I’m just paging Arthur Gilroy here. Any response?
In an open letter to Iranian leaders, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and 46 other Republicans said that without congressional approval, any deal between Iran and the U.S. would be merely an agreement between President Barack Obama and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei…
The letter released Monday was signed by 47 of the Senate’s 54 Republicans. Included were McConnell and the rest of the Senate GOP leadership plus presidential contenders Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Now I quote The Mighty Biden:
Statement by the Vice President on the March 9th Letter From Republican Senators to the Islamic Republic of Iran
I served in the United States Senate for thirty-six years. I believe deeply in its traditions, in its value as an institution, and in its indispensable constitutional role in the conduct of our foreign policy. The letter sent on March 9th by forty-seven Republican Senators to the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressly designed to undercut a sitting President in the midst of sensitive international negotiations, is beneath the dignity of an institution I revere.
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. Honorable people can disagree over policy. But this is no way to make America safer or stronger.
Around the world, America’s influence depends on its ability to honor its commitments. Some of these are made in international agreements approved by Congress. However, as the authors of this letter must know, the vast majority of our international commitments take effect without Congressional approval. And that will be the case should the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany reach an understanding with Iran. There are numerous similar cases. The recent U.S.-Russia framework to remove chemical weapons from Syria is only one recent example. Arrangements such as these are often what provide the protections that U.S. troops around the world rely on every day. They allow for the basing of our forces in places like Afghanistan. They help us disrupt the proliferation by sea of weapons of mass destruction. They are essential tools to the conduct of our foreign policy, and they ensure the continuity that enables the United States to maintain our credibility and global leadership even as Presidents and Congresses come and go.
Since the beginning of the Republic, Presidents have addressed sensitive and high-profile matters in negotiations that culminate in commitments, both binding and non-binding, that Congress does not approve. Under Presidents of both parties, such major shifts in American foreign policy as diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China, the resolution of the Iran hostage crisis, and the conclusion of the Vietnam War were all conducted without Congressional approval.
In thirty-six years in the United States Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which Senators wrote directly to advise another country—much less a longtime foreign adversary— that the President does not have the constitutional authority to reach a meaningful understanding with them. This letter sends a highly misleading signal to friend and foe alike that that our Commander-in-Chief cannot deliver on America’s commitments—a message that is as false as it is dangerous.
The decision to undercut our President and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as a matter of principle. As a matter of policy, the letter and its authors have also offered no viable alternative to the diplomatic resolution with Iran that their letter seeks to undermine.
There is no perfect solution to the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program. However, a diplomatic solution that puts significant and verifiable constraints on Iran’s nuclear program represents the best, most sustainable chance to ensure that America, Israel, and the world will never be menaced by a nuclear-armed Iran. This letter is designed to convince Iran’s leaders not to reach such an understanding with the United States.
The author of this letter has been explicit that he is seeking to take any action that will end President Obama’s diplomatic negotiations with Iran. But to what end? If talks collapse because of Congressional intervention, the United States will be blamed, leaving us with the worst of all worlds. Iran’s nuclear program, currently frozen, would race forward again. We would lack the international unity necessary just to enforce existing sanctions, let alone put in place new ones. Without diplomacy or increased pressure, the need to resort to military force becomes much more likely—at a time when our forces are already engaged in the fight against ISIL.
The President has committed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He has made clear that no deal is preferable to a bad deal that fails to achieve this objective, and he has made clear that all options remain on the table. The current negotiations offer the best prospect in many years to address the serious threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It would be a dangerous mistake to scuttle a peaceful resolution, especially while diplomacy is still underway.
Enough with the Rand Paul nonsense.
Faith and love are impervious to facts, reality, and logic. If it were otherwise, we wouldn’t have squandered $4 trillion in Iraq, the divorce rate would plummet to zero, and there wouldn’t be any “baby mamas.”
Joe Biden is to polite to call it what it is – treasonous.
This is the second time in a month – Netanyahu the first – that Republicans have proven their credo:
Party before country, money above all.
Ali Gharib
ha-ha. These squishes would fail a 9th grade exam on the Constitution.
