;)
The Commentariat -- March 10, 2015
Internal links removed.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The fractious debate over a possible nuclear deal with Iran escalated on Monday as 47 Republican senators warned Iran against making an agreement with President Obama and the White House accused them of undercutting foreign policy. In an exceedingly rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, the Republicans sent an open letter addressed to 'leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran' declaring that any agreement could be reversed by the next president 'with the stroke of a pen.' The letter appeared aimed at unraveling an agreement even as negotiators grow close to reaching it.... The letter generated anger inside the White House...." ...
... Correction: "A previous version of this article misstated the given name of the senator who drafted the letter from American lawmakers to Iranian leaders. He is Tom Cotton, not Tim Cotton." Note to Tim-Tom: The New York Times is not a place were everybody knows your name.
... Here's the letter (pdf). It is an "Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republican of Iran." As Jim Newell of Salon notes, "'open letter' is politics-speak for 'stunt.'" CW: I do think this is a more serious stunt than their near-monthly threats to shut down parts of the federal government. ...
... Greg Jaffe & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The White House responded by accusing the Republicans of conspiring with Iranian hardliners, who oppose the delicate negotiations, and suggesting that their goal was to push the United States into a military conflict. 'I think it's somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran,' President Obama said a few hours after the letter was made public. 'It's an unusual coalition.'... The letter [was] written by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)...." ...
... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "... Joseph Biden said the letter ... was 'expressly designed to undercut a sitting president in the midst of sensitive international negotiations'. It was 'beneath the dignity of the institution I revere', Biden said in a statement." ...
... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "In a lengthy and harshly worded statement released late Monday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Senate veteran of more than three decades and a former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he could recall no other instance in which senators had written to the leaders of another country, 'much less a foreign adversary,' to say the president had no authority to strike a deal with them. 'This letter, in the guise of a constitutional lesson, ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to undermine the ability of any future American president, whether Democrat or Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States,' Mr. Biden said. 'Honorable people can disagree over policy. But this is no way to make America safer or stronger.'" ...
... NEW. Kendall Breitman of Politico: "Sen. Tom Cotton is firing back at Vice President Joe Biden's criticism of his letter to Iran, saying: What does he know about foreign policy? 'Joe Biden, as [President] Barack Obama's own secretary of defense has said, has been wrong about nearly every foreign policy and national security decision in the last 40 years,' Cotton said Tuesday on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' in a reference to former Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who ripped Biden in a tell-all memoir after leaving office." CW: The audacity of this ignorant twerp rivals even Ted Cruz's off-the-wall rantings. In a normal world, this would be a crash-and-burn moment, & Tom-Tim would not be heard from again till a brief mention appeared on the local obituary page. But this country at this moment is not normal. BTW, if Cotton could get his head out of the deep recess of his ass (the font of all of his knowledge) for a brief moment, he might learn that Biden (and a number of journalists) had pretty-well demolished Gates' criticisms of Biden. ...
... ** Update. From a press release by Iran's U.N. mission: "... the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, responded that 'in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history. This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace as an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.' Zarif expressed astonishment that some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and administration. He pointed out that from reading the open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not. understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution...." Read the whole release. Thanks to Deborah S. for the link.
Let's be very clear: Republicans are undermining our commander in chief while empowering the ayatollahs. This letter is a hard slap in the face of not only the United States, but our allies. This is not a time to undermine our commander in chief purely out of spite.... Today's unprecedented letter originated by a United States senator who took his oath of office 62 days ago. As a kind of pettiness that diminishes us as a country in the eyes of the world. Republicans need to find a way to get over their animosity of President Obama. I can only hope that they do it sooner, rather than leader. -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), on the floor of the Senate, Cotton presiding
... Martin Matishak & Jordan Fabian of the Hill report other Democrats' responses. ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic lists the GOP Senators who didn't sign the letter, including Bob Corker (Tenn.), who heads the Foreign Relations Committee. ...
... The Distinguished Gentleman from Arkansas. Burgess Everett & Michael Crowley of Politico: "Some of the seven dissenters told Politico they have doubts about Cotton's move, saying there are more effective means to force President Barack Obama to address Congress' concerns about the deal.... 'It's more appropriate for members of the Senate to give advice to the president, to Secretary Kerry and to the negotiators,' Collins said. 'I don't think that the ayatollah is going to be particularly convinced by a letter from members of the Senate, even one signed by a number of my distinguished and high ranking colleagues.'" ...
