feh...
Posted on 03/11/2015 1:48:52 PM PDT by BerniesFriend
Republicans Admit: That Iran Letter Was a Dumb Idea
A day after releasing a letter that potentially threatened the administration’s negotiations with Iran, some Republicans who signed on are realizing it was a bad call.
Behind the scenes, Republicans are wondering if sending an open letter to Iran’s leaders was the best strategy to keep a bad nuclear deal from being negotiated.
Earlier this week, 47 Republican senators signed a letter warning the Iranian government that many of them would remain in office long after President Barack Obama’s second term was over, meaning any deal reached between the U.S. and Iran could be easily reversed by the next president.
But even among Republicans whose offices have signed the letter, there is some trepidation that the Iran letter injects partisanship into the Iran negotiations, shifting the narrative from the content of the deal to whether Republicans are unfairly trying to undercut the president.
“Before the letter, the national conversation was about Netanyahu’s speech and how Obama’s negotiations with Iran are leading to a terrible deal that could ultimately harm U.S. national security. Now, the Obama administration and its Capitol Hill partisans are cynically trying to push the conversation away from policy, and towards a deeply political pie fight over presidential and congressional prerogatives,” said a Senate Republican aide whose boss signed the letter.
However, while some on the Republican side are now rethinking the wisdom of sending a letter, none of the 47 Republican signatories are recanting their support for it or signaling an intent to do so.
Republican Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, did not sign the letter.
“I didn’t think it was going to further our efforts to get to a place where Congress would play the appropriate role that it should on Iran,” Corker told The Daily Beast. “I did not think that the letter was something that was going to help get us to an outcome that we’re all seeking, and that is Congress playing that appropriate role.”
The open letter, organized by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, was first sent around by Senate staffers in early March. Last Wednesday, with a handful of senators already committed to the letter, Cotton brought up the issue in one of the Senate GOP’s regular weekly luncheons
.
“I didn’t think it was going to further our efforts to get to a place where Congress would play the appropriate role that it should on Iran,” Sen. Bob Corker said.
“I immediately knew that it was not something that, for me anyway, in my particular role, was going to be constructive,” Corker said. “I didn’t realize until this weekend that it had the kind of momentum that it had.”
Sen. Jeff Flake was another Republican who declined to sign the letter, telling reporters Tuesday that there was already “a lot of animosity” between Congress and the White House, and that the Iranian nuclear threat was “too important to divide us among partisan lines.”
“I just didn’t feel that it was appropriate or productive at this point. These are tough enough negotiations as it stands, and introducing this kind of letter, I didn’t think would be helpful,” Flake said.
Republican aides were taken aback by the response to what they thought was a lighthearted attempt to signal to Iran and the public that Congress should have a role in the ongoing nuclear discussions. Two GOP aides separately described their letter as a “cheeky” reminder of the congressional branch’s prerogatives.
“The administration has no sense of humor when it comes to how weakly they have been handling these negotiations,” said a top GOP Senate aide.
Added a Republican national security aide, “The Senate should have a role. It would make any agreement have some sort of consistency and perpetuity beyond the president. And it would also be buy-in for the American people. Right now it’s just an agreement between the President of the United States and whoever the final signatory to the agreement is.”
Supporters of the White House’s ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program pushed back hard against the letter, with some even citing a law written in the 18th century (and not applied since 1803) to say that the senators engaged in illegal conduct by communicating with a foreign government to undermine the U.S. government’s foreign policy.
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson said he was “appalled and saddened” by the open letter.
“What it sends is a message to the rest of the world that we are not united,” Nelson said.
Lucky Arizona...we have McCain, a senile, doddering old fool and Jeff Flake who has his head up his A$$ 100% of the time.
Dear Senator Nelson,
You say the letter sends a message that we are not united.
As for me and my friends, we do not support the president’s negotiating with Iran at all. Much more, we absolutely do not support any effort on his part that would allow the Iranians even a tiny step in the direction of a nuclear bomb.
We saw this with the so-called negotiations with North Korea. That ended with them having nukes.
Quit playing games.
We don’t support a nuclear Iran. We don’t support them making any progress in that regard at all, ever.
We ARE not united with this president. He holds the office, but he is not my president, and I wouldn’t trust him negotiating recess with a small group of first graders.
Tom Cotton, a military veteran, showed the eunuchs in Congress what a patriot looks and acts like.
the flak is heaviest over the target.
The lame duck is dying
Chickens**ts!
You nailed it. Senator Cotton has my respect and appreciation for leading the Senate into an actual fight. And good for the 46 fellow senators who grew a pair and taught Obama and the mullahs a lesson about our Constitution.
And some imaginary "staffers of some Senator who now regrets being mean to Obama" agree with the journalist who agrees with them!
And all of them together agree that Obama is best and Obama agrees with all of them. Such is our sorry state of both journalism and politics, which are melded into one now.
That is true...nor did the Congress go public about their issues nor did they send a letter to the Kremlin.
““What it sends is a message to the rest of the world that we are not united,” Nelson said.”
Well, we’re not. You want to send a message to the rest of the world that is a lie? We were more united during the civil war than today.
I always think “Carl Rove” when I hear stuff like this.
I guess you forgot about Teddy Kennedy asking Andropov to help defeat Reagan by promising to help him discredit Reagan.
Maybe you remember John Kerry negotiating with the Viet Cong in the Paris peace accords while still a member of the Naval Reserve. Kerry was and is a scumbag traitor who lied profusely before J William Fulbright's committee but since he was not sworn in it was ok to lie his @ss off.
Maybe you remember The 'Dear Comandante' letter (1984) - Political Warfare
“What it sends is a message to the rest of the world that we are not united,” Nelson said.....They don’t KNOW it?
feh...
Was it McNuts?
In other words....Iran had the permission of the USA to make nukes....according to the pending Obama agreement.
“Behind the scenes, Republicans are wondering if sending an open letter to Iran’s leaders was the best strategy to keep a bad nuclear deal from being negotiated”.
So says the liberal website DailyBeast.
What pussies? Name one out of this article. There are two Senators quoted who didn’t sign the letter to begin with and there’s an unnamed aide of an unnamed Senator (likely fabricated, and if not, then an individual dope’s opinion). That’s it.
This isn’t about spineless Republicans, this is about the media grasping at anything they can to spin this for poor ol’ Obama.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.