A group of 47 Republican senators has written an open letter to Iran’s leaders warning them that any nuclear deal they sign with President Barack Obama’s administration won’t last after Obama leaves office.
Organized by freshman Senator Tom Cotton and signed by the chamber’s entire party leadership as well as potential 2016 presidential contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, the letter is meant not just to discourage the Iranian regime from signing a deal but also to pressure the White House into giving Congress some authority over the process.
“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the senators wrote. “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.”
Arms-control advocates and supporters of the negotiations argue that the next president and the next Congress will have a hard time changing or canceling any Iran deal — — which is reportedly near done — especially if it is working reasonably well.
I know that like most of you, I have come to expect anything from the Republicans, but I didn’t expect this. this is so shocking to me that I’m finding it hard to comment. They are actively attempting to subvert the foreign policy of the country they allegedly represent.
Remember the freakout on the right when Jim McDermott simply traveled to Iraq?
Gavin
Those Democrats, everyone knows they don’t represent Real Murrkah, even when they win. I am the One True America, and I cannot be wrong!
Josie
Or when Nancy Pelosi went to Syria?
Steve in the ATL
This is clearly treason, much like when a presidential candidate negotiated with Iran to keep their American hostages longer to help his campaign.
Tommy
Same here. I am rarely at a loss for words (even stupid words), but I am here. All I can really say is WTF!
nancydarling
Or the Dixie Chicks went to London?
JPL
Well Mitch wrote an oped suggesting that state ignore the EPA rules and Judge Moore said that they don’t have to marry the gays. A judge in Ferguson owes back taxes but jails those owing $100.00 for jaywalking. Cliven Bundy is free also.
American Exceptionalism.
Laertes
Or when Carol Moseley Braun went to Nigeria? (Or was that big news only in Illinois? Also: They had a point.)
Kryptik
Unfortunately, I’m already seeing assholes calling it pushback against Obama’s treason and general America-hateyness. It’s only a matter of time before the media dismisses this and tries to insinuate that the GOP is right again and it’s all Obama’s fault all that good bullshit they keep feeding us.
rlrr
The Republicans sure so want their war with Iran…
Laertes
Article III, section 3:
Can we please not go around shouting “treason” every time the other side does something shitty? They’ve done a horrible thing, but there is no reasonable argument to be made that it’s treason.
Bobby B.
Time for The Prez to start using that lame duck power and shut those insurgents up…with biting comedy!
Mary G
I still think Bibi put them up to it. They aren’t smart enough to think of something this stupid all by themselves.
Suzanne
This is complete bullshit. Complete lack of respect.
Let ’em secede. I’ll move.
Violet
I don’t know the legalities of such things, but are they violating their oaths of office in any way?
MomSense
Is Cotton the one who thought Ebola infected ISIS members were crossing the border from Mexico to attack us?
kc
I think people throw the word “treason” around a little too quickly these days.
It should be reserved for shit like this.
kc
@Laertes:
*sigh* Okay, but this is sure is unpatriotic, to say the least.
Peale
I’ve not figured out why the Neocons want Iran to get the bomb so badly?
aimai
@Laertes: Surely that was everyday corruption and not a Logan Act level interference with major public policy? This is more like Nixon sabotaging the Paris Peace Talks.
Brendan in NC
@Peale: Because there’s OIL in them thar dunes!
aimai
@Laertes: Its a violation of the Logan Act:
And I’d like to add that the Demoratic/Liberal refusal to throw around words like “treason” and “hates his country” and “unpatriotic” has gotten us absolutely nowhere. The right owns those words and those accusations and it has done them a lot of good vis a vis the democrats and the left. Its about time we started throwing it back.
J.D. Rhoades
@Laertes:
As someone who had the “T” word thrown at them on a nearly weekly basis in the years 2003 through 2012, thank you for that.
catclub
@MomSense: Well, if they are, they certainly aren’t doing a very good job of it.
Does that mean we should give bonuses to the Border Patrol?
Laertes
@Peale:
Neocons aren’t motivated by the desire to see Iran get the bomb. Neocons start with the beliefs that Iran is committed to pursuing a bomb, won’t be deterred by anything short of military force, can’t be relied upon to live up to any commitments it makes, and is weak enough to be easily pushed around. If you accept those premises, everything they’re doing makes sense.
Those premises range from “unproven” through “highly speculative” to “nonsense” but that’s where they’re coming from.