... CW: I hate to say it, but 47 U.S. Senators are traitors who are following orders of a somewhat mad foreign leader: Benjamin Netanyahu. We are on dangerous ground here. This is the way tribalism works. It is rather more genteel than ISIS, but nonetheless, these Senators would have us be the 13th tribe of Israel. ...
... I see Charles Pierce has the same idea: "Condescension aside -- and an argument can be made that [Sen. Tom] Cotton doesn't understand the Constitution any better than Ali Khamenei does..., is this really any more than an attempt by the Republican caucus to monkeywrench any deal that does not meet the approval of their new majority leader, Benjamin Netanyahu?... In case you missed it, there has not been much of a consensus on anything within the American government since the Kenyan Usurper moved into the White House. The commitment of the opposition to preventing his acting as president remains unyielding. It's just a little clumsier and more obvious now, as Cotton's letter to his new pen pal attests." ...
... Charles Pierce: "Cotton stands revealed as a true fanatic. He's stalwart in his convictions as regards things about which he knows exactly dick. What he and practically every Republican in the Senate did was nothing short of a slow-motion, partial coup d'etat. It was not quite treason, and it was not quite a violation of the Logan Act...." ...
... The New York Daily News is hardly subtle in its disdain. Here's the better part of its front page:
... EVEN THOUGH the editors are opposed to the peace negotiations: "Regardless of President Obama's fecklessness in negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, 47 Republican U.S. senators engaged in treachery by sending a letter to the mullahs aimed at cutting the legs out from under America's commander-in-chief. We join GOP signatories in opposing the pact as outlined, but we strenuously condemn their betrayal of the U.S. constitutional system. The participants represented the bulk of the Republicans' 54-member senatorial majority, vesting their petulant, condescending stunt with the coloration of an institutional foreign policy statement. They are an embarrassment to the Senate and to the nation." ...
... Jack Goldsmith, Assistant AG in the Bush II administration: The letter's "premise is that Iran's leaders 'may not fully understand our constitutional system,' and in particular may not understand the nature of the 'power to make binding international agreements.' It appears from the letter that the Senators do not understand our constitutional system or the power to make binding agreements." Goldsmith's objection is "a technical point that does not detract from the letter's message that any administration deal with Iran might not last beyond this presidency.... But in a letter purporting to teach a constitutional lesson, the error is embarrassing." ...
... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker provides a summary of the letter: "'Dear Iran, Please don't agree to halt your nuclear-weapons program, because we don't like Barack Obama and, anyway, he'll be gone soon.'... What is the source of the crying need that certain members of Congress, particularly Republicans, feel to make sure that everybody, and every last mullah, knows that they are much more important than some guy named Barack Obama?" ...
... Even ABC News's official right-wing reporter Jonathan Karl seems stunned by the Cotton, et al., brazen endrun around the President. Karl raises his voice at Cotton in what is supposed to be just a sitdown interview. ...
... ** CW: AND Cotton provides more evidence that Cotton he has no fucking concept of the Constitutional structure of the U.S. government. He tells Karl, "Congress has a Constitutional role to approve any deal...," & repeats a version of this remark. This is bull on two levels. (1) As Goldsmith explains, the Senate can give its advice & consent to an agreement negotiated by the administration; (2) but the President can & does negotiate & sign international agreements without the Senate's consent; & (3) it is not the Congress that has the constitutional power to give advice & consent, but the Senate. ...
... This may be what is confusing Tim-Tom: "Because it is not a treaty, an agreement with Iran would not require immediate congressional action. Mr. Obama has the power under current law to lift sanctions against Iran that were imposed under his executive authority and to suspend others imposed by Congress. But to permanently lift those imposed by Congress would eventually require a vote," Peter Baker writes in the Times article linked above. ...
