Republicans are beginning to act as though Barack Obama isn’t even the president

The Washington Post's Plum Line ^ | March 9, 2015 | Paul Waldman

[2ndDivisionVet]

It’s safe to say that no president in modern times has had his legitimacy questioned by the opposition party as much as Barack Obama. But as his term in office enters its final phase, Republicans are embarking on an entirely new enterprise: They have decided that as long as he holds the office of the presidency, it’s no longer necessary to respect the office itself.

Is that a bit hyperbolic? Maybe. But this news is nothing short of stunning:

A group of 47 Republican senators has written an open letter to Iran’s leaders warning them that any nuclear deal they sign with President Barack Obama’s administration won’t last after Obama leaves office.

Organized by freshman Senator Tom Cotton and signed by the chamber’s entire party leadership as well as potential 2016 presidential contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, the letter is meant not just to discourage the Iranian regime from signing a deal but also to pressure the White House into giving Congress some authority over the process.

“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,”(continued)

[DiogenesLamp]

There was pelosi's trip to Syria in 2007 to usurp GWP. Didn't teddy kennedy go to the USSR one time to try to usurp President Reagan?

What Teddy Kennedy did should have gotten him landed in Prison. H3ll, everything Teddy did should have gotten him landed in prison. I still do not understand why anyone showed him the slightest degree of respect. He should have been humiliated and disrespected by our side every time he was encountered.

[DiogenesLamp]

That doesn't matter anymore.

And with that I agree.

[tanknetter]

Was Mr. Waldman asleep from 2000 to 2008?

Forget 2000 to 2008. Waldman doesn't even remember he, himself, wrote in November 2013:

You can put the start date of this procedural radicalism at the inauguration of Barack Obama, but I'd date it back to the Florida mess in the 2000 election. In case your memory of that episode has faded, the whole election came down to a series of counts and recounts in a state in which the Republican candidate's brother was the governor and his campaign co-chair was the state's chief election official. Throughout the weeks that followed, Republicans did things like organize a small riot to intimidate election officials into not counting ballots, and the election was ultimately decided by five members of the Supreme Court who were so shamelessly partisan that they included in their decision an instruction that it could never be used as precedent in a subsequent case. And you know what price the Republicans paid for their ruthlessness? None.

[Zeneta]

Yep.

In addition, for years on end Republicans have been unable to get their message in front of the American voters considering that the MSM is an arm of the DNC.

Republicans should invite Egypt’s President to speak next.

[Jack Hammer]

Not too surprising, given that, for six years now, he’s been acting as though HE were the entire population of the American people.

[elpadre]

wishful thinking!

[liberalh8ter]

Selective outrage. The author doesn’t seem to mind when the executive branch acts as though the Congress doesn’t exist.

[MtnMan101]

One word...QUACK!

[tanknetter]

There was pelosi's trip to Syria in 2007 to usurp GWP. Didn't teddy kennedy go to the USSR one time to try to usurp President Reagan?

And don't forget the stuff then-Congressman Ron "Red" Dellums and now-Congresswoman Barbara Lee were doing with Castro.

"We are now in the process of pulling together the report for the Armed Services Committee, preparing testimony for the Inter-American Affairs Committee Hearings on Grenada, and in the process of trying to come up with a strategy to bring the U.S. and Grenada to the negotiating table."

"We hope that this report will serve as a basis for a clear understanding and direct counter to the [Reagan] Administgration’s policy based on their militarist lines of thinking. If the issue can be turned around soon, then we hope that all this insane rhetoric will be stopped by the U.S."

[GeronL]

For.years on end their real message is a watered-down version of the DNC’s

[Iron Munro]

No, republicans don’t treat him like the president, they treat him like the Emperor.

[silverleaf]

What a pile from the idiots who called GWB “ Mr Bush” for his entire first term

[ConorMacNessa]

"But as his term in office enters its final phase, Republicans are embarking on an entirely new enterprise: They have decided that as long as he holds the office of the presidency, it’s no longer necessary to respect the office itself."

Absolutely ridiculous. It is precisely my great respect for the Office of President of the U.S. that demands trenchant, pointed response to the treasonous machinations of Obama and his accomplices.

"I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life.
I am prepared to give my life in their defense."

[blueunicorn6]

This is shaping up to be the best year yet! The Democrats are thrashing around like a big old carp out of the water!

“I knew it.”
“I didn’t know it.”
“I didn’t know that was illegal.”
“Nobody cares if we’re crooks.”
“I swear that liar is telling the truth.”
“Look at the grouse! Look at the grouse!”
“I was a slave in Hawaii.”
“We’re so poor that our limousine drivers don’t have driving gloves.”
“Taxes? I’ll pay my taxes when Hillary starts telling the truth.”
“We don’t call them ‘Illegals’. They are future Democrats.”
“I got a pen and a phone and a bag full of golf clubs.”
“I fell down on my treadmill and it socked me in the eye.”
“Yes, my husband made billions of dollars off government deals I steered his way. We don’t call that criminal. We call that an anniversary gift.”

[combat_boots]

It’s not like they speak to Jarrett, the Actual, now, is it.

[libstripper]

El Comandante Obola is an evil Islamocommunist traitor who bitterly hates America and Americans. Respect for the Constitution and the Presidency absolutely demands every possible act of disrespect for this piece of subhuman pig excrement (deliberate, intended disrespect for the thing’s real religion).

[Synthesist]

“Republicans are beginning to act as though Barack Obama isn’t even the president”

Umm… Not so much WaPo. A MUCH more accurate headline would be:

“Obama is beginning to act as though the Constitution, Congress, and SCOTUS don’t exist”

And it should have been published years ago.

[Zeneta]

For.years on end their real message is a watered-down version of the DNC’s

---

While I agree with you, in general, I disagree with “How” the message has been left to the control of the MSM.

I think the Republicans became soo frustrated with their lack of time and how their message was being presented that they attempted to take whatever time they had to seem more reasonable in the eyes of the press.

You and I are old enough to recall the tactics used by the left. A Dem candidate boldly declares his support for “Clean air and Clean water”, as if the Republican was against it. And the Media promoted this falsehood by shortchanging the Republicans ability to respond.

The same tactics are being used today but with different issues.

So, if real Conservative Republicans take the lead on issues that have not only the support of the American people, but are the right thing to do by bypassing the President, then the media will cover it. The media will likely cover it as something that is “disrespectful” of the President at first, but it will ultimately force the Administration into a defensive position. That defensive position WILL be seen as weakness.

[Calpublican]

Hate the slant of this article.

Love the responses, Freepers.

Love that these senators wrote this letter.

[Political Junkie Too]

WaPo must have forgotten that Bill Clinton wouldn't release transition funds to George Bush, and Democrats were filibustering his deputy secretary nominees right up until 9/11 happened.

-PJ