National Outrage Grows As 22 Newspaper Editorials Blast Senate Republican Letter To Iran

[cilla4progress]

9. Even the hugely "liberal" USA Today

Editorial board:

<snip>

It's not every day that you see U.S. senators pressing leaders of a hostile power to help them kill off American-led negotiations aimed at removing a potential nuclear threat to the United States and its allies.

In fact, nothing quite like that had ever happened until Monday, when 47 Republican senators wrote a letter to the leaders of Iran warning that any agreement they reach with President Obama to curtail Iran's nuclear weapons program might be reversed by a future president.

The senators, led by freshman Tom Cotton of Arkansas, couched their letter as advice to Iran's leaders on the U.S. Constitution, but the need was dubious and the intent unmistakable. The senators don't like the shape of the deal they see emerging with Iran, they don't trust Obama, and they think they should get final say on any proposed deal. Never mind that the Constitution explicitly says otherwise, except for treaties, which are not under consideration.

Like House Republicans who broke with tradition last week by inviting a foreign leader, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to attack the negotiations from the House floor, the 47 senators appear not to have much use for the quaint notion that has led generations of politicians to avoid such provocations in the past: that whatever America's differences happen to be, the country's foreign policy needs to speak to the world with one voice.

... the letter comes across as a thoughtless and destructive stunt.

At a minimum, the senators have given Iran a way to reject the deal and escape blame.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/03/10/iran-47-republican-senators-president-obama-editorials-debates/24733603/