... The War Senator. Lee Fang of the Intercept: "In an open letter organized by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., 47 Senate Republicans today warned the leaders of Iran that any nuclear deal reached with President Barack Obama could expire as soon as he leaves office.... Twenty-four hours later, Cotton will appear at an 'Off the Record and strictly Non-Attribution' event with the National Defense Industrial Association, a lobbying and professional group for defense contractors." ...
... CW: One thing of which we can be absolutely sure: the guy who appears in Tom Cotton's mirror every morning (or many times a day) is called "President Cotton." ...
** Daniel Drezner, a center-righty foreign policy writer, has a helpful explanatory piece on the possible ramifications of the GOP letter. He pretty much takes the Senators for ignorant buffoons who may unwittingly help the President's negotiating team. "It's like Tom Cotton went into the GOP cloakroom and said, 'Hey, guys, I just watched Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and it gave me a super-keen idea about what to do about Iran!!'" ...
... AND Paul Waldman: "Republicans are embarking on an entirely new enterprise: They have decided that as long as [Barack Obama] holds the office of the presidency, it's no longer necessary to respect the office itself.... To directly communicate with a foreign power in order to undermine ongoing negotiations? That is appalling.... The only direct precedent I can think of for this occurred in 1968, when as a presidential candidate Richard Nixon secretly communicated with the government of South Vietnam in an attempt to scuttle peace negotiations the Johnson administration was engaged in. It worked: those negotiations failed, and the war dragged on for another seven years."
Oh, Wait, There's More. Ryan Cooper of the Week: The "hilariously over-the-top fear-mongering" ad below is the work product of "the American Security Initiative..., founded by three ex-senators, Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Their ad is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's 'Daisy' ad in 1964, which famously featured a nuclear holocaust. Except it's the other way around: 'Daisy' implied that Barry Goldwater's snarling bellicosity would lead him to start a nuclear war, not the Soviets. A voiceover from Johnson made clear that ... the USSR and America must find some way to co-exist. 'These are the stakes: to make a world in which all of God's children can live... We must either love each other, or we must die'":
... Cooper, Ctd.: "... Bayh and company's berserk ad ends on a limp note. 'Tell Washington. No Iran nuclear deal without Congressional approval.' Oh really? So unless we get about the most despised and incompetent institution in American politics to sign off, then we're all going to be vaporized?... It is almost as if anti-Iran hawks do not actually believe their own rhetoric, and are seeking to scuttle a deal for a host of reasons -- politics, knee-jerk opposition to President Obama, an allergy to diplomacy, desire for a free military hand in the Middle East -- that have nothing to do with nuclear weapons."
Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department on Monday will notify more than 1 million federal employees that they can sue the government for not paying them on time during the partial shutdown of 2013. The alerts, required under a court order, will inform personnel who worked during the budget lapse that they can join a lawsuit claiming the government owes them damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act."
Former speechwriter Jim Fallows on President Obama's Selma speech: "... for once, a public figure expressing exactly how I feel.... When the political passions of our time have passed, people of all parties will quote this speech as expressing an essence of our American creed." CW: If you didn't hear the speech, do yourself a favor & listen. Fallows has it embedded in the linked post, & I put it up in the March 8 Commentariat. ...
... Paul Waldman on the stories we tell about ourselves: "... not just Obama's patriotism but his very American-ness has been questioned from the moment he became a serious candidate for the presidency. In the eyes of Giuliani and millions like him, America is not people like Barack Obama. It's people like them, and only like them.... Conservatism is about conserving, so of course the story they tell about America isn't one of constant change in order to improve the country. Their story, particularly in the last few years, is one of a kind of immaculate conception, in which the framers issued forth the nation in a state of perfection."
CW: I put this story in Wednesday's News Ledes, because I came across it in the middle of the day. In case you missed it, here's the good news again. Washington Post: "The estimated cost of President Obama's signature health care law is continuing to fall. The Congressional Budget Office announced on Monday that the Affordable Care Act will cost $142 billion, or 11 percent less, over the next 10 years, compared to what the agency had projected in January."
Taking A Byte of the Apple. Jeremy Scahill & Josh Begley of the Intercept: "Researchers working with the Central Intelligence Agency have conducted a multi-year, sustained effort to break the security of Apple's iPhones and iPads, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Intercept."
Annals of "Justice," Ctd.
** Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "A state judge will take over municipal court cases in Ferguson, Mo., the Missouri Supreme Court announced Monday evening. The change comes days after the federal Department of Justice sharply criticized municipal courts in the St. Louis suburb for acting largely as a fund-raising operation that disproportionately fined and jailed black people.Ronald J. Brockmeyer, the current municipal judge [and winner of Reality Chex's Worst Worm of the Week prize], resigned his post effectively immediately, according to a news release sent by a lawyer in his firm."
Steve Visser of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The GBI was called in to investigate whether a DeKalb[, Georgia,] police officer acted properly when he fatally shot an unarmed man, who appeared to be mentally ill Monday.... The DeKalb officer responded to an apartment complex around 1 p.m. on a 'suspicious person' report in which a man, who lived in The Heights at Chamblee, was knocking on apartment doors, had disrobed and was crawling around naked....
Maurice Possley of the Marshall Project, in the Washington Post: "More than a decade after Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for the arson murder of his three young daughters, new evidence has emerged that indicates that a key prosecution witness testified in return for a secret promise to have his own criminal sentence reduced."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. You have to read this sentence in context (where it is equally stupid) to know what particulars Ron Fournier is writing about, but Mr. Both-Sides-Do-It is so lacking in self-awareness that he actually typed into his little writing box, "Both sides do it." Well, his exact words: "Both parties are roughly equally drawn to their extremes." Ron Fournier is a stereotype of himself. ...
... Both Sides Do It, Ctd. Fournier is not alone. Steve M. writes of Josh Rogin, who broke the 47-Senators-letter story (i.e., a GOP staffer or Senator gave him a heads-up), "Republicans told Bloomberg's Josh Rogin that Both Sides Do it!, and Rogin retransmitted that claim exactly as it was dictated to him." Steve patiently explains to Josh that Colin Powell is not Vladimir Putin, & Jesse Helms writing to a Republican Secretary of State is not Tom Cotton writing to some ayatollahs. Sometimes such subtle nuance is very hard to see.
Presidential Race
CW: Paul Waldman writes a letter to Hillary Clinton that I find right in every respect but one: I really don't want to have to deal with that old familiar Clinton drama one more time. If I were prone to anxiety attacks, Waldman's letter would have given me a doozy. ...
... Gene Robinson & I are right in sync, too: "... the e-mail flap projects the sense that she considers herself both embattled and entitled. In the end, I'm not convinced that voters will necessarily care how Clinton's electronic communications were routed. But they may well ask themselves whether they're ready for the dynasty and the drama." ...
Hillary Clinton, 1994, during her "shoulda, coulda, woulda" press conference on Whitewater.... Oh, Lord, Another Pink Suit Moment. Glenn Thrush & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Hillary Rodham Clinton is likely to hold a press conference in New York in the next several days to answer reporters questions about a controversy surrounding her use of a private email account at the State Department, according to three people close to the potential Democratic frontrunner." ...
Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton is closing in on April 1 as the operational start date of her long-awaited presidential campaign, multiple sources with knowledge of Clinton's growing operation in Iowa have told the Guardian. With plans to hire as many as 40 staffers in the battleground state around the beginning of April, the sources said, there is essentially no turning back on Clinton campaign expenditures -- nor on the starting gun for the 2016 election." CW: Yes, April Fools Day is a perfect day to launch a presidential campaign.
... Here's a list of some Democrats I think should run for president this year. You can probably offer some additions (and objections) to my list:
Sheldon Whitehouse, Senator, Rhode Island
Amy Klobuchar, Senator, Minnesota
Sherrod Brown, Senator, Ohio
Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator, New York
Martin O'Malley, former Governor, Maryland
Al Franken, Senator, Minnesota
Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff
Julian Castro, HUD Secretary
Bernie Sanders, Senator, Vermont (I)
Elizabeth Warren, Senator, Massachusetts
Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "A majority of voters see 2016 frontrunners Hillary Clinton (D) and former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush (R) as a 'return to the policies of the past,' according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that shows the potential perils for each party's biggest names. Fifty one percent of registered voters view Clinton's policies as retreads of the past, but she's viewed much more favorably with Democrats. Only twenty three percent hold that view, and 73 percent believe she'll provide 'new ideas for the future.' Bush's numbers aren't as strong. Sixty percent of registered voters, and 42 percent of Republicans, see his policies as leaning backwards." ...
