How low can
the GOP go? Just when you thought
Netanyahu’s invitation to address Congress (without consultation with the
President) was bad enough, you can thank Senate Republicans for breaking with
two centuries of tradition and legal precedent – in a breach of protocol that
effectively breaks our system of government.
I refer to
47 Senate Republicans who dispatched a letter to Tehran that undermines P5+1
negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. The letter states that any negotiated settlement should be considered non-binding
because any future president or Congress can reverse it. More than
offensive as another example of partisan insurrection, the letter is
downright dangerous and reckless:
Violation of Constitutional Law. The language of the Constitution is clear: “[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur” (Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2). Justice Sutherlin of the United States Supreme Court wrote this precedent in 1936: “[The President] makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude, and Congress itself is powerless to invade it."
Violation of Federal Law. Passed in 1799, the Logan Act states: “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."
Violation of Trustworthiness. The letter undermines the full faith and trustworthiness of the U.S. government in matters of foreign policy. In a White House statement yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden said: “In thirty-six years in the United States Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which Senators wrote directly to advise another country -- much less a longtime foreign adversary -- that the President does not have the constitutional authority to reach a meaningful understanding with them. This letter sends a highly misleading signal to friend and foe alike that that our Commander-in-Chief cannot deliver on America’s commitments -- a message that is as false as it is dangerous."
Borrowing a page from the GOP playbook, it means the foreign policy initiatives of any future Republican administration can be similarly sabotaged. If war is what Senate Republicans want, then they should be damn careful what they wish for in more ways than one. How about two wars - one foreign and one domestic!
The ‘Dear Tehran’ letter represents nothing less than a hypocritical and unconstitutional coup d’etat against the Executive Branch … deserving of prosecution under the Nolan Act. Traitors, the whole damn GOP Senate!
The ‘Dear Tehran’ letter represents nothing less than a hypocritical and unconstitutional coup d’etat against the Executive Branch … deserving of prosecution under the Nolan Act. Traitors, the whole damn GOP Senate!
Yet the "patriotic" numb nuts will continue to show us all just how remarkably deep the dumbing down of America goes.
ReplyDeleteThe neo-cons in Congress are hell bent for war ... another Mid-East war with bigger bangs for our shrinking bucks than the last one. Nope, this gang wants to exchange American blood with social security money.
DeleteLinked you at RN USA.
DeleteThe more I think about this he more pissed off I've become.
Idiots. The whole damned lot of em.
In a recent op-ed column, Fareed Zakaria explains why Netanyahu – and Republican war hawks – are utterly divorced from reality and why negotiations with Iran are vital at this time (edited for brevity):
ReplyDelete“Between 2003 and 2005 … Iran negotiated with three European Union powers a possible deal to place its nuclear program under constraints and inspections. The chief nuclear negotiator at the time was Hassan Rouhani, now Iran’s president.
Iran proposed to cap its centrifuges at very low levels, keep enrichment levels well below those that could be used for weapons and convert its existing enriched uranium into fuel rods … But the talks collapsed because the Bush administration, acting through the British government, vetoed it …
What was the result? Did Iran return to the table and capitulate? No, the country withstood the sanctions and, unimpeded by any inspections, massively expanded its nuclear infrastructure. Iran went from 164 centrifuges to 19,000, accumulated more than 17,000 pounds of enriched uranium gas and ramped up construction of a heavy water reactor at Arak that could be used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Harvard University’s Graham Allison, one of the United States’ foremost experts on nuclear issues, pointed out that “by insisting on maximalist demands and rejecting potential agreements, the first of which would have limited Iran to 164 centrifuges, we have seen Iran advance from 10 years away from producing a bomb to only months.”
If the deal now being negotiated fails, the most likely scenario is a repetition of the past. Iran will expand its nuclear program. If the other major powers believed that Iran’s offer was serious but U.S. and Israeli intransigence torpedoed it, they would be reluctant to enforce sanctions — and all sanctions start to leak over time anyway. Netanyahu worries that with this deal … But without the deal, in 10 years Iran would likely have 50,000 centrifuges, a massive stockpile of highly enriched uranium, new facilities, thousands of experienced nuclear scientists and technicians, and a fully functioning heavy water reactor that can produce plutonium.
For almost 25 years now, Netanyahu has argued that Iran is on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon. In 1996 — 19 years ago — he addressed the Congress and made pretty much the same argument he made this week. Over the last 10 years he has argued repeatedly that Iran is one year away from a bomb.
So why have Bibi’s predictions been wrong for 25 years? … The larger part is probably that Iran has always recognized that were it to build a bomb, it would face huge international consequences. In other words, the mullahs have calculated — correctly — that the benefits of breakout are not worth the costs. The key to any agreement with Iran is to keep the costs of breakout high and the benefits low. This is the most realistic path to keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state …”
Shorter version: To avoid a future military conflict, a deal with Iran is either now or never.
Bravo for this post!
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans have been skirting treason and coming as close to an actual coup since Clinton was elected with only a pause during the Bush interregnum. This obscene effort should be headline stuff every day, but we've been successfully sidetracked into never never land and nobody seems to care.
Kikarasu Kashiwa:
ReplyDelete"In drafting such a letter, this neophyte politician and his partisan accomplices have both accomplished an act of sedition, and focused the world's attention on the evanescence of agreements negotiated with our government through our President. These senators' grandstanding and politically based attempt to undermine the authority of the Executive branch in foreign relations will have a far reaching effect on past and future agreements of significantly greater scope. This act, seditious at its base, has further harmed the reputation of the United States of America...a reputation, I might add, that had been extensively sullied by 8 years of republican ineptitude, and which was just beginning to recover in the hands of a competent and brilliant President. The republicans have, as it were, snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory once again."
Yeah Captain, apparently those who do are indeed too few. And we have Fox Views, America has been happily accepting whatever BS they pump out for sometime. The dumbing down of America can only be considered a remarkable marketing success.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to get through a day without thinking of Orwell -- cameras everywhere, phony wars, hate sessions, language doctored to make it hard to disagree. . .
ReplyDeleteBread and circuses, or ball games and American Idol. The only things Americans seem to agree on are fake stories.