If Hillary Clinton had received 80,000 more votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, how much talk on the news would be dominated by Russia? The likelihood it would be discussed at all is minuscule. This despite nothing being different other than who won in November. All of the crowing about Russia by Democrats would have gone instantly silent on November 9, 2016. But the wrong person won, and now Democrats are trying to compensate.

Russia’s role in our election, no matter how minor, should be investigated and done with rigor. If that requires an independent investigator, so be it. But make no mistake. The Democrats, who now want us to believe they’re like Ronald Reagan in West Berlin in 1987, ready to stamp out the Russian threat, are full of it. Their “concern” is nothing but political posturing. For eight years, Democrats, led by President Obama allowed Putin and his cronies to goosestep all over them in all areas.

Step back just over four years ago during the 2012 presidential campaign; Mitt Romney said Russia was our “greatest geopolitical foe.” What did that earn Romney? Mockery. From the very same Democrats who now laughingly say to people questioning their veracity they favor “country over party.”

Here is a video the Free Beacon put together showing politicians and members of the media, their voices dripping with disdain and sarcasm, responding to Romney’s comments. It’s remarkable:

In 2014, President Obama downplayed Russia’s influence and compared Putin to a “bored kid.”

At a White House news conference on Friday, Obama insisted that he does not have bad personal relations with Putin. The two men had a testy meeting in June in Northern Ireland and from the photos of them at the time, it looked as if they would both rather have been somewhere else.

“I know the press likes to focus on body language, and he’s got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom.

In 2014, President Obama, when asked about Romney’s comments from 2012, continued to play down Russia’s influence:

President Barack Obama moved to downplay the international threat from Russia on Tuesday, branding it a “regional power” that is threatening its neighbors in Ukraine “not out of strength, but out of weakness.”

Asked by reporters if former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was right in 2012 when he called Russia “America’s biggest geopolitical foe,” Obama said the country’s incursion into Ukrainian territory was just one of a “whole lot of challenges” facing the U.S. “The fact that Russia felt compelled to go in militarily and lay bare these violations of international law indicates less influence, not more,” he said.

“Russia’s actions are a problem. They don’t pose the number-one national security threat to the United States,” he said at a joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the close of the Nuclear Security Summit at The Hague. “I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan.”

The Democrats followed suit.

It wasn’t until Hillary Clinton was in trouble in the presidential election did Obama get tough with Putin. Remember that? Reportedly at a September G20 meeting in China, Obama went bare knuckle with Putin on the hacking and said to him:

“Cut it out.”

I bet that had Vladimir quaking in his Spetsnaz boots.

So while the Russian influence needs to be investigated and the issue is taken seriously, the Democrats caterwauling about the Russians, should not. They had eight years to do deal with it and they waved it away, pretending Putin was just a nuisance. They don’t get to wag their fingers now.