... CW: Don't kid yourselves, people. "Bush's numbers aren't as strong" because he has primary competition. The wingnuts will learn to love whoever is the party's standardbearer, including Jebbie. Besides, Republicans love "the policies of the past." Top past eras they prefer: Gilded Age, Northern War of Aggression, American Revolutionary War, Dark Ages & Stone Age, not necessarily in that order.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Obama took a direct swipe at Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican and likely presidential candidate in 2016, for signing a so-called right-to-work bill that will limit the power of private-sector unions."
News Lede
New York Times: Claude Sitton, a son of the South whose unwavering coverage of the civil rights movement for The New York Times through most of that era's tumultuous years was hailed as a benchmark of 20th-century journalism, died on Tuesday in Atlanta. He was 89."
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Reader Comments (25)
So if we want the Repulicans to stop hating America we need a Democratic candidate for POTUS who is a white male. They will still be amoral crap but they will actually talk to the President since he looks like they do.
And Marie, I think this is seriously an act of sedition. Of course the best part is neither Bibi or the Republicans actually know the terms of the agreement with Iran although they are absolutely sure the black guy must have it wrong. I mean how could there be a nigger smarter than a Republican senator.
Cotton is a piece of crap and the other 46 are sheep.
It's ironic and shameful that Cotton launches a tactic that would only make war with Iran more likely and then skips off to a dinner for defense contractors. Then again, Republicans don't see irony and they have no shame.
@Marvin Schwalb: I don't doubt for a minute that there's an element of racism in every one of Republicans' audacious acts of malice. Yes, they would do stupid stuff no matter what the race of a Democratic president -- as they did with Bill Clinton -- but a foundation of racism informs their disrespect for Obama.
It is one thing, however, to demonstrate one's racism in a SOTU address -- Joe Wilson's "You lie" -- but quite another to undermine delicate international negotiations with an open promise to scuttle any agreement reached at the first opportunity. Sedition? You bet.
Marie
Digby, back in February, wrote a piece for Salon that pin points Cotton as the Tommy rot that he is. As she puts it, "Tom Cotton is Ted Cruz with a war record, Sarah Palin with a Harvard degree, Chris Christi with a southern accent." If few knew who Tom Cotton was, they sure as hell know now. The guy is barely out of diapers (37) and he thinks he's gonna take on the world. What's frightening, is that he's going to try.
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/12/sarah_palin_with_a_harvard_degree_why_new_senator_tom_cotton_is_so_frightening/
@CW: I like your list of possible Democratic presidential contenders, but notice they're all from the Senate. I know we have very few governors left (sadly) but might there be one from that pool? I do admire my own Dem governor, Jay Inslee, but he is little known outside our state. Here's a full list of Democratic governors - maybe someone sees potential here:
http://www.democratichub.com/democratic-governors.aspx?o=pv&gclid=CO3-xej1ncQCFYqDfgodN2EAbw
It also occurs to me this pool could be expanded to Democratic governors who recently left office.
I am dumbfounded that no one in governement has called Tom Cotton's action what it is --- treason. I am ever more dumbfounded that he has not been arrested and charged with same. Is there no point at which we hold these people accountable?
P.S. Am so very glad Paul Waldman reminded us of "... in 1968, when as a presidential candidate Richard Nixon secretly communicated with the government of South Vietnam in an attempt to scuttle peace negotiations the Johnson administration was engaged in. It worked: those negotiations failed, and the war dragged on for another seven years."
Looks like our boys in the Right Wing Band are following in the footsteps of "I am not a crook" Nixon and will end up looking like a bunch of Dicks.
Nancy has an excellent point. In other times and places, actions like those following the lead of Tom Cotton, who has been a senator for all of 23 minutes and has yet to read the fucking Constitution, would result in the immediate arrest of all signatories and anyone else involved in this conspiracy to commit treason, followed by imprisonment, trials, and firing squads. And in some places (Putin's Russia--Putin being a big wingnut heartthrob), the first three steps are skipped so they can get to the shooting part as quickly as possible.
