REPUBLICAN SENATORS’ PUBLIC STATEMENT TO IRAN: Unprecedented? Not Really
Some enlightening thoughts from Gary Bauer on the “unprecedented” action of Republican Senators, informing Iran and the public about the U.S. Constitution and manner in which treaties are supposed to be concluded in America.
From OurAmericanValues.org:
Supporters of President Obama’s appeasement policy toward Iran are coming unhinged in their reactions to Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iranian leaders. Senator Dianne Feinstein said, “This is a highly inappropriate and unprecedented incursion into the president’s prerogative to conduct foreign affairs.” Harry Reid said, “It is unprecedented for one political party to directly intervene in an international negotiation.”
The Republican senators simply explained the facts about how treaties are made with America. They were not attempting to conduct their own secret negotiations in contravention of the administration.
But that is exactly what Senator Ted Kennedy did in 1983 when he sent a close friend to Moscow to negotiate with the Soviets.
That’s what then-Senator John Kerry did in 1985 when he and former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin traveled to Nicaragua and embraced the communist Sandinistas.
That’s what House Speaker Jim Wright did in 1987 when he invited Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to Washington, D.C.
In 2002 three House Democrats flew to Baghdad and declared that we should take Saddam Hussein at “face value.” In 2007 then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew to Damascus to conduct her own talks with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The Constitution makes it clear that Congress, and especially the Senate, has a role to play in shaping America’s foreign policy. A public letter containing nothing more than a brief constitutional lesson is hardly unprecedented and certainly not nefarious.
As Senator Cotton explained, “The only thing unprecedented is an American president negotiating a nuclear deal with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism without submitting it to Congress.”
He’s right!
Please take a moment today to encourage Senator Cotton. Call his office at (202) 224-2353 and thank him for his leadership.
http://www.ouramericanvalues.org/clintons-credibility-crashes-gowdy-responds-not-unprecedented-lessons-oklahoma/
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