-Tim Mak-
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
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“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.
Translation: The letter has probably scuttled the deal.
Ahh yes, the behind the scenes republicans who cannot be named.
Okay, so it worked, then.
The letter was the most brilliant and effective bit of politics played by the pubbies in 20 years.
The letter merely cited the US Constitution
something Obama is supposedly knowledgeable about (he must be, he’s gone down and attacked every one of our constitutional liberties)
and something the Iranian IslamoNazi Mullahs could also look up in about 30 seconds on the internet
no big deal. But hopefully the letter has served to stop a complete disaster of a fake ‘deal’ from being crammed down our throats
It took Tom Cotton; someone newly elected since last November, to show the bold sense of leadership and make a statement to Obama. I’m glad they did it. I’m sure Boehner and McConnell wonder how they ‘let this happen’.
According to the Constitution, foreign treaties must be confirmed by the Senate before they have any official weight. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost sight of that in recent years, and the Press seems to have forgotten it.
No one who signed the letter is quoted in the article! (Oh, except one unidentified Congressional Aide who works for someone who allegedly signed the letter. I bet.)
It only quotes those who didn’t sign the letter. Of course, they didn’t think it was a good idea. Well, duh! If you thought it was a good idea, you would have signed it! (Granted, it should have been to Obama, copy Tehran; that is the only tactical mistake, imho.)
It did bring attention to the fact: (1) Obama is doing the deal without Senate input or approval, and has said so, (basically he already told them to kiss off) and (2) its a crappy deal. Pathway to a nuke. Takes the ability of us or our allies (read - Israel; we don’t have the nerve) to bomb the centrifuge locations.
Neither point would be in the public domain for all the low info voters to see (OK, many still don’t get it), but it put everyone on notice that, come January 2017, if we reneg - we told you so! Even Kerry agreed it was a non-binding contract. And as Cotton tweeted - they why do it?
Why do a 10 year deal and not get Congressional approval making it permanent? Answer: because you know the deal is weak and have absolutely no intention of asking for approval from those bums on the other end of the Mall.
Actually I agree to a point. They didn’t need to write Khamenni. They could have accomplished the same thing with an open letter in the media.
Standing up for America is never a bad call. If you think it is them you are part of the problem...........
Holy cow I cannot believe the pussies in this party. The Treason party berates then and the next day they are all cowering under their desk “ooooh please don’t be angry with me Mr. Terrorist supporter! Oooh!” NO wonder the Treasonists get away with all the crap they do.
-Tim Mak-
Daily Beast Obamabots desperately reaching? I don’t see a single quote from the article that supports the title of this piece. The only dumb idea I see is the idiot who decided to write the article the first place.
That explains a lot.
Sure. But, it recent history if a Dem coalition sent a letter to Moscow to warn them that any Nuclear agreement would be changed with the next Pres, the GOP would have went ape. Nor did the Dems do that, they allowed Reagan to negotiate.
Reagan was an American loyal to America. (And the Senate still had the constitutional last word on anything he negotiated anyway, just as now ). Best,
I’ll be happy if, because of that letter, Obola’s surrender deal never gets done. But OTOH; are these signatories part of the same gang who caved and sprinkled (un)holy water on Dear Leader’s amnesty plan? Whatever happened to good old-fashioned consistency?
I think it was a great idea, it got Obola’s and Kerry’s panties in a wad. I think conservatives should make it a priority to pull there chains as much as possible, make the clowns show how dumb they are. (”It is not a speech!”)JFnK, LOL
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