@Victoria D. My list is heavy on senators largely because they are most apt to enjoy some degree of national prominence. I did include Gov. O'Malley & two members of the Obama administration. I thought about Jay Inslee, & I'd certainly welcome him into the ring. I just didn't mention him as I thought nobody outside the state of Washington had heard of him. But he could change that.
One reason there are few governors on the list is that there are few Democratic governors, period. I think there are 19, whereas there are 44 sitting Democratic senators.
Marie
Is anyone else amused (sadly or otherwise) by the fact that nearly the entirety of the Republican contingent of the United States Senate had to be schooled in their constitutional duties and responsibilities, and lectured, as if they were children (which they are) on diplomatic decorum and the impropriety of doing and end run around a sitting president, by the foreign minister of a country that has been at the center of Islamic revolution for the last 35 years or so?
Just imagine, back when LBJ was senate majority leader, what his response might have been had a freshman senator who had yet to get his own key to the wash room, come to him with a letter to a foreign government telling them that the president was an asshole and not to bother negotiating with him. Just imagine! The response would have been...titanic. That senator would have had "backbencher" permanently tattooed on his forehead, like the scarlet letter, and would never be heard from again. Mitch McConnell's response? "Where do I sign?" That's some leadership, Mitch. Way to show the new guys how it's done.
And this points up the truth about politicians of the Republican stripe. They have no leaders. Only clowns. The don't care to learn governance, they don't care to pass workable legislation, they abhor compromise (one of the most basic and necessary human activities). The simply couldn't care less.
But they do one thing well, and this is about all they do: stunts.
"Hey, the world is blowing up, but look at me...I can stand on my head and blow bubbles through my nose!"
And Tom Cotton has seen that being a rookie is no impediment to headline grabbing via stunts. He's seen Li'l Randy and Little Teddy Cruz pull stunts--without having to resort to the grind of actual legislation--and grab attention for very little effort. So we have filibusters that don't actually do anything, government shut downs, threats of shut downs, laws passed against speaking the truth, more threats, brinksmanship, and now full throated treason. Stunts. That's all they got.
And Mitch McConnell, rather than showing some balls and demonstrating any real leadership, is just happy the new kids let him sit in the front seat of the clown car and play with the dingle balls hanging from the mirror.
Disgusting.
At least they can look to the foreign minister of Iran for some leadership, since they have none themselves.
P.S. If you haven't seen the link Marie provides to the Jonathan Karl interview with Traitor Tom, check it out. It's really amazing to see ABC's House Winger, who never has a bad thing to say about Republicans, completely flabbergasted by this stunt. At one point, Karl says that it looks like the White House is correct that Republicans have aligned themselves with Iranian hardliners. Cotton plays right into this. He says "They're all hardliners" which is the same as saying "That's right, we are aligning ourselves with Iranian hardliners."
Fool.
@PD Pepe: Waldman further noted, "Many people are convinced that what Nixon did was an act of treason; at the very least it was a clear violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits American citizens from communicating with foreign governments to conduct their own foreign policy."
At the time Nixon interfered with peace process, he was a private citizen. I suspect members of Congress are protected by the speech & debate clause of the Constitution, tho it does make an exception for treason.
Marie
@Akhilleus: Tho he's only been in the Senate for two months (which as you say means about 23 minutes of real time), this isn't the first time he has showed he would rather grandstand his abhorrent views than know WTF he's doing.
But it won't matter. He's probably making himself a big hero to the "base."
Marie
The coming war is being brought to you by AIPAC. If you missed AIPAC's original blockbuster: REGIME CHANGE: IRAQ, you won't want to miss the sequel: REGIME CHANGE II: IRAN.
The Republicans are just doing their masters' bidding.
For over a 100 years Jewish Americans have been at the forefront of the struggle for workers' right, women's rights, civil rights, voting rights, rights for the disabled, gay rights, social security for the elderly and health care for every citizen.
And now, in the blind pursuit of uncritical, unconditional support for Israel, wealthy, powerful, influential Jewish individuals and organizations have thrown in with the Republicans. In doing so they are aiding and abetting in the dismantling of the entire Progressive edifice.
A hard rain is going to fall.
Saw some interesting responses on Twitter to the latest Republican treachery.
