March 21, 2016 03:15 PM UTC

Cory Gardner Will Meet You Anywhere...Except Washington D.C.

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• by: Colorado Pols

The U.S. Senate is on a two-week recess, naturally, because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has everyone exhausted after nearly four whole work weeks of not accomplishing anything.

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is spending part of his recess on a Senate Foreign Relations Committee field trip to the Middle East, as the Associated Press reports:

Saudi Arabia’s official news agency says King Salman has met with a U.S. Congressional delegation ahead of President Barack Obama’s scheduled visit next month.

The Saudi Press Agency says the delegation was led by ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Ben Cardin, D-M.D., and included Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Prior to meeting with King Salman, Gardner and friends made an official visit to the State of Qatar so that they could get updates on the 2022 World Cup. Preparations for the 2022 football soccer tournament have been plagued by scandal, including widespread reports of slavery-like conditions for workers scrambling to create the necessary infrastructure for such a major public event.

Gardner has been particularly busy racking up frequent flier miles over the past month or so.   He was spotted everywhere from Detroit, Michigan, to South Carolina in the last couple of weeks while campaigning as a surrogate for the now-defunct Presidential campaign of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. When he wasn’t busy campaigning for Rubio, Gardner managed to find time to visit Guantanamo Bay in Cuba so that he could beef up his PowerPoint presentation for sending more potential detainees to Gitmo rather than closing the facility.

Before Gardner left for the Middle East, he confirmed that he is fully supportive of McConnell’s strategy to refuse to hold confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the GOP’s obstruction strategy on the Supreme Court isn’t working out very well, BTW).

Maybe Garland’s biggest problem is that he lives in the Washington D.C. area. As absurd as it may sound, Garland would have had a better chance arranging a sit-down meeting with Gardner if he were anywhere else besides Washington in the last 4-6 weeks.