I wonder how many of them have read any part of the United States Constitution besides the Christian Nation Clause and the One Nation Under God Amendment.
memorized . . . well, with the exception of the “well-regulated militia” part, obviously.
Did you see the Iranian foreign minister response to the letter?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/zarif-senators-letter_n_6834296.html
smh…Senators being lectured on Constitution by foreign leaders…less we ignore but it’s not just “new” Senators who signed that letter…cough…cough..McCain
Isn’t Zarif U.S. educated? I know a number of the Iranian leaders are. Also, Tom Cotton has two degrees from Harvard, one of them being a law degree. Is anyone going to ask why Harvard keeps disgracing this country with idiots(Cotton and C+ Augustus to name two)? Second, Cotton hate journalists:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/11/tom-cotton-arkansas-new-york-times
He has a long history of scummy behavior.
Yes. Univ of Denver (same as Condi Rice I believe).
I read that a number of the higher ups there are either Eurpoean or American-educated.
Hate Iran or not, the letter was condescending as hell. No love lost for Iran, but really how is talking down to an opponent supposed to be anything other than trying to invoke a response & blow up talks
He took Cotton and those other ignoramuses to the woodshed.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/03/iran-foreign-minister-gives-gop-senators
Proudly ignorant racism, stark and putrid, is to blame for the on-going degradation of the Senate, the House, and U.S. democracy. If sunlight is going to disinfect our body politic I sure wish it would hurry up and get to it.
Love that scene.
Exactly right.
Like I said, who’s got any love lost for Iran, but underestimating the intelligence of their leaders and such, happens at our peril. Never underestimate your opponents without knowing the extent of their intelligence….smh.
These Senators…ugh
Me thinks the GOP senators expected the old time woof ticket they sent to Iran would provoke an Ahmadinejad like rambling hateful response (in Persian). But, they got a response form Zarif. A response that did not need translation. A response that demonstrated that Sarif has a better understanding of US law and command of the english language. Doesn’t this whole thing remind you of the public conversation W had with Mullah Omar right before we invaded Afghanistan….the complete senseless bulling by W.
The Netanyahu gambit backfired on Congress. Is it conceivable that this foolishness will as well?
I’m glad you took special note of this, BooMan. This is one of the most despicable things a large group of Senators has done in my life. Hell, seven Republican Senators refused to sign this hateful letter, and Rand still couldn’t find it in himself to stay off that POS. Principled!
If I were a Democratic Senator, I’d start placing amendments on every single Bill, amendments which forcibly require all the children of all 47 of these horrible people who shame our Senate to join the Army and be placed in a unit which is deployed overseas. McConnell wants an open amendment process? Suck. On. This.
I like that idea. In the meantime I signed the petition:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/file-charges-against-47-us-senators-violation-logan-act-at
tempting-undermine-nuclear-agreement/NKQnpJS9
Thanks. I went and signed.
Thanks for the link. I’ve tried twice to sign the petition, but when I try to follow the email confirmation link I get a page unavailable error. Anyone else getting that?
Yes. I just got that message too. I tried again and after 3 attempts finally got the page.
I have a feeling that the servers are busy. When I signed this morning there 6500 signatures and now 6 hours later there are over 30,000.
My advice is to keep trying…
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/file-charges-against-47-us-senators-violation-logan-act-at
tempting-undermine-nuclear-agreement/NKQnpJS9
This isn’t a game. That 46 Rep Senators chose to follow Cotton’s lead to play what is readily recognized by the Iranian ambassador as politically motivated exposes something beyond sheer ignorance.
In one month’s time in the role of leadership they will have a record of trying to defund Homeland Security in a rush to crush Immigration; destroy ongoing negotiations between 5 allies and a foreign country; oversee a budget crisis McConnell doesn’t know how to get a vote on; and all the while a SCOTUS hearing on a fabricated charge against the ACA which will impact their own constituents negatively.
This is an unprecedented insult to our President and the Separation of Powers of our Constitution. To me it shows that the Republican Party is truly depraved. Biden’s letter is right on.
