Heretofore Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas was among the most obscure of lawmakers, earning kudos only from fringe voices such as Jennifer Rubin (the shrill librettist of The Washington Post's blog "From the Right"), Allen West and Phyllis Schlafly. His relative anonymity vanished on March 9, 2015 with his infamous open letter to the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His letter is just the latest example of how Cotton skirts and perverts laws and the U.S. Constitution as he justifies his own twisted worldview. He's akin to the character Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass who uses words to mean only what he chooses them to mean -- neither more nor less. The Logan Act, the Espionage Act of 1917, Articles II and III of the U.S. Constitution and even his oath of office as an Army officer assume meaning unique to Cotton's distorted mind.
To those familiar with Cotton's career, the letter to Iran's leadership is merely a continuation of a familiar modus operandi, as this is not his first missive to gain notoriety. In 2006, shortly after his arrival in Iraq as part of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne light infantry division, Cotton penned an open letter to the The New York Times, denouncing the paper for exposing a Bush administration secret program monitoring international banking transactions. His letter accused the journalists of espionage and called for their imprisonment. In the letter Cotton referred to his legal background: "I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated." But as New York journalism professor Jay Rosen explains, "The espionage act has never been used against journalists. When you accuse investigative journalists of espionage, you are essentially saying that they're working for another power, or aiding the enemy." He added, "That is culture war tactics taken to an extreme." One would think that as both a former attorney and student journalist Cotton would be "well-versed" with the concept of the 1st Amendment. Pulitzer Prize winner Eric Lichtblau, one of the Times reporters vilified by Cotton, defended his piece by saying, "Our story clearly concerned a matter of great public interest that went to the heart of the debate over national security versus civil liberties, and there was no evidence at the time the story was published in 2006, or in the five years since, that it endangered American lives."
Cotton's most recent letter attempting to undermine the diplomacy of the Obama administration appears to be a felony violation of the Logan Act (18 U.S.C. § 953), a law in force since the 18th century, which states
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without
authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any
correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or
agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States,
or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
Logan was enacted to prevent precisely what Cotton aims to do: interfere illegally in diplomatic matters between the U.S. government and foreign powers. Cotton's letter also attempts to subvert Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S Constitution -- the 'Treaty Clause" -- which authorizes the President "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur..." In case you're thinking that Cotton's status as a Senator gives him standing to intervene in treaty negotiations, think again. In 1936, the SCOTUS ruled in
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (299 U.S. 304) that
[T]he President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude; and Congress itself is powerless to invade it. As Marshall said in his great argument of March 7, 1800, in the House of Representatives, 'The President is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations.
Cotton has attempted other end-runs around the U.S. Constitution. As a Congressman from Arkansas (he served but one term), during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Cotton offered an amendment to the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013, "automatically" sentencing family members of people who violate U.S. sanctions against Iran up to 20 years in prison. Moreover, he would punish any family member, including "a spouse and any relative to the third degree" along with "parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids (and) great grandkids." To emphasize his suspension of 5th Amendment rights, he added, "There would be no investigation." Of course, as a former attorney with a degree in government Cotton should be expected to know language from Article III of the Constitution bars Congress from punishing treason based on "corruption of blood" -- the prohibition of sanctions based on mere familial ties.
But perhaps the best demonstration of Cotton's character is his attempt to portray himself as U.S. Army Special Ops soldier when in fact he was an infantry platoon leader. During his campaign for the U.S. House, he gave a television interview on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 saying, "I was a U.S. Army Ranger." In two campaign ads, previously available on YouTube and now apparently deleted, he reportedly made the same claim. This can charitably be described as a stretch of qualifications and at worst, an outright lie. Pegged by one veteran as a "hollow soldier," Cotton strives to pass himself as a member of the special ops forces when he was instead a combat platoon leader with the 101st Airborne. Tom Cotton was a graduate of the 61 day Army Ranger School, which entitled him to wear the Ranger Tab. Understand that virtually every infantry officer wears this decoration, awarded to "any person who successfully complete(s) a Ranger Course conducted by the Ranger Training Command at Fort Benning, Georgia." This officer's training school is characterized as a "ticket punch" school, vital to advancing an infantry officer's career. A U.S. Army Ranger is considered someone who serves in a Ranger Battalion or in the 75th Ranger Regiment and in addition to the Ranger Tab would be entitled to wear the Special Forces Tab on his uniform. By inferring that he was a special ops Ranger, Cotton compromised his oath of office and service.
Cotton was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army with the rank of Captain. Among his medals and commendations include the Bronze Star. One would think that a Harvard Law alum would be capable of more profound quotes than ""You may be tired of war, but war is not tired of you." He also seemingly perpetuates the myth that Saddam Hussein was a radical Islamic jihadist involved with the 9/11 attack when he states ""Iraq and Afghanistan, as much as we might see those as distinct, are just two battle fronts in (the) war (on terrorism)." He advocates a policy of "regime change" in Iran, a thinly veiled euphemism for the forceful removal and replacement of the nation's leadership. Bear in mind that Iran is a republic with an executive branch and a democratically elected unicameral legislature, albeit subject to the constitutional powers of the "Supreme Leader."
Sane Americans can only hope that Arkansas voters recognize that they elected a man who has demonstrated time and again his unsuitability to high office. Unfortunately, it appears we may have to wait almost six years before "regime change" affects Cotton's Senate seat.