going on out in the country. This is just one more example of it. This is not a proud moment in U.S. history. I have to say that.

I'm not a constitutional expert, so I can't say what authority the president might have to act on the Ukrainian crisis through executive orders. I'm not sure what the president can do right now. But, again, we have this embarrassing display of the inability to react to events - the inability of Congress, because it's so dysfunctional, to do anything. Think about it. They've already ruled out tax reform this year. They've already ruled out immigration this year. The president has already ruled out entitlement reform this year. It's like they've hung a sign up at the capital door that says: "See you after the election."

I have long favored a plan that you would pay Congress by the hour, but you would only pay them when they're legislating. And, under that rule, as a little sweetener, we would give them time and a half for overtime when they worked on Saturdays. But I don't seem to be getting much support for that!

I don't know where this goes. I do know one thing. This is a very tense and very dangerous situation, where you have those Russian troops going through these war games on the border of Ukraine. When this referendum is coming up on Sunday, when the Crimean people are going to vote on whether they want to secede from Ukraine, this is a very tense situation. And that the Congress would take this attitude almost defies belief.

Coming up this Sunday, we'll talk to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the head of the House Intelligence Committee, about the situation in Ukraine and the war heating up between the C.I.A and Congress. Tom Donilon, the president's former national security advisor, will be with us to give us his take on where he thinks the crisis in Ukraine will go.

We will also of course keep you up to speed on the missing Malaysian aircraft. This is a mystery that just grows deeper by the hour. Capt. Sully Sullenberger, Former Chairman of the NTSB Mark Rosenker, and our own Bob Orr will join us to discuss what might have happened to the missing plane. Hope you'll join us.


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