The DC obsession with Iran reminds me of the NFL’s constant flirtation with an LA franchise. Because if we made peace with Iran, who would be our international boogeyman? Of course this ignores the fact that there will always be suitable bad actors we can project all our repressed vices upon. But the leading contender at the moment, ISIS, happens to operate in a country with all kinds of downer type associations, and even lobotomized chuckleheads on cable news can ask “what is there to do really?”
But with Iran, the dream is still pure, evergreen, invigorating. That horrific clusterfuck is still on the shelf, and how dare the president try to take it away from us!
I think the DC obsession with Iran has the same root as the DC obsession with Cuba. The revolutionaries took out one of “our” guys. To the DC crowd their continued existence in power is a decades-long fuck-you to the US.
Juan Cole discusses likely outcomes in Iraq and Afghanistan if we attack Iran. Needless to say it’s not a pretty picture that the willfully ignorant GOTP 47 is seemingly blind to.
http://www.juancole.com/2015/03/bombing-happen-their.html
None of that matters if they can stampede Obama into action. Then he owns it. That probably won’t happen though, because he’s not that dumb.
The funny thing is, I’ve started to think it’s actually unlikely that a republican president would bomb Iran, at least if someone won in 2016. We’d have much bigger problems then, but I get the feeling the Republicans aren’t even really up for it. It’s cheap and easy to be a superhawk when you’re not responsible for the consequences of your words.
I don’t know, I just get the sense they couldn’t even get their act together enough to bomb Iran. Or even really care enough to do something about it. I think their tough talk right now is literally the emptiest possible macho posturing.
Tom Cotton’s newbie move underscores the reason why term limits would add more ignorance to the Senate. Doesn’t explain the other 46 but then they are Republicans.
And where is Hillary the Zionist Uber-Hawk? Or is it just as well she is silent since, if she spoke, she would align with the Republicans!
It’s cute how dumb you are.
It’s also dumb how cute she HRC being regarding Israel and the necessary money to get elected. The silence of the tomb. No, the silence of the bank vault is better. She is…just as is Rand Paul…playing big time power politics. So is Biden. Where is his outraged letter about MBNA’s leadership when the credit card interest rate boondoggle was lobbied through Congress?
Please.
He was the Senator from MBNA.
She was…and is trying to remain…the candidate of the older money.
You want honesty and morality in politics the way it is played on this scale? Then you want to lose. it is after the election is won that the real rubber hits the road. Until then? It’s just an another ongoing multi-negotiation among the real controllers, their media hounds and the professional political hustlers.
WTFU.
AG
Arthur, your impenetrable cynicism makes you appear as an increasingly sad man. Nothing means anything to you. Why consider real policies and real outcomes in the real world when your opinion and viewpoint is the only thing that matters?
You’re cutting quite the figure these days.
You’ve no doubt also noticed that Arthur completely ignores Boo’s challenge to defend his hero Rand, since even he can’t dredge up a defense that would pass the laugh test. Nope, all he can do is seize upon the slender reed of bashing Hillary and Biden in a pathetic attempt to deflect the discussion from his idol’s faceplant.
I’m just surprised there were no giant photos of Hillary looking petulant or something.
My “impenetrable cynicism” regarding U.S. politics is simply the truth of the matter as I…and millions of other Americans…see it. (This from the supposedly left-centrist Atlantic, by the way. Yeah, I know. It sounds more like The Washington Times except the prose is better. That’s where we’re headed, bubbeleh. Deal wid it. Rand Paul is way out front of this trend. Just another cynical, vote-grabbing pol? Maybe, maybe not. We shall soon see. Won’t we.)
Deal wid it.
AG
No, we don’t have to look into the future to see if Rand Paul is a cynical, warmongering, vote-grabbing pol; it’s quite visible. And what is this “we shall see” nonsense you spread out behind you when you don’t want to deal with something? Fooling no one there, ever.
Simple question: how do you respond to Rand Paul joining a Congressional letter which is clearly intended as a provocation to war? Don’t duck it.
Watch out! He’s gonna pull out the chicken silhouette if you keep poking at him.
Naaahhhh…
I’ll post this portrait of Big Government and its relationship to the American citizen instead.
Note well the defiance of the little guy.
It’s the American way.
Bet on it.
Long may it wave.