@Julius&Ethel:
Nice going Republicans, but remember, continued treason can have, er....electrifying results.
@SamuelBeckett
Dear wankers, I've always been a fan of the absurd, but this is the bollocks.
@BenedictArnold
Welcome, welcome, welcome, Tom, Mitch, Teddy, and you, the little guy with the wig. Welcome all. This American Traitors Club is small but it just got a whole lot bigger. Thanks for joining!
@EmmetKelly
Clowns are funny, not stupid. You guys give clowns a bad name.
@Bozo
Yeah, and your shoes are all wrong. They need to be just big enough to flop around. The kind you guys wear, you'd be falling on your face all day. Whoa, Nellie!
@JamesMadison
OMFG.
@Satan
Ahhh...my children! You make me proud. No world peace. No peace ever! Anywhere.
@Bibi
Yeah....what he said.
@SaintRonnie
No agreements with those evil Ayatollahs! *pssst....unless they're secret.Shhhhh.*
TREASON-SEDITION-SABOTAGE, when have we used those words to describe political action before. When have conservative commenters called Republican action unconstitutional. None that I can think of. Finally maybe America will wake up to what is going on in the Republican party. And again remember the most important piece. No one knows what this terrible agreement with Iran actually says.
To follow up on David Feldman's point, Republicans are treading on some dangerous ground and they either don't know or don't care.
What they want, what Bibi wants, what AIPAC wants, is for us to continue to step on Iran as hard as possible. To grind them down. Because that worked so well with Germany after WWI.
I believe that Iran is at a crossroads. Most of the old time hardliners, the ones who started the revolution back in the 70's are getting older. The leaders from that time will all be dead within ten years. There is a burgeoning movement among young people in Iran who would be thrilled with a lessening of restrictions and broader access to the west. This won't happen overnight, but ensuring that Iran is cut off and isolated only plays into the hands of their fundamentalist maniacs (assured by the actions of our fundamentalist maniacs).
History, a subject much despised by wingnuts, for obvious reasons, teaches us that engaging with totalitarian regimes, especially when there appears to be a possibility of reaching some agreement, can be useful in ratcheting down the tensions. It worked with Red China. It worked with the Soviet Union. It will work with Cuba and could work with Iran. And of course it's not a given, but it is a possibility. Cries of "Neville Chamberlain" are unwarranted and unhelpful.
So here are our choices: negotiate and try for peace. Kill negotiations and increase sanctions, which guarantees that peace is a near impossibility, but that the possibility of war or some form of aggression increases dramatically.
Is that what they want? Bibi and his US lackeys?
It certainly seems that way. Last weekend on one of the Sunday Morning Gasbag Extravaganzas, Lindsey Graham (R-Fear), was just about ready to bomb somebody--anybody. Just drop some bombs somewhere.
Stupid and dangerous are not qualities that make for a great senator or an effective and realistic foreign policy.
Sorry for all the posts today, but this thing has me crazy.
One other thought (just one?)...
When they took the reins of complete control of both houses of congress just a couple of months ago, Republicans had an opportunity to show that they could move out of diapers and run the government like big boys and girls. Boehner and McConnell PROMISED they'd do that. Crossed their withered little hearts and hoped to die (a hope I seconded).
Instead, they have demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that they can't even rise to the level of the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. These people shoot themselves and each other. And other Americans caught in their crossfire.
Not only are they incapable of leading, they don't even know the first thing about it. So far, in just two months, they've gone to the mattresses over shuttting down Homeland Security, had to back off with their tails between their legs, are now threatening another debt battle, sent instructions to US governors telling them to ignore plans to curb carbon emissions, cheered on the Supreme Court to take healthcare away from Americans who now have it, are planning further efforts to restrict voting rights, support bigots at the highest levels of the ranks, spent valuable senate time throwing snowballs (another stunt), invited a foreign head of state to speak before congress with the express purpose of undermining US foreign policy negotiations, and now have comitted treason. They went from fuck ups to traitors and it only took them a matter of weeks.
Leadership?
This is the mother of all cluster fucks.
And all this in only TWO MONTHS!! We've got two more years--at least--of this bullshit.
