Law Breaking GOP

Can you Believe this? A presumably ignorant freshman Senator, Tom Cotton from Arkansas, wrote an open letter to Iran and the Leading Republicans in the Senate actually signed it! The letter warns Iran that any treaty negotiated by the President must be approved by the Senate and that any executive agreement must be ratified by both houses. The letter also states that President Obama's term ends in two years and the next President could revoke at any time an agreement that was done by executive order and does not have the approval of Congress. The obvious purpose of this letter is to present Iran with an implied threat about dealing with President Obama.

The question in my mind is whether the Senators signing this letter are merely ignoramuses, or shameless demagogues who are so intent on undermining the President that they will work against the interests of this country. Unfortunately the evidence strongly suggests they are both. So let me take them back to a high school civics class and remind them of what they should have learned there. As those morons said in their letter, the Constitution provides for a separation of powers. It is the President who is responsible for negotiating all treaties and agreements with foreign nations. The role of Congress in approving treaties or agreements is internal, by that I mean they have no role in negotiating with a foreign government any changes they might want to make to any treaty or agreement.  It is up to the President to renegotiate with the country in question if Congress will not consent to the treaty or agreement as presented. The salient point here is that our founding fathers did not want 47 ignorant, partisan legislators interfering with important negotiations. They made this absolutely clear when they passed the Logan Act of 1799.

The Logan Act forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, and no Senator or group of Senators is authorized by the Constitution or by any custom or law to negotiate any treaties or agreements on behalf of the United States. Furthermore the language in the act is broad enough to include in its definition of prohibited acts this unconscionable letter to Iran from those Republican Senators. The Senators who signed that letter are therefore in violation of the Logan Act, and the potential damages caused by their criminal act are serious. By undermining the President of the United States the Senators who are guilty of violating the Logan Act have escalated the tensions between Iran and United States, thereby making it more difficult for the President to reach an agreement with Iran regarding nuclear power.

What will the Republican dullards do next? WAR, is that what they want?  Would they declare war without a request from the President? I do not want to be that much of an alarmist, but I have to say their usurping of Presidential power in this instance and the potential consequences of them doing this exceed all bounds of reason.  It is also a criminal act and a clear violation of the Constitution they claim to revere!  It really should make you wonder how far they will go!