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News Foreign Policy Wednesday, Mar 11 2015

VIDEO: GOP's Reckless Iran Letter Backfires

Mar 11, 2015

The walking disaster that is the GOP leadership has outdone themselves. Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to the Iranian government encouraging Iran’s leaders to dismiss the ongoing nuclear talks with the United States is insolent, reckless and plainly stupid. Oh yeah and it might be a felony.
Does the GOP they really think they are going to score political points by cozying up to Ayatollah Khamenei?

Horrendously, every member of the Republican Senate leadership signed the letter, as did GOP presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. Rubio’s even fundraising off of this treacherous political embarrassment.

Check out our new video, and the brutal headlines for the GOP below.

The Boston Globe: GOP letter to Iran is a reckless intrusion into nuclear talks

The Boston Globe Editorial Board

Winning sympathy for the renegade Islamic Republic of Iran is no easy trick. But Republicans in the US Senate seem to be accomplishing it with their breathtakingly reckless intrusion into international diplomacy.

The letter not only undercuts the president’s traditional authority to oversee the shaping of foreign policy but badly undermines America’s credibility in the international community.

Washington Post: GOP senators’ letter to Iran is dangerous and irresponsible

David Ignatius

Even by congressional Republican standards, the naysaying letter to Iran sent Monday by 47 GOP senators was grossly irresponsible. Not only did it undercut President Obama’s ability to negotiate a diplomatic agreement, but it also undermined the aspect of the Iran nuclear deal that would potentially be most beneficial to the United States and Israel.

To this assertion of the impermanence of an agreement, Khamenei and other hard-liners might well respond with an Iranian version of “Amen.” They could use the Senate GOP letter as a rationale for abandoning aspects of the deal they find too constraining. That would force the United States to consider military action. The casus belli, bizarrely, might begin with an argument made by Senate Republicans.

… this latest gesture of congressional defiance should make reasonable Republicans wonder whether their party’s foreign policy agitprop has moved beyond being merely partisan to downright dangerous.

Baltimore Sun: The GOP’s poison pen note

Baltimore Sun Editorial Board

That Senate Republicans are so intent on denouncing anything that could possibly come out of the talks — even if it ultimately benefits the U.S. and its allies — suggests they are all too inclined to let the national interest take a back seat to partisan politics.

The White House, for its part, warned the letter could strengthen hard-line factions in Iran opposed to a deal. And many Democrats agreed with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who said the letter showed the “pettiness” and “spite” of the GOP opposition. We would add to that a reckless disregard for the national security interests of the country that calls into question Republicans’ claims that their party can be trusted to govern.

New York Daily News: Un-patriot games: GOP senators’ letter to iran is a treacherous betrayal of the U.S. constitutional system

New York Daily News Editorial Board

Regardless of President Obama’s fecklessness in negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, 47 Republican U.S. senators engaged in treachery by sending a letter to the mullahs aimed at cutting the legs out from under America’s commander-in-chief.
They are an embarrassment to the Senate and to the nation.

Horrendously, every member of the Republican Senate leadership signed the letter, as did GOP presidential contenders Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. Only seven Republicans showed sense enough not to go along.

Detroit Free Press: Editorial: GOP letter to Iran disgraces America

The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board

It certainly betrays a deep misunderstanding of our governmental structure, and a profound and dismaying disrespect for the office of the presidency, as well as its incumbent occupant. To disagree with a sitting president is one thing, even if that disagreement is loud, even if it is raucous. A deliberate attempt to undermine a sitting president’s efforts to discharge his constitutional obligations is something else entirely.

But the Republicans who dispatched this letter have done more than embarrass a president they dislike. They have also disgraced themselves and undermined the credibility of the nation whose constitution they took an oath to uphold.

The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah senators increase risk of war

The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board

Chances are that the foolish, dangerous and arguably felonious attempt by the Obama Derangement Caucus of the Senate will soon be forgotten. Unless, as President Obama himself muttered the other day, the Senate Republicans make common cause with the hard-liners in Iran to push the region, and the world, that much closer to nuclear war.

It seems that today’s Republican Party is no longer led by statesmen who believe that politics ends at the water’s edge, but by hyper-partisan sword-rattlers who, not that long ago, would not have won the support of grown-ups such as Hatch.

It is notable, and frightening, that Cotton released the letter on his way to an off-the-record meeting with leaders of the National Defense Industrial Association. An arm of the Military Industrial Complex that another Republican — Dwight Eisenhower — warned us about 54 years ago.

San Francisco Chronicle: GOP senators try a reckless move to stop Iran nuclear talks

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board

It’s a destructive break with tradition that gives any president the chance to craft foreign policy deals.
The latest message stands as another example of GOP obstructionism that stalls immigration reform and climate-change policy, brings government to the brink of closing down, and repeatedly goes after Obama’s health care law. Some Republicans appear almost maniacal in their zeal to deny the president any accomplishments.

The Senate letter now pushes this mind-set into foreign affairs. By interfering, these lawmakers are breaking with the time-honored notion that the nation should have one foreign policy.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Hate mail: Senators seek to sabotage Obama’s foreign policy

Pittsburg Post-Gazette Editorial Board

America’s partners in the talks are among the world’s most important nations — China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. They can only be appalled at seeing Secretary of State John Kerry and the president, who are charged with making the nation’s foreign policy, hit from behind by one house of the federal legislature.


Published: Mar 11, 2015

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