Rick Taylor
I agree. I shouldn’t be shocked by anything Republicans do by now, but I am. We can’t blame this one on the crazies either, 47 signed it along with the leadership.
max
@Peale: I’ve not figured out why the Neocons want Iran to get the bomb so badly?
They need the threat of a nuclear Iran to justify an invasion. If Obama gets an agreement with inspectors, they won’t a justification for war.
I have come to expect anything from the Republicans, but I didn’t expect this
The GOP is the One-Party-State party.
I think it’s kind of funny myself. They’re saying they can’t be trusted and want to go to war, which actually gives the Iranians a good reason to take the agreement. If they’re not going to be stuck with it anyways, why the hell not?
max
[‘derp be derp be derp be do.’]
kindness
I remember being called a traitor when I told co-workers I was against the invasion of Iraq in 2002/3. And they meant it. Fox had got to them even then. I was treasonous.
So if I was a traitor then for being against invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, what does that make Republican Senators now?
Rick Taylor
They must really want that war.
Napoleon
@Kryptik:
I don’t have a link, but NBC’s First Read is tough on the Republicans with this. They don’t use the word treason, but its as close as you will ever see Chuck Todd to that word.
trollhattan
@rlrr:
Do they ever. And after Obama “lost” our dirt-and-sand aircraft carrier next door from which to launch one, it’s going to be a lot harder, yo!
Basically, they’re still all channeling Curtis LeMay and think a few bombers and there [dusts off hands] all done!
Tommy
As I have said here my father worked at high levels within the DoD. I didn’t know he was a Republican until he retired. He would often say:
I know that phrase is used in TV shows and movies all the time, but my father believed it. He could have made countless more money doing something else, but government service, service to our nation was more important.
I don’t even have to ask him what he’d think of this story. He’d be more angry than any of us, because you just don’t do shit like this. You just don’t do it, but it has become standard operating procedure for the Republicans.
dedc79
It’s wrong and dangerous for all the reasons identified above. It also strikes me as an immensely hypocritical act from a party who has been shouting for the past 6 years that nobody takes us seriously anymore because we are projecting weakness in our foreign affairs. What could possibly do more to project weakness than this stunt?
El Caganer
Forgot where I saw it, but the good Sen. Cotton has had Iran in his sights for a very long time.
kathmandu513
It sends a message to our allies as well that we can’t be trusted. This is insane.
trollhattan
@Mary G:
If this isn’t an extension of last week’s Likud D.C. fundraiser I’ll buy a hat and eat it.
raven
@Laertes: This is exactly why Jane Fonda did not commit treason.
Cacti
Just another example of Obama being subject to a basic level of disrespect unprecedented for any POTUS in the post-Civil War era.
I’m sure I don’t know why he’s treated so differently.
rollSound
@JPL:
I’m really starting to hate the phrase “American exceptionalism”. Those bleating it the loudest betray that phrase as an oxymoron.
boatboy_srq
I’m trying to think of a precedent for this, and the best I can come up with is England’s Glorious Revolution of 1689, when Parliament forced James II to step down and invited William of Orange to assume the throne. James was too Catholic for England; it seems BHO is too Blah for these Ahmurrcans. But that’s about the only similarity.
@rlrr: They sure do. And they know that they can’t sell a conventional war at home: the size of the invasion force, the logistics, the training, and the (near-certain) conscription required are all nonstarters. The only way they can have a war with Iran that’s affordable, (relatively) quick, cheap and victorious is if it’s a nuclear assault, and they can only get that if Iran a) develops nukes themselves and b) threatens either the US or Israel with them. Not to mention that if the US launches nukes at Iran, and doesn’t immediately turn the entire country into a lifeless glassy plain, Iran will likely strike back – at Israel; and once Jerusalem glows in the dark, the Teahad will get their Armageddon™. Between the political wingnuts who want war because it’s fun and profitable, and the religious wingnuts who want to see Iran go after Israel so there’ll be global conflict through which they can summon Jeebus, there’s not a lot of hope for a peaceful solution on their side of the aisle.
Roger Moore
@dedc79:
Coming to a negotiated agreement that prevents us from bombing the everliving shit out of somebody, of course. To the Republicans, attacking is the only sure sign of strength and negotiating is a sure sign of weakness.
