Recently forty-seven Republicans signed an open letter (initiated by some sod-kicking clod from Arkansas whose been in the Senate all of sixty days) to the mullahs in Iran stating their opposition to the agreement the President is attempting to negotiate to prevent Iran from developing an offensive nuclear capability. This is an outright act of sedition, willfully and purposely committed to undermine the President's authority in conducting the nation's foreign policy in a set of negotiations that weigh heavily on the safety and security of every American. This is like a senator during the Cuban Missile Crisis calling Khrushchev and telling him not to pay any attention to the guy in the White House. Those responsible for this treason are now trying to backtrack and disclaim responsibility by blaming it (signing the letter) on the snowstorm and their urgency to get out of Washington (John McCain), or else claiming that the letter was really intended as a message for the President (Rand Paul).
This is despicable. These assholes don't even have the guts to stand up and take responsibility for their mistakes. And the really sad thing for America is that of the forty-seven -- one of these Republican door nobs has already run for President, and five others have indicated an interest in running. God save America! Signing that letter undercutting the President's efforts to get a nuclear deal with Iran should -- by all that's holy -- disqualify all of these traitors from ever holding national office. And that includes that moron Cotton from Arkansas who started the whole thing. You would expect old Republican hands like John McCain and Lindsey Graham (that hominy-and-grits piece of shit) to know better, but obviously they don't. This applies as well to Jeb Bush who has publicly come out and voiced his support for the letter. This alone should end his candidacy for the country's top job, but you can trust that the republican faithful won't even take notice. Right now Jeb is their man. Just a thought on John McCain -- the longer he remains in politics, the bigger fool he makes of himself. As for the rest of the Republican field -- Graham and Walker, Cruz and Rubio, and others of their ilk -- these are people who should be put on a reservation someplace with a big fence and no outside communication with the saner elements in our society.
It's almost nauseating to watch these same republicans shamelessly parading around showing off their piety and flaunting (in almost every public forum) their patriotism, waving the flag and thumping the bible, calling out and damning and condemning anyone who doesn't seem to share so-called "values" (Mike Huckabee attacking Beyonce as somehow a bad influence because "he" doesn't like her song lyrics). Who does this asshole think he is?
This is disgusting to anyone with even the most minimal sense of propriety. These people are the biggest hypocrites on the planet -- worse than the goddamned Pharisees. Keep your religion and your family values to yourself, and mind your own business because nobody else cares what you believe. And it's not the place for a bunch of men (in Congress) to be deciding issues of women's health care. Religion should be an entirely private matter, with no place in the public policy debate. There are a lot of hard-working patriotic Americans who are tired of patronizing civics lessons from treasonous, religiously over zealous Republicans. And we should not overlook that there are a lot of God-fearing, patriotic Americans (Christians, Muslims and Jews) who don't go around wearing their religion or their patriotism on their sleeve -- like a Boy Scout merit badge or Nazi armband.
Before we get too lost in the stupidity of this letter to the mullahs, let's acknowledge something now -- the harsh regime of sanctions imposed by the Obama administration worked, and that's why the Iranians are at the negotiating table. This is the good news. But a couple of things need saying here about the nature of the agreement and the currently on-going negotiations, because as of now the agreement is not yet finalized and we really don't know just what it will finally look like. That's why it's so irresponsible for Senate Republicans to be so critical of an agreement that has not yet been fully realized.
But two things in this controversy are certain -- first, this is an agreement to control and slow the process of Iran developing a weapons grade nuclear capability that will weigh significantly on the future safety and security of every American. Second -- the President has the authority as Commander-in-Chief of the United States to be negotiating this agreement. An "executive agreement" is a pact -- other than a treaty -- made by a president with a foreign government and as such does not require the "advise and consent" of the U.S. Senate. All modern presidents -- not just Obama -- have asserted their right to use executive agreements without Senate approval. Presidents use executive agreements all the time. Thomas Jefferson used one to make the Louisiana Purchase. George Bush initiated more than a hundred of them during his two terms.
No where is it written -- or even intimated -- in the constitution (that document that Republicans profess so much to revere) that a freshman senator can arrogate unto himself -- undermine the President and assume authority for -- the conduct of the nation's foreign policy. To say this is unprecedented in the nation's history is a laughable understatement. Even that sage constitutional authority Dick Cheney (the Darth Vadar of politics and Republican patriarch of foreign policy) in his defense of Ronald Reagan (that other republican God-head) during the Iran Contra scandal, promulgated and advanced the theory that the Congress cannot constitutionally get in the way of the President in the formulation and execution of the nation's foreign policy. In an address to the American Enterprise Institute (a conservative Washington think tank) the former Vice-President said the following:
"Congressional over reaching has systematic policy effects. Congress' efforts to dictate bargaining tactics, as well as the efforts by individual members to conduct back channel negotiations on their own, make it extremely difficult for the country to sustain a consistent bargaining posture for an extended time period, whomever the President and whatever the policy."
The Iranian Foreign Minister Dr. Javad Zarif (a gentleman educated in the United States) responded to the republican's letter that: "in our view this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy." Still, by sending that letter the Republican senators were basically telling the Iranian leaders that no matter what might finally come out in the agreement -- it's not going to be accepted by the Republican Senate. The Iranians didn't need a letter from a bunch of Republican Benedict Arnolds to know that there was not broad based support for the agreement, which at this point is not finalized and is still being debated. This only enhances the leverage of the mullahs, and compromises completely the President's bargaining position. The Iranian negotiators can ratchet up their demands because they've just been told by our Senate Republicans that whatever is on the table now is not going to pass.
The message to Iran's mullahs (whom the Republicans characterize as our "mortal" enemy) is: don't negotiate with our American President because he will not be able to deliver on the contents of the agreement -- and so it is only temporary. If this doesn't undermine the President in his conduct of foreign policy -- I don't know what does? This is an overt act of treason for which these Republican senators should rightly be condemned (the Romans put Jesus up on a cross for substantially less). The Republicans though (in both houses) have demonstrated -- time and again -- by their persistent and continuing defiance of this President in the conduct of his constitutionally mandated duties that they have no honor and no sense of shame. What the "Gang of 47" did in signing that letter is treason.
There is, however, a tried and tested solution -- it's called a dawn firing squad. That's what all traitors should get who would willfully and intentionally try to subvert a democratically constituted government, undermine a popularly elected President in the lawful execution of his official duties, and threaten the national security -- all for their own selfish political purposes.
The Money Trader