General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe true scandal of the GOP senators’ letter to Iran
Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2015, 09:22 PM - Edit history (1)
By Michael Gerson Opinion writer March 12 at 8:14 PM
The true scandal of the Tom Cotton letter to Iranian leaders is the manner in which the Republican Senate apparently conducts its affairs.
The document was crafted by a senator with two months of experience under his belt. It was signed by some members rushing off the Senate floor to catch airplanes, often with little close analysis. Many of the 47 signatories reasoned that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells endorsement was vetting enough. There was no caucus-wide debate about strategy; no consultation with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has studiously followed the nuclear talks (and who refused to sign).
-snip-
But the half-baked Cotton letter was a poor instrument to express concern. First, the bleedingly obvious: If Republican senators want to make the point that an Iran deal requires a treaty, they should make that case to the American people, not to the Iranians. Congress simply has no business conducting foreign policy with a foreign government, especially an adversarial one. Every Republican who pictures his or her feet up on the Resolute Desk should fear this precedent.
In this particular situation, paradoxically, the main result is not a weakened presidency but a weakened legislature. Corker has been toiling with the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), to craft legislation that would require Senate approval of an Iran deal. Before the Cotton letter, Corker was two votes away from a veto-proof, bipartisan majority. Now Obama and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are using the letter to argue that Republicans are engaged only in partisan games. Peeling even a few Democrats off the Corker/Menendez approach could prove decisive. If the Corker bill fails narrowly, Obama might have Cottons missive to thank.
A final objection to the Cotton letter concerns not institutional positioning but grand strategy. The alternative to a bad nuclear deal is not war; it is strong sanctions and covert actions to limit Iranian capacities until the regime falls (as it came close to doing in 2009) or demonstrates behavior change in a variety of areas. But this approach depends on the tightening of sanctions in cooperation with Europe, as well as Russia and China. And this effort can be held together only by the impression that the United States has negotiated with Iran in good faith. So negotiations are actually an important part of any attempt to isolate Iran. The key is where we draw our red lines.
-snip-
full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-half-baked-missive-from-the-gop/2015/03/12/ccf10b8e-c835-11e4-b2a1-bed1aaea2816_story.html?
On Edit:
A brief bio of Gerson
Michael John Gerson (born May 15, 1964) is an op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, a Policy Fellow with the ONE Campaign,[1][2] a visiting fellow with the Center for Public Justice,[3] and a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.[4] He served as President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006, and was a member of the White House Iraq Group.[5] Gerson is considered to be a leading figure of the evangelical intelligentsia movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gerson
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Hekate
(90,714 posts)... I'll be able to kick into my patented Schadenfreude Dance.
Spazito
(50,365 posts)fellow ayatollahs have wrought and how badly it is backfiring on the republicans.
RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)which somehow requires us to engage in 'covert action' and 'sanctions' to bring about... ugh... 'regime change' or just general 'change' within Iran?
Iran is in no way whatsoever a threat to the United States.
Apparently this Gerson takes this as a predetermined thing, and even he is appalled by the bizarro letter to Iran. It seems to me that it would require a remarkable act of stupidity to prompt someone like that to criticize Repulicans on the subject...
Spazito
(50,365 posts)Remarkable acts of stupidity are the hallmark of republicans and their pundit sycophants. It is the one skill they display over and over and over again.
calimary
(81,322 posts)Remarkable Acts of Stupidity are what the GOP is world-famous for by now.
I love this -
"This was a foreign policy maneuver, in the middle of a high-stakes negotiation, with all the gravity and deliberation of a blog posting. In timing, tone and substance, it raises questions about the Republican majoritys capacity to govern."
My my my - michael gerson's piling on now. If that 47-Traitors letter stinks up the joint bad enough that michael gerson's dumping on it, then you KNOW it UTTERLY reeks all the way to Neptune, detectable THROUGH the vacuum of outer space.
AND here's another one:
"In timing, tone and substance, it raises questions about the Republican majoritys capacity to govern."