Randy Khan
Interestingly enough, treason is one of the exceptions to the principle that you can’t arrest a member of Congress while on the floor or going to or from a session. However, it appears that you could commit treason in a speech or debate on the floor of the House or Senate and not be subject to prosecution.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mary G: It’s totally something Bibi would do, but don’t underestimate their capacity to think of stupid things. But your point is a good one; it’s rather a (seemingly) sophisticated stupid thing, which is completely not their style.
chopper
let’s see, gooper presidential candidate trying to cockblock a dem president’s negotiations with iran. where have i heard this before.
boatboy_srq
@Suzanne:
I still say that secession has been ruled out – but eviction from the Union would be both productive – and instructive. I for one would love to see what the GOTea would do if it were told that it wasn’t welcome within the United States.
boatboy_srq
@Roger Moore: GOTea mantra: every treaty summit is Munich.
Carolinus
Reminds me of this, from 2009:
talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/rep-mark-kirk-r-il-i-told-china-not-to-believe-u-s-budget-numbers
Cervantes
@El Caganer:
He’s only 37. He hasn’t even been alive for a very long time.
kc
@aimai:
Throw their asses in prison!
retr2327
@aimai: I understand the urge to throw treason back at them, but I don’t think we should actively and purposefully contribute to the dumbing down of this particular debate.
As for the Logan Act claim, I’m not a big fan of that either. It’s worth reading the Wikipedia entry; from a quick skim, I gather that a) only one person has ever been indicted (and never tried, for the bright idea of having Kentucky secede and ally itself w/France, IIRC (is it too late to let them go?); and b) it’s generally used to harass/smear those acting at political cross-purposes w/ the current administration and/or party raising the claim.
What the current action does constitute is a serious breach of the so-called Constitutional norms. There’s a lot of that going around nowadays (e.g., shouting out “you lie” during the State of the Union . . .). It may ultimately prove counterproductive (like Netanyahu’s speech appears to be), as the Iranians did not fall off the turnip truck yesterday, and presumably were well aware of all this. If they see the U.S as riven by factions, they may well want to get a good deal from Obama while it’s on the table, as opposed to waiting for the crazy Republicans to take over.
beltane
@trollhattan: Yep. Last week’s outrage didn’t produce the desired result so they’ve had to dial up the disloyalty (to the USA) a notch. Being that they’ve shown themselves capable of anything, I shudder to think of what they’ll try next.
Alex S.
@aimai:
Wow, well I’d like to see Obama, or Eric Holder, really arrest these 47 republican senators.
geg6
@Laertes:
I prefer to use the term sedition:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition#United_States
Jim, Foolish Literalist
when the old man brings it, he brings it
Splitting Image
My initial take on this is that it means Jeb Bush can count on most of those Senators endorsing him for 2016. The usual suspects are packaging Bush as the moderate one in the G.O.P. field, but he has already taken on most of his brother’s crew as advisors, and the people who pushed for the Iraq war are certain to begin plans to invade Iran as soon he wins the election, if he does. These guys are just serving notice of what their plans are.
I also notice that peace activist and progressive icon Rand Paul was one of the signatories. Imagine that. A wide variety of white males have assured me over the past couple of years that he is the country’s only progressive option in 2016.
geg6
@aimai:
I really wish we had “like” buttons here because that’s how much I like your comment here.
JDM
They’ve internalized “What’s good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA”. They ARE the USA, not us.
Belafon
@chopper: A quote from Cotton in January (Daily Kos link):
MattF
It’s pretty awful. But, on the other hand, since Netanyahu is really Zombie Churchill, that makes it OK.
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
No.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Always the boxer, ready with the counterpunch (even if he’s now the one-eyed boxer). Harry Reid is the world’s most boring junkyard dog. Turn your back on a junkyard dog at your peril.
SiubhanDuinne
@Rick Taylor:
What rather shocked me was that the senior senator from Georgia, Johnny Isakson, didn’t sign the letter.
beltane
Where is Andrew Sullivan to tell us that liberals are a Fifth Column?
MattF
On the ‘treason’ question, bear in mind that Rick Perry accused Ben Bernanke of treason because of Federal Reserve policy. So, Republicans can say whatever, and Dems have to hold their tongues.