@AK playing devil's advocate here—though BELIEVE ME I AM NOT ADVOCATING for this at all. But if I were to paraphrase what you wrote above:
"...I believe that USA is at a crossroads. Most of the old time hardliners, the ones who started the screwing up the government back in the 70's are getting older. The leaders from that time will all be dead within ten years. (Unfortunately) there is a burgeoning movement among young-er people in ARKANSAS, WISCONSIN, UTAH, et al, who would be thrilled with a tightening of restrictions and lesser access to almost everything."
Appears to bode worse for our future unless people wake up.
Re: finally; from tradesmen and women everywhere; Thanks Tommy Cotton, you've brought Congress into the DYI world. Professionals salute you. Sure you can do the job without any training or experience. Look at the great job you did on the bathroom remodel. Oh, shit comes out the cold water spigot? Still a great job.
If you are as outraged over the seditious acts of the republican senators as I and many others are, you may wish to review and sign this petition. Enough is enough. Call these radicals to account already.
Every time I hear one of the wingnuts advocating war with Iran I think of one Marcus Licinius Crassus and how his excellent adventure against ancient Iran turned out. (He was a moderately successful general who had put down Spartacus' slave revolt.
After he became governor of Syria, he plotted invasion of Iran in 54 BCE. He met the Parthians at Carrhae with disatrous results, one of the worst defeats in Roman history, in which Crassus was killed. The Parthians didn't fight Roman style with heavy infantry using horse archers instead.
Just because you've always won doesn't mean you always will.
Dave S — consider me as outraged as you, and apparently many of the other readers of this site. I signed the petition on the White House website; thanks for the link.
One reason I am so outraged is that the behavior scares me. It feels like a direct threat to our system of government and it also means any yahoo from a small backward state who gets elected to Congress can potentially disrupt our foreign policy.
I just saw Cotton doubling down on his stupidity; his remarks aired on one of the news shows. His biggest point is that we can't allow a nuclear Iran. It worries me that most of the public will think he means an Iran armed with nuclear weapons, not nuclear energy. He seemed purposely misleading. Of course many believe that one will lead to the other. But trying to strip Iran of capabilities it already has would seem futile. So limiting their capabilities in the way we are attempting appears the only viable course.
Barbarossa,
And, as you know, the Parthians perfected an insidious form of attack known as the Parthian Shot, sometimes referred to now as a parting shot. While pretending to turn and run on horseback from a foe, they would twist their upper bodies back, suddenly, while still riding in the opposite direction, and unleash a hail of arrows at the pursuing army, devastating that force as they rode headlong into a torrent of death.
Ignorance of history is a particularly backbreaking encumbrance of the Right in America, a contingent otherwise known as Witless Douchebags.
By the way, I was thinking of you and Patrick earlier today when reading about the traitorous machinations of Republicans who have decided that a black man in the White House gives them carte blanche to ignore each and every courtesy of office and insult the President of the United States.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the military, you are instructed to salute the rank, not the man, or woman. Isn't that right?
Republicans have dispensed with that nicety, but mostly because so many of them have never served in the military, and even those, like Tom Cotton, who have, seem to have forgotten that simple rule, the sort of discipline that separates an effective force from grass chewing, rock throwing thugs.
Oh, wait. I think "grass chewing, rock throwing thugs" is a pretty accurate description of the Moe-Dern GOP.
Thanks for the voice of reason on Iran, Akhilleus, I couldn't agree with you more vehemently. The Iranian people are, as a generalisation, educated, sophisticated people with thousands of years of culture to their credit. Cotton, warmonger friend of the arms industry, is a liar; there are so many moderate Iranians who long for the hardliners to die off, and who long to engage, in their own way, in a modern, democratic and peaceful world. But if we push their backs against the wall, insult and isolate them, they will reluctantly fall in behind their leadership to defend their rights and dignity. I believe there are similarly many moderate Israelis who abhor Bibi but have little voice due to the vote rigging favouring extremists. It seems that moderates the world over are being disenfranchised and muted by the screamers and the thirty second news cycle.
Ak: Right you are. I didn't much care for GW, but I never publically showed disrespect toward him while he was in office. Even though
I'm a retired officer, whoever is in office is still my commander in chief who must be shown the courtesy due the office.