If you don't know what
#47traitors refers to, it was a top trending hashtag in Twitter recently, refering to the
47 Republican senators who signed a letter to the Iranian government telling them not to work with Obama, because the next Republican president is going to undo the agreement, and executive agreements don't mean anything anyway. The newly minted senator leading Republican senators by the nose when they should know better, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, responded to the ensuing controversy by asking the Republican presidential candidates to sign on. Four responded positively, so far. With a quadruple hat tip to TPM,
Rick Perry and
Bobby Jindal said they would sign.
Scott Walker and
Jeb Bush did a bit of fudging, not signing themselves, but offering excuses for those who did. Looks like those two want it both ways, being able to tell conservatives that sabotaging a president's negotiations with a foreign government is OK, but being able to deny to swing voters that they signed.
That's on top of the senators who signed and look inclined to run for president: Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio. There are no senators who appear to be running who had the sense to not sign.
Do they not understand that they're undermining the very job they seek? They want to tell a foreign government, and really all foreign governments, that the president's word means nothing because Congress will sabotage a president of the opposing party, and the next president will undo any agreement any. Do they think that once they get in office, the credibility of the presidency will suddenly be restored? Perhaps they think foreign governments will conveniently forget that the president they're talking to previously said executive agreements don't mean anything. Maybe these candidates are calculating that they have to exhibit Obama Derangement Syndrome because it's pandemic among those who vote in Republican primaries, and they'll deal with the damage once they get into office. If they don't win, then the damage is someone else's problem anyway, right?
#ThisGuyWantsToBePresident