Pogonip
I sure hope Vladimir Putin hasn’t tired of saving the U.S. non-government from its own stupidity.
blueskies
@aimai: I don’t think the Left should start doing the stupid things that the Right has been doing since… well, before I was born. OTOH, I think the Left should use all the levers of power to instill fear in dimwits like Cotton. Sadly, it’s just not in Obama’s nature to do this. I think the guy is great on many levels, but he just doesn’t have the vindictiveness that can be used appropriately on those whose first response is fear (and I challenge you to find a more bedwetting set of ninnies than the modern Republican morans).
You can’t have everyone be a “good guy,” yet that’s how Team Obama is set up. Biden is the crazy, but nice, goober. Nobody has been scared of Kerry since Vietnam. Holder comes across as a guy with other priorities. Hagel is too busy being reasonable. Lew is just a suit. And has anyone ever heard of Denis McDonough? The guy ought to be The Enforcer, but instead he’s invisible. Hell, even when we had the world’s second biggest asshole as CoS, Obama never pointed him in the right direction for the kill. It was like having a junkyard dog frenetically running around an isolation cage.
Again, all this suits Obama’s style of quiet competency. That’s needed now more than ever. BUT, sure would be nice to throw somebody up against the wall every once and a while just so that we can achieve our modest goals with minimal interference from the knuckleheads. Close a few bases, rescind a few contracts, slow-walk a few initiatives, lose some important paperwork in the mail. Publicly. Happens all the time. Just don’t let it happen in YOUR district or state, eh bubba?
So I guess I’ve talked myself around to Amai’s POV!! :)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hah! great turn of phrase!
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Good
satby
@Tommy: But he still votes Republican. So him being mad counts for squat.
rikyrah
@rlrr:
Yes, they do.
They absolutely want war with Iran.
blueskies
@SiubhanDuinne: He was in the bathroom.
MattF
@rikyrah: Not to mention North Korea, ISIS, plus re-invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Just crazy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MattF: al Baghdadi is said to want to reestablish the Caliphate, Old Man McCain wants to reestablish the Ottoman Empire as a US protectorate.
Just once I’d love for Schieffer or Chuckles to ask the old coot how he would pay for his war-agra.
Pogonip
I’ll leave the question of whether this is treasonous to the legal beagles, but the general and I are agreed that it’s stupid. (“Yo! Dudes in Iran! We wanted to give you a heads-up; our government won’t honor any agreements it makes.”)
Tokyokie
So a bunch of GOP senators, acting at the behest of a foreign head of state, are inserting themselves into a realm of government that the Constitution clearly reserves for the executive branch. And, of course, those who disagree with them are unpatriotic. Never mind that a nuclear attack on Iran not only wouldn’t much affect the research for which they’ve contructed labs deep underground, it would create a huge plume of radioactive sand that would probably kill more people downwind in Pakistan and India than in Iran.
Any attack on Iran would be a foreign policy blunder so grave as to make those who advocated for the second Iraq invasion look like Metternich by comparison.
Bobby Thomson
Kind of a stupid thing for them to do, but also not near the top of my outrage list.
David in NY
@Tommy: Interesting. I was thinking the other day that Republicans no longer believe in service. They believe in profit and philanthropy, but service is neither of those. Anyway, too bad.
TooManyJens
@kindness:
The Real Americans™, duh.
beltane
@Tokyokie:
Yep, anyone advocating for such an attack can legitimately be considered an enemy of the United States.
Gravenstone
Of course these morons are laboring under the presumption that there will ever be another Republican elected to the presidency. There shouldn’t be, at least until they stop being such fucking revanchist peckerheads.They’re also laboring under the presumption that their very special Republican party will retain the Senate in 2016. Looking at their electoral map, the odds there are rapidly approaching nil.
Bobby Thomson
@retr2327: yeah, this.
voncey
@SiubhanDuinne: He signed. Here’s the (very short) list of those who didn’t sign: Lamar Alexander, Dan Coats, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins, Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and Lisa Murkowski.
beltane
As bad as this is, I take comfort from the fact that not a single Democrat signed the letter. This may have not been the case as recently as a couple of weeks ago.
Tree With Water
The GOP is the party of rule or ruin. Has been for years. With malice aforethought, it lied the USA into unleashing war (a fact the democratic party shamefacedly ignores). Why anyone is surprised at the depths of ANY republican depravity (such as the Cotton letter) is beyond me.
David in NY
@David in NY: Forgot. What the Republicans primarily believe in is power. (My great grandfather, a former captain in the Union Army, said this in 1912).