AG
You ducked it. You might want to stay in the ring and have it out for once, instead of stepping out into the crowd and sucker-punching the hot dog salesman like this…
Simple answer for simple minds:
As I have said over and over again, I have no idea how “sincere” Rand Paul is about much of what he says. I do not believe that I have seen a nationally successful sincere (read “non-lying”) politician who was also highly intelligent since perhaps Mario Cuomo and Bill Bradley, both of whom realized that their sincerity was going to be an albatross around their neck and the prime cause of a losing campaign, thus deciding to get out while the getting was good in order to be able to live out the rest of their lives in some semblance of peace.
How do i respond to Rand Paul’s signing of the Congressional letter?
The same way i respond to his little tete á tete with the execrable Sheldon Adelson, a meeting from which he came out with a promise from Adelson not to throw huge amounts of money against him in the primaries. He’s playing political hardball. Maybe the price of that promise was that he sign the letter. I dunno. I do know, however, that his stated positions on any number of issues…auditing the criminal Fed, legalizing marijuana, changing the justice system in the U.S. so that it is not totally weighted against the poor, leaving our job as World Cop and above all slashing the bloated, inefficient and rapidly metastasizing cancer of Big Government across the board…resonates with my own positions. Plus, he is the only politician of national standing who is saying these things loud and clear. Is he a total liar? Could be, but if he is he certainly has some set of balls on him…and quite an imagination as well…to try to run that game all the way to the White House.
Until proven otherwise…not by nattering nabobs of leftiness making insult noises at him like yourself, but by his own actions…until proven otherwise I am taking him at face value.
Straight enough answer for you, bubba?
I hope so.
AG
Well, gosh, lotta cogs bent and broken in the old brainpan trying to hold in the same mind these views:
“Maybe the price of that promise was that he sign the letter. I dunno.”
and
“…leaving our job as World Cop…”.
Doesn’t this document Rand being a total liar?
I’d also be fantastically interested in reading your bill of particulars here:
“…above all slashing the bloated, inefficient and rapidly metastasizing cancer of Big Government across the board…”.
So, how deeply should ALL government programs be cut across the board? Name your percentages: Social Security? Medicare and Medicaid? SNAP? Unemployment, disability and workers’ comp insurance?
Holy shit, Arthur, what about regulatory agencies? How are we going to reign in the abuses that we agree are rampant in Wall Street and the big banks unless we have well-funded, skilled, motivated and empowered agencies to block these financial powers from abusing the public?
What about food, consumer and worker safety? Slash away at the budgets for the FDA, OSHA, infrastructure inspectors, others? How will the American public get the healthy food you know that they need and deserve, and the help they need to understand the differences between food that is healthy and food that is unhealthy, between medications which help and medications which damage?
You think workers are getting short shrift these days? Wouldn’t it be important, then, to appoint good people into leadership, judge, investigatory and enforcement positions at the NLRB so we could stop the bleeding, and stop appointing people to Federal courts who eviscerate the labor laws and NLRB rulings which actually help the working class?
You have stated concern about the education that our children receive. Are you recommending that less Federal money go into educating children in the poorest neighborhoods, and into the local colleges which provide those children the best access to higher and vocational education?
And what about voting rights, among the most important rights to protect? You’ll need a lot of disinterested citizens who want to dump the status quo to vote to institute the revolution you prescribe, right? How are you going to achieve that when Rand Paul wants States to have the right to disenfranchise so many poor and vulnerable people through Voter ID and other restrictions? His hollow, periodic advocacy for restoring voting rights to ex-felons is pretty quiet now that he’s running for President, for Pete’s sake. And by the way his “advocacy” for felons has moved JACK SHIT in Congress if you hadn’t noticed.
Finally, what of cleaning up the cesspool that is our media, one of your chief preoccupations? Don’t we need an empowered FCC willing to make the right decisions to take down the media empires and stop them from misinforming Americans, and the funding necessary to create and enforce better communications policy?
I could go on, but no need for now. Please, wise one, bring us your specific visions of a Federal government stripped of its ability to meaningfully do any of these things.
You are about all or nothing, centerfielddj. A typical kneejerk zealot whether it’s kneejerk leftiness or kneejerk rightiness. A jerk’s a jerk no matter which knee is being tapped.