Thank you michael gerson for handing us another freebie! Hope our side looks at this with an eye toward campaign season. We have to poison the well on ALL THINGS republi-CON. We have to laminate to them - AND to their brand - the worst, most foul, most hideous, most idiotic, and indeed, the most TRAITOROUS and TREASONOUS things possible. I want to see their nest fouled so badly that it has to be repurposed as the town dump.
Spazito
(50,365 posts)I'm loving all the flop sweat being exhibited by Tehran Tom, his fellow ayatollahs and their pundit sycophants.
RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)How many modern Republican Representatives or Senators actually have any inclination whatsoever toward 'governing?' These people want to push the American federal government to the point of bankruptcy, so that it's no longer a threat to full-scale corporate hegemony. Of course, most are too stupid to think or talk in those terms, so they take the money, heap on the BS (which is the only thing they're good at) and await the lifetime of rewards from big money when their brand of BS runs stale and its someone else's turn...
calimary
(81,322 posts)They don't know squat about squat. And worse, they're PROUD of it. They seem to think that makes them one with the "Common Man." The really pathetic thing is - WHY do you want to send people who hate government and are basically like two-year-old Monica Lewinsky recalling in one interview how, at age two, she was just the cutest funniest little thing, stamping her little feet and yelling "NO ONE is the BOSS of ME!!!!" ?
Why do you do that? Why is that okay, Mr. and Mrs. American Voters back home? Is it because YOU are the ones who don't think anybody should tell you what to do? What if you're driving drunk? Shouldn't someone tell you then? What if you're dumping paint along the road because you're too cheap and lazy to dispose of it properly? You'd be calling somebody else like that a lazy moocher, btw. What if you're roughing up your neighbor or somebody in your family because you're mad about something? Shouldn't somebody tell you not to do that? Shouldn't somebody tell you that you need to contribute to everybody having good roads and bridges to drive on, because otherwise you wouldn't cough up a single penny. You'd hoard it all and say St. ayn rand told you it was okay to do that.
Sending people who hate the government and want to tear it down - INTO government at the highest levels - is just one of the most stupid, thoughtless, selfish, and antisocial things I can think of to do. They prove, quickly, that they can't govern. And they don't even want to. All they want to do is cause chaos and disruption. All they want to do is break things. Smash it all up and sweep it away! Well, what do you get after everything's destroyed? They never think of that. I think somehow they believe everything will just magically take care of itself, because after all, that's the way it's supposed to be and we're just returning to the Natural Order of things. And maybe they believe that's the spark that ignites the return of Christ. Why of course He is going to obey THEIR timetable, or what it says in THEIR appointment book! They can't drive when they finally succeed in grabbing the keys away. But they're damn sure they're gonna go driving ANYWAY. And YOU'RE not going to tell them or anybody else what to do. I swear, the SWINE that are sent to Congress and the United States Senate!!! It's almost as though the folks at home want only to deliver lit explosives to a crystal and china shop. And somehow they're expecting the result to be the Good Fairy and Jesus coming down hand-in-hand to set everything to right. Instead, they're gonna get nothing splintered rubble and glass shards everywhere.
They're nothing but the Anarchy Crowd. And that seems to be the only thing they want.
RiverNoord
(1,150 posts)I can fairly state that I have never witnessed the remarkable level of gross stupidity in US national politics that I've seen among high-ranking Republicans since an African-American became president.
And because of the criminal duopoly that tightly controls American politics - I'm sorry, I mean the 'two party system' - they can rise to new heights of stupidity and still win elections.
Spazito
(50,365 posts)of batshit crazy repubs, take Canada as an example. 5 parties yet the neocon conservatives are in power and with only 39% of the vote.
The "remarkable level of gross stupidity" is the product of the repubs racist views.
erronis
(15,303 posts)As soon as the neocons were able to steal the election and start making really stoopid decisions about nuklear mushroom clouds and evidence of yellow banana cake, the media hopped on board for a fun train ride into the Magic Kingdom of Patriots and Parrots. If you weren't on that gravy train, you lost.