Cervantes
@SiubhanDuinne:
What makes you think he did not sign it?
(He did; and yes, I would have been surprised otherwise.)
gene108
@Peale:
Maybe they feel bad that since North Korea got the bomb in 2006, due to their inept foreign policy, it is only fair to let Iran get the bomb to balance things out.
Keith G
@Cacti:
Your implication is that race is the issue. I think one needs to go circumstance by circumstance.
In this case I think these actions are the result of a witches brew of horrible motives.
The economy is off the table. Healthcare is effectively off the table. Gay rights is no longer a feared motivator.
Foreign policy is dicey, but its one the the few ares left where attacking the administration may work. Even in foreign policy there are many successes. The issue of Iran and nukes has great scare traction and that has been how conservatives fight – by scaring folks. Oh, and Israel.
They’re banking that this administration will continue to pull its rhetorical punches and speak softly (remember the news cycle don’t mean squat). This letter is meant for the domestic audience and not the mullahs.
In a better world Obama, Biden, and the rest would spend the next 48 hours on every news show they have time for attacking these legislators, and educating the public, but that will not happen.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@beltane: Menendez must be trying to keep a low profile.
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Obama has always been lucky in his enemies.
SiubhanDuinne
@voncey:
Man, really? I looked at the list twice, specifically looking for his name. Wonder why I had temporary blindness there.
Thanks for the correction.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Nemtsov treatment any day now.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cervantes:
Yeah, I guess I missed it somehow, despite the fact I was looking for his name. See my #90 to voncey.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@voncey: I saw a headline this am, can’t remember where, that some right wing purity patrol (Club For Growth?) just announced that Murkowski is their lowest ranking Republican.
Cervantes
@SiubhanDuinne:
Not to worry. I just wondered if you had seen an ambiguous statement from his office (or some such thing).
Ryan
@JPL: Well put. So much for politics stopping at the water’s edge.
ThresherK
@Pogonip: I don’t need anyone to scream “TREASON!”
I just want someone to ask if it is, and have it echo very loudly for two years.
japa21
And many of these Senators have accused Obama of being a dictator. They should thank their lucky stars he isn’t or they would already have disappeared.
TopClimber
Iran could care less if we bail in two years as long as the rest of the P5+1 lift their sanctions. That’s where their trade has been for, say, only 35 years or so. They would love for the Great Satan to try sanctions all by its lonesome.
So if Obama gets the deal he wants, he wins (as do we all). Next president might be dumb enough not to pursue the better relations with Iran this deal could start, but probably couldn’t turn back the clock–short of war.
Elizabelle
@aimai: Agreed. Call it treason, and call it out.
gelfling545
If the Senate were able to find “ethics” in the dictionary, their ethics committee should certainly investigate this. As it is, we will continue to live in interesting times.
patrick II
Gangster politics.
The republican interference reminds me of the Godfather movie when Virgil Sollozzo came to Don Vito with an offer of entering the drug business. While Don Corleone does not want to enter the drug business, Sonny shows interest in the deal. The Godfather later tells him to never disagree with him in front of someone outside of the family. Sonny’s interest led Sollozzo to believe that if the Godfather could be taken out of the way, Sonny would agree to work with him.
If Iran allows the republican interest to change the deal they might make with Obama, they will have about as much luck dealing with a potentially new republican president as Sollozzo did dealing with Sonny Corleone. And another war will be about as good for us as it was for the Corleones.
Roger Moore
@gelfling545:
They would tear out the page and burn it.
voncey
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think the only surprise on the list of those who didn’t sign is Cochran, but he’s also an institutionalist so perhaps that’s why. All the others are fairly moderate in politics and tone.
Patrick
@kindness:
By their very own logic, it makes them traitors. Their behavior is so disgusting. Inviting a foreign leader to speak to Congress without consulting the President and now this. I guess the next Republican President will have his hands full in dealing with foreign policy. After all, the Dems now have every right to invite foreign leader after foreign leader to argue against our Republican President. And hell, any future deals/treaties signed by our future GOP Prez will be met with the same way as the 47 jokers just did.
Pogonip
@patrick II: Hee. Not only have the Republican idiots not read Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, they haven’t even watched The Godfather!
Mike in NC
@Gravenstone: Netanyahu understands this. His best-case scenario was to have Republicans controlling the House, Senate, and White House in 2016, and making noises about bombing Iran. A very long shot. Bibi must be communicating with JEB and the donors with deep pockets, like Sheldon Adelson, and hoping things break his way.