That’s not the way it works in the real world, which is one main reason that the whole leftiness movement is totally ineffective in doing anything but helping to elect Big Promise people like Obama and Bill Clinton, people who have already made their deal with the devil. At the very worst,Rand Paul offers a new deal.
All deals are with the devil, my friend, including FDR’s. Bet on it. Try to break or substantially modify the deal? JFK found out the hard way. This one…this neo-liberal deal that produced the Clinton and Obama administrations…is a failure. Plain and simple, things in the U.S…and across most of the world as well…are worse than they were before these people made their various deals. The Bush II deal was even more disastrous. (Always remember, even Satan’s little helpers have to make deals with him. He’s an equal opportunity destroyer.)
All I eally hope for is another deal that rolls back some of the problems of the present f=deal afr enough that we can survive as a country…especially economically, which is our main problem at the moment.
You want “specifics?” What specifics given by any politician in living memory have had any validity whatsoever after the election is over? None that I can see.
Enjoy the process, Bunky.
It’s all the enjoyment you are going to get, seems like…unless of course you enjoy being hoodwinked by the same kind of hood that last winked at you, which in your case seems to be what’s up.
Happy days are here again, Rip van Winked-at.
Enjoy your new snooze.
later…
AG
This has all been very useful for us to learn, Arthur.
Given your complete affirmation of your opinion, the only opinion you have, you have told us that you want to cut each and every one of those Federal programs I named, due to your reaffirmed call for across-the-board Federal budget cuts.
You also are completely fine with Rand Paul lying to your face on an issue you care about quite deeply.
Impenetrable cynicism.
LOL.
So Booman…you continue to take as gospel totally neoliberal/pro-Dem partisan rags like Liberals Unite but do not believe anything that is written from the right? You are of course half correct. Pretty soon you may find yourself LOL out of the other side of your mouth. Then whatchoo gonna do? Stop laughing entirely? Probably.
AG
LOL.
“I want to comment on a matter in the news today regarding Iran. The president and his team are in the midst of intense negotiations. Their goal is a diplomatic solution that would close off Iran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb and give us unprecedented access and insight into Iran’s nuclear program.
Now, reasonable people can disagree about what exactly it will take to accomplish this objective, and we all must judge any final agreement on its merits.
But the recent letter from Republican senators was out of step with the best traditions of American leadership. And one has to ask, what was the purpose of this letter?
There appear to be two logical answers. Either these senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander- in-chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letters’ signatories.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton
The petition to file charges against these “americans” just went over 90k.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/file-charges-against-47-us-senators-violation-logan-act-at
tempting-undermine-nuclear-agreement/NKQnpJS9
10K more signatures in just under an hour. Goal of 100K reached…
Not that I expect the response to amount to much but at least the public’s outrage has been registered.
OT: Bill to change how Michigan divvies up electoral votes back in the Lansing mix
By SARAH CWIEK * MAR 6, 2015
A bill that would change how Michigan allocates its electoral college votes is back in the mix in Lansing.
Republican state representatives Cindy Gamrat, Todd Courser, Thomas Hooker, and Gary Glenn introduced the bill this week.
It proposes that each of the state’s 14 Congressional districts gets one electoral vote — with the two remaining votes going to the statewide winner.
Currently, nine of those 14 districts lean Republican.
Right now, whichever presidential candidate wins the overall vote in Michigan claims all the state’s 16 electoral college votes.
http://michiganradio.org/post/bill-change-how-michigan-divvies-electoral-votes-back-lansing-mix
Paul skipped the Iowa Ag Derby in favor of lobbying KY legislators to change their law that a candidate can’t run for two offices simultaneously.
Sorry — Paul already tried and failed at that gambit. Last weekend he worked over the KY GOP committee to hold a caucus for POTUS instead of a primary and appears to have succeeded. (Team Paul was more successful in caucus states than primary states in 2012, but that’s a separate issue.)
re:
Kind of astonishing that by this late date, you could still not get that — to the irresponsible, bloodthirsty (well, as long as their kids’ blood is not involved) wingnut opposition — that’s a feature, not a bug!