Your tour guides were Dickie, Rummie, Condie, and Georgie. Behind the curtains, just to make sure this ride went as advertised were Wolfie and a lovelerly crew of braggarts and greedy talking heads from the MSM and minders from beltway terror squad. Gawd almighty, some of these same whackos (Christolass, Kratzwhatsisuglyface) still show up with the same pathetic drivel.
Personally, I'd die to have some mea culpas from these folks before they slime away off this coil. A few have come out with personal exposure (Gary K?) but nothing like what is needed before they'll be allowed to pass into the Kingdom of Heaven (Ronnie presiding?)
cui bono
(19,926 posts)mopinko
(70,129 posts)Last edited Sat Mar 14, 2015, 03:28 PM - Edit history (1)
that cotton didnt write the letter. it was handed down from on high, and cotton was the only one desperate enough to take the bait.
alleged that bill kristol wrote the letter.
eta-doh.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)I assume you meant William Kristol.
tblue37
(65,408 posts)mopinko
(70,129 posts)looked at that and knew it was wrong. damn i hate that.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Protests against an unpopular president aren't "close to" the fall of a government.
BumRushDaShow
(129,107 posts)Notably the part about the attempt at "good faith" negotiations, because of the configuration of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council where you do have Russian and China sitting there.
Thespian2
(2,741 posts)One can hope that Repugs will finally see their leadership for what it is...completely destructive to America.
HeiressofBickworth
(2,682 posts)The Senate will have to ratify any treaty anyway, Article II, Sec. 2, Par. 2 of the US Constitution says: "He (President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;"
I suspect an end play -- They know they don't have the votes to stop a treaty with Iran so they tried to stop it without the votes of the other Senators. They really don't like playing by the rules.
TrollBuster9090
(5,954 posts)"It is true that President Obama set this little drama in motion. Major arms-control treaties have traditionally involved advice and consent by the Senate. Obama is proposing to expand the practice of executive agreements to cover his prospective Iranian deal effectively cutting senators out of the process. By renewing a long-standing balance-of-powers debate in a way that highlights his propensity for power-grabbiness Obama invited resistance"
"Major arms-control treaties have traditionally involved advice and consent by the Senate."
Yes, and the Senate has TRADITIONALLY been run by people who have the best interests of the country in mind, and did not put a desire to destroy government, and prevent the President from succeeding at all costs out of pettiness and spite, regardless of how it effects the country.
Obama didn't start cutting Congress out of the loop for no reason. He was FORCED TO after years and years of Republican spiteful obstructionism. Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, Carter, Nixon...NONE of them ever had a petty childish Congress that would actually SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT to try and stop the President from implementing a policy that was ACTUALLY THEIR OWN IDEA. NO PRESIDENT IN HISTORY has ever had to deal with a Senate that was lead by people like this.
Obama didn't set this little drama in motion. The GOP leadership did in January 2009, when they secretly met and decided they were going to sink, scuttle, thwart, frustrate, and otherwise burn to the ground anything and everything Obama tries to do, whether it benefits the country or not.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Jumbo shrimp, open secret, and "evangelical intelligentsia" movement. You can't make this shit up.
randome
(34,845 posts)It's simply going to take a little longer before people realize there are metaphorical cattle grazing on the metaphorical lawn.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]
herding cats
(19,565 posts)He's a water carrier for the party, note even now he offers reasoning as to why other poor duped Republicans may have signed...they were rushing to catch planes, McConnell had already endorsed it. Besides, it was all Obama's fault.
Yet he has to admit it weakened the power the GOP have in the Senate by strengthening partisan divides. Which is true, and it's worth noting Boehner also did in the house when he invited Netanyahu to speak. They have zero control over the Tea Party members, and have done nothing but sabotage their own negotiating power this session as a result. McConnell and Boehner both look like milquetoast leaders who are being lead about by the fringe in their party.
It's really quite a pickle the Republicans find themselves in. A party infiltrated by their extremists and weak leaders unable to reign them in, or even take the dangers of their actions seriously, as McConnell did with the letter. It makes one wonder what they plan to do to fix the situation?
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Jim Beard
(2,535 posts)OCTOBER SURPRISE. I would put nothing past the republicans. They did it for the Gipper. (Sickening)