Flatlander
Time to pull security clearances for any of those 47 who might have them, and remove them thereby from any committees with access to secure documents.
Peale
@kathmandu513: We can’t be trusted. Seriously? Why would you trust us? If our allies haven’t figured that out by now, they are the weak-kneed surrender monkeys we’ve always said they are.
Doug r
@blueskies: Mild? Just ask anyone who has run against him. Or bin Laden, wait “Somebody ” sent Seal Team Six after him.
SFAW
@Keith G:
Race is ALWAYS an issue for the RWTMs vis-a-vis this President. Whether it is THE ONLY issue can be debated from time to time.
SFAW
@David in NY:
If by “philanthropy,” you mean they’re more than happy to give shiny new dimes to the poor.
Lurking Canadian
@patrick II: does that mean we can expect President HR Clinton to preside over the simultaneous assassinations of the entire R congressional leadership? ‘Cause…you know, that’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.
Uncle Ebeneezer
But the Constitution only grants authority to legitimate Presidents. If the President was born in Kenya and/or a Democrat and/or not-white (especially that one!), then all bets are off.
Pogonip
@Flatlander: Excellent idea.
SFAW
@Laertes:
Were I an enemy of the United States, I would be deriving a shitload of comfort from the news that the Disloyal Opposition party in the US was trying to sabotage the President’s efforts to deal with me. And, in turn, that comfort would aid me in my negotiations with the Great Satan.
mai naem mobile
ODS is some kind of very contagious bug to the people who are susceptible to it and even O-care cannot seem to help it. It sure makes you do some crazy stuff.
beltane
@SFAW: Maybe Obama is not Satan-y enough. The Republicans were just trying to help out by providing the expected amounts of diabolical evil.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Tom Cotton might be the worst fucking scumbag to sit in Congress since John C. Calhoun. I know Ted Cruz gets a lot more press, and, make no mistake, he is a scumbag, too, but Cotton strikes me as even worse. I think Cruz does a lot of what he does for effect. I think Cotton is a true believer. It’s like they took the worst characteristics of George W. Bush, Joseph McCarthy, Jesse Helms and Dick Cheney, and threw them in a blender,and this is the feculent creature that crawled out.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cervantes:
No, I was just wrong.
Kropadope
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@voncey:
Which ones didn’t sign it? The story at the link doesn’t list them, and I don’t want to site here and decipher the 47 signatures on the letter itself, and then work out which seven that leaves off the letter…
beltane
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Here’s the list of non-signers: Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Dan Coats (R-IN)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@beltane:
So Mark Kirk signed it? And Dean Heller? I’d have thought those two were barely sane enough to keep them from latching on to this. Other than that, these are most of the ones I’d have thought would steer away from something like this–well, other than Coats, who’s a wingnut, and Flake, ’cause I don’t know enough about him to know.
Cervantes
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
And yet, when Tom Cotton was an innocent little toddler in rural Arkansas, he was kissed on the head by none other than Bill Clinton!
SFAW
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Considering he’s chatted up the Chinese – and not in a good way – it should no longer be surprising that he’s part of the Klown Kar Kaucus what thinks it’s the foreign policy tsars.
ETA: Yes, I know the article is from 2009. Just shows he’s been that way for a while.
Calouste
@boatboy_srq: They invited William of Orange and about 15,000 of his ‘friends’. I don’t see the GOP doing that just yet.
Kropadope
@Calouste: They have a perfect heir apparent to William of Orange, however. With leaderly experience and everything.
Tom Q
@SFAW: Except you’d think Kirk would have the preservation instinct to remember he’s running for re-election only 20 months from now in a blue state during a presidential turnout. He might have been able to bury this if he’d done it early in his six years; right now’s in “voters paying attention” territory, and I was shocked he wasn’t among the non-signers.
Heliopause
I’m with Billmon on this one. You’ve had individuals or small groups go off on junkets the other side didn’t approve of, but nearly an entire caucus conducting what amounts to a parallel foreign policy? New one on me.
Chris
Haven’t read all the comments yet, but,
I wish I could say I was as shocked at you, but I absolutely am not. There is plenty of precedent for this, much of it worse – it’s never been proven whether Reagan was involved in any dealings with Iran in 1980, but Nixon torpedoing the peace talks in 1968 is pretty much public record. The Republican Party having an independent foreign policy goes back at least that far. (If you were looking closer to now, look no closer than the Bibi spectacle just last week).
