| President Biden appears to be struggling with international relations right now. 1. He pulled the U.S. military out of Afghanistan, and 13 service members were killed in the violence and chaos that followed. Democrats in Congress are leading hearings into what went wrong. 2. The U.S. acknowledged a "horrible mistake" in a retaliatory drone strike in Afghanistan that killed not a single terrorist target, but rather 10 civilians, including seven children and an aid worker. 3. France just pulled its ambassador from the U.S. for what the French say is the first time ever. France is enraged that Australia bailed on its $66 billion submarine deal after Australia negotiated a separate, secret submarine deal with the U.S. and the U.K.. The French characterized the agreement as something President Donald Trump would have done. Biden is now trying to get the French president on the phone to smooth things over. 4. The U.S. is deporting Haitian migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, leading to accusations from Democrats in Congress that America is being inhumane, and comparisons from some Haitians of Biden to Trump. This new photo of Haitian migrants running from a Border Patrol agent on a horse is getting lots of attention today.  A United States Border Patrol agent on horseback tries to stop a Haitian migrant from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande in Texas on Sunday. (PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images) | Biden pitched himself as the competent leader to replace a chaotic, inexperienced president. "America is back. Diplomacy is back," Biden said shortly after he got inaugurated. So what's going on? Some theories: 1. He's doing hard stuff. And that is going to be messy. Throughout 20 years of war, Biden did what other U.S. presidents wanted to do but didn't dared to do — officially leave Afghanistan. "I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces," he said. France's anger at the U.S. is a casualty of Biden reorienting the U.S. away from the Middle East and focusing on threats from China. And as for the scenes coming from the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration is a decades-old challenge without a clear solution. Big changes also bring big challenges. That's the charitable reading of what's going on. 2. The less charitable one — and one we expect to hear in GOP attacks — is that Biden is simply not fulfilling his promise of competence in governing on international relations. But, if so, why? I've talked to Republicans on Capitol Hill who are perplexed. Some of them were privately relieved that Biden replaced Trump. They know Biden's track record as vice president and as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before that. As these Republicans attack him publicly, privately, they don't understand why his administration seems to be struggling to execute these major foreign policy transitions. "It's a difficult situation, but we'll manage it." That's a U.S. official to my colleagues describing the situation in France. I think that summarizes well the administration's approach to all the stumbles so far, a confidence that they're making the right policy moves and that they'll be rewarded by voters for it after the initial chaos fades. Why the Senate parliamentarian is suddenly so important  Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough works beside Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, moments before the insurrection. MacDonough grabbed the electoral ballots to keep them safe. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.) | Can Democrats put a path to citizenship for dreamers in a budget bill? Can they provide universal prekindergarten? Paid family leave? Answering those questions is the job of little-known staffer in the Senate, the parliamentarian. Her name is Elizabeth MacDonough, and her reading of Senate rules is having implications for Democrats' agenda. They're trying to jam as much as possible into a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, because it's the only type of legislation that lets them avoid a Republican filibuster. But there's a catch to this trick: It has to all be directly related to spending. That leaves MacDonough in the unenviable position of having to make some big policy decisions for Democrats. On Sunday, MacDonough delivered bad news to those Senate Democrats. They can't provide a path to citizenship for 8 million young immigrants known as dreamers in this spending bill because it's not directly related to federal budget matters. Suddenly, this nonpartisan arbiter of arcane Senate rules is a major figure in politics. "The parliamentarian is putting us up against the wall," said Oscar Rodriguez, a Honduran immigrant, told my colleagues. Senate Democrats are going to try to keep pitching MacDonough different ideas on how to get immigration into this bill. And there's so much more she could rule on in the coming weeks. | 
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