WASHINGTON — A letter to Iran from Senate Republicans aimed at undermining the Obama administration’s attempt to strike a diplomatic agreement to halt the country’s nuclear program appears to be backfiring. Led by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), 47 Republicans used the letter to inform Iran’s leaders that such an agreement would be “nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei.” They said the “next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”
When I first heard about this letter I was stunned. Stunned that Senate Republicans would do a deliberate and willful end run around the President. Stunned that they would engage in behavior they would have decried as treasonous had Democrats done it to George W. Bush. More than anything, though, I was stunned at the self-righteous arrogance of the 47 Republican signatories. They appear to be operating under the conviction that Barack Obama is just an illegitimate caretaker President and that REAL leadership will have to wait for the next (inevitably Republican, of course) President. In the meantime, they have no problem with doing everything they can to delegitimize and marginalize The Black Guy in the White House ©.
Imagine for a second the hue and cry, the weeping and gnashing of teeth that would have erupted within the Republican caucus (not without some justification) had Democrats pulled a similar stunt to undermine George W. Bush. They’d have demanded Harry Reid’s head on a pike…and they’d have been able to make a decent case for it. So why is it acceptable for Republicans to engage in the very same behavior that would have elicited cries of “TREASON!!” had Democrats been guilty of it?
Tom Cotton has sent a powerful message to the world. America is still more than willing to elect complete idiots to high office #47Traitors
— Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) March 11, 2015
One pundit has described the letter as “as brazen, gratuitous, and plainly stupid an act as any committed by the Senate in recent times, and that says a lot. It may also be illegal.” Beyond the possible (and likely) illegality of the letter, it was at its most basic another cheap, juvenile attempt to embarrass The Black Guy in the White House ©, who Republicans hate with a passion reminiscent of the heat of a thousand suns. That they’d go to such lengths to embarrass the President of the United States on a world stage- and leave the task to a wingnut freshman Senator- should tell you all you need to know about Republican unfitness to lead.
Perhaps the worst part of this fiasco is the collective Republican refusal to take responsibility for their lunacy. Rather than man up and admit that they’ve screwed in a way previously unimaginable for a party that considers itself the one and only rightful party of leadership, they’ve found a way to blame the man they hate:
But those who support the letter — even some who didn’t add their names — deflected the blame. If it weren’t for Obama’s failure to consult lawmakers about the negotiations, or his threatened veto of a proposed bill to give Congress the final vote on a nuclear agreement, senators wouldn’t have had to speak out in the first place, they argued.
“I think that, no doubt, the fact that the president, you know, issued a veto threat on a very common-sense piece of legislation, probably evoked, you know, a good deal of passion,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Huffington Post Tuesday. Corker, who is leading the push for a veto-proof majority on the bill to grant Congress oversight of a nuclear agreement, did not sign letter, which was organized by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Nevertheless, he showed no signs of ill will toward his junior colleague.
“No, no, no,” Corker responded, when asked if he was concerned Cotton’s letter would cost the bill much-needed Democratic votes.
So because Republicans weren’t allowed to lead the parade, they decided to pitch a fit, only to end up embarrassing themselves utterly in front of the world. Yet again, Republican “leadership” is little more than amateur hour on Capitol Hill.
What Republicans aren’t talking about- but Democrats most definitely should be- is that the letter is very likely a violation of the Logan Act, which reads in its entirety
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
Why Democrats aren’t seriously discussing prosecution the letters signatories under the Logan Act defies understanding. Then again, I suppose that’s the sort of thing one might expect from a political party with no balls. Were roles to be reversed, you can bet Republicans would be firing up their attorneys and figuring out how to press charges post haste. Democrats are too busy doing their collective impression of the Cowardly Lion.
What we would seem to have here is a case where 47 Senate Republicans have chosen to lecture the leader of a sovereign nation on the American legal system…when they clearly don’t understand how it works. They’ve overplayed their seething hatred of The Black Guy in the White House © into a situation that has blown up in their faces. Everything about the letter screams “amateur hour,” particularly the fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) left the writing of it to an untested and inexperienced wingnut freshman.
This is what happens when you allow your burning hatred for The Black Guy in the White House © to cloud what little judgment you had to begin with. THESE are the “leaders” who believe that they and ONLY they are fit to lead America?
I’d say that Americans need to be afraid, but the truth is that the American Sheeple will, in 20 months, very likely grant these moral midgets their desire to rule the country. Is it any wonder I fear for the future of our Republic?