Furthermore, I would add that even more than most topics, foreign policy isn’t real to our Republican elites. Gone are the days when there was another superpower to worry about, gone are the days when you couldn’t screw up too badly because that would mean nuclear war and the end of everything, gone are the days when the American people had to worry about being drafted to pay for your wars. Even more than most areas of governance, foreign policy is a place where Republicans feel that they can absolutely cut loose, indulge the basest instincts of their constituencies, and use “policy” to bludgeon their political enemies. We already know that they do that in fields like job recovery, health care, education, voting rights and other topics where the public is more inclined to pay attention – they’re certainly not going to be less reluctant about it in foreign policy.
grandpa john
@geg6: yes that was my thinking also after looking up the definition of sedition
Chris
@Laertes:
One of the better definitions of neocons I got in undergrad was a professor who said that they were a school of thought which essentially saw everything through the prism of World War Two and the run-up to it. Thus, every new adversary is the new Hitler, and to be treated as such; every new attempt at negotiation is Munich; no solution can ever be reached except through the use of overwhelming force.
(It also requires a major misunderstanding of what made World War Two work, but what else is new. Not like conservatives don’t have experience simplifying, distorting and BS’ing national myths for their own purposes).
Uncle Ebeneezer
How do you say “Oh snap!” in Iranian? (via ElonJWhite):
Another Holocene Human
@Gravenstone: man I hope you’re right about that
really want to see the GOP take it on the chin in FL, NC, GA, IL, MI, PA in 2016. Oooh, oooh, AZ too.
Chris
@blueskies:
I don’t think it should be done, but I’ve often wondered if politics would look any different now if FDR had used World War Two as a hammer to bludgeon the Republicans with as unpatriotic, unsupportive of the commander-in-chief and therefore anti-American, card-carrying fascist sympathizers, etc… all the stuff the GOP started getting into with McCarthy and hasn’t let up on since. Lord knows he wouldn’t have had to look very far to tie rich Wall Streeters to fascism, to find isolationist Republicans to accuse of being “objectively pro-fascist,” etc.
grandpa john
I imagine the remaining Cherokees as well as a few other tribes of Indians could fill them in on the details of broken treaties
lawguy
@Laertes: Not treason, but violations of several laws including the Logan Act I think. Still I’m only a criminal defense lawyer so I could be wrong.
wasabi gasp
Thanks, Obama!
Seriously. Thanks. :)
Love,
Hillary (@home.lol)
Anne Laurie
@aimai:
Can we please leave poor Dr. Logan out of this? He was a pacifist, who just wanted to prevent another war the new American nation couldn’t afford:
… and, as a bonus, free some American citizens that nobody else much gave a rap about. In other words, the exact opposite of what today’s GOpers are attempting!
This is the opposite of ‘negotiating with a foreign power’; it’s grandstanding for the cameras. I’m sure the Iranian leadership has been informed of this stunt, and that they’ll treat it with the contempt it so richly deserves.
Cotton and his allies are deeply unpatriotic, have clearly placed their own selfish interests ahead of our country’s, and generally deserve to be punched in the neck. But yelling TREASON!!! every time some two-bit ideologue gins up a foam-finger lynch mob is counterproductive — it’s a serious charge that should be saved for serious matters. Otherwise, we grant these two-bit thugs a dignity they in no way deserve.
Chris
@SFAW:
The people in Iran who believe that they need to develop nuclear weapons because there’s no other possible way to guarantee their safety are getting everything they wanted out of this argument, that’s for sure. My money says whatever Tehran’s version of the National Security Council is is currently getting blasted with every hard-liner’s proclamations that you see, we were right, you can’t trust the West and it’s time to abandon those ridiculous negotiations and trust in force alone.
burnspbesq
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ol’ Johnny has shown himself in the past to be capable of the occasional lucid moment.
Tone in DC
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Oh, HELL yeah.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
-@Chris:
What amazes me is that they aren’t even trying to hide this. Nixon and Reagan had sense enough to know that what they were doing was something best left out of the light of day. These guys… I don’t know what to say.
lawguy
@retr2327: This lets be reasonable and show (somebody) we are adults has gotten us no where as amnai says. Every time the republicans do something like this multiple people come out and say that we must be more adult than the republicans. The obvious question is how has that worked up to this point. The answer is not to damn well.
NotMax
@Cacti
Hardly unprecedented. More constant, widely disseminated and pervasive a drumbeat, perhaps.
See: Ma, ma, where’s my pa? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha! (G. Cleveland) and the vitriol bandied about during the A. Johnson (and L. Johnson, for that matter), U. S. Grant and R. Hayes terms of office, for example.
Unsympathetic
@blueskies:
I’ve always been a fan of: “F the Fing Fers” myself.. For that to happen, however, BO needs to act 10 times tougher, stat.
Just One More Canuck
@patrick II: so who can we get to do what Michael did to Solozzo and McCluskey?
Cherry Burton
@rlrr:
The Republicans just declared a act of war on Iran. They just told Iran no matter what our president works out with you we are coming for you. It is act of treason pure and simple.
We prosecute treasonous acts.
MCA1
@Anne Laurie: I get this, but I think aimai’s first post (I think) in the thread has some merit, too. Not using harsh language, and refraining from claiming Republicans are committing treason because they’re actually not, in the abstract sounds like a good idea. But it’s not gotten us anywhere in a world where Republicans literally go around calling you a traitor for expressing the view that maybe invading a sovereign nation on flimsy pretenses is a bad idea, with zero negative repercussions. Knives and gun fights and whatnot.
I’m OK with not using treason or sedition (because it’s not that, either, exactly), but Democrats need a pithy term or nasty word for this that EVERRY ONE of them uses 5x daily, to paint anyone who would engage in this kind of disrespectful bullshit as a bad American. With the way the GOP has behaved the last 6 years, one of the confounding things to me is that Democrats haven’t managed to reclaim the word “patriotic” from them.
Suggestions, then: disloyalty; mutiny; sabotage; insubordination; open rebellion; impudence; insolence; contemptuousness. Whatever, we need a script and a hundred people repeating it constantly for the press. “A patriot would never openly sabotage the diplomatic efforts of the President of the United States under any circumstances. How dare they disrepect the office of the Presidency with this sort of mutinous insubordination?”
J R in WV
The Republicans who have entered the foreign affairs arena in opposition to the intentions of the government of the United States are inviting prosecution for various violations of the law and constitution. They show their lack of patriotism and loyalty to the government of the United States of America.
They show their ineptitude in the foreign affairs arena. They show their lack of responsibility and wisdom.
They should be rounded up and imprisoned, in a jail a long way from local telephone service, so that they won’t be able to attend Senate sessions until the next president takes the oath. I’m tired of the Republican party defying the law dna the President, and showing their inability to understand the difference between winning election as President and being elected to the Senate.
I suspect just a couple of days without a big fancy meal or a shower will alter their perspective, let alone a couple of years in Cuba. Foreign affairs is the business of the Esecutive Branch, not the Senate, not until a treaty comes by for yea or nay approval.
karen
@beltane:
Oh, call for an armed militia to storm the White House without outright calling for PBO to be taken out but using code and dogwhistling to goad some crazy teahadi to get ‘r done anyway?
My Truth Hurts
They are war mongers and they are sabotaging potential peace for petty partisan political points. Words cannot describe my disgust and my hate for these anti American sociopaths.
priscianus jr
A massive new poll of 2,526 likely voters nationwide shows President Barack Obama’s job approval rating jumping 4 points over the previous poll to 47%. The new Zogby Analytics Poll was conducted online on March 3-5 and has a margin of sampling error of +/- 2 percentage points. Mr. Obama’s disapproval rating is now under 50% — at 49% — for the first time since just after his second term began.
forbes.com/sites/johnzogby/2015/03/08/obama-approval-jumps-to-47-new-zogby-analytics-poll/
Cervantes
@J R in WV:
Was that true in, say, 2002-2003?
boatboy_srq
@Chris: That would certainly have saved the US from two Bush pResidencies.
boatboy_srq
@Calouste: They don’t need their chosen leader’s “friends”. They have enough footsoldiers of their own for that: Blackwater, Custer Battles and Cliven Bundy have all proved it. All they need is the mechanism for removal. They’ve cried “high crimes and misdemeanors” many times, but they haven’t so much as drafted articles of impeachment (quite likely because it backfired so spectacularly last time); without that process they don’t have much.