Reactions to "the letter" to Iran and to its author: the new bad boy of the Senate: Tom Cotton

Move over, Sen. Ted Cruz.   You have some competition for the role of know-it-all, bad boy spoiler from the ultra-conservative Tea Party crowd:   newly elected Sen. Tom Cotton from Arkansas who defeated Sen. Mark Pryor in November.   Like Cruz, Cotton is a Harvard Law School graduate, who came into the senate with his guns blazing to prove that he can be the leader of the far-out right.    What is it with Harvard Law graduates these days?   How could Barack and Michelle Obama be graduates of the same law school as Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton?     It just proves that Harvard is not 100% liberal, pinko after all.

Cotton is the author and promoter of the open letter signed by 47 of the 54 Republican senators and addressed to "The Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran."    The letter has a condescending tone as it explains that "you may not fully understand our constitutional system."   It then informs them that any agreement they make with our president that is not approved by congress will be considered "only an executive agreement" between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei and that it may be changed by the next president.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister and counterpart to Sec. of State John Kerry in the negotiations, is a highly educated man who studied international relations in American universities and needs no instructions about governments and international agreements.    His initial response was a curt dismissal of the letter as a "propaganda ploy."   Later, he released a statement saying that:

"The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfill the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations."

Further, Zarif explained that an agreement would also involve the five other nations involved in the talks.  In other words, 'get your facts straight, little boy, before you start lecturing us.'

 A U. S. State Department official clarified that this would be a non-binding international agreement, not a treaty of the sort that requires senate ratification.   We have many such agreements with other nations that govern our operations in international relations, like those that protect our troops abroad.  Sen. Cotton should know this, having served as a military officer in Iraq.

Even though it does not require senate ratification, many who support the negotiations also think that the magnitude of the issue makes it advisable to get input and backing from the senate -- but not in the middle of the negotiations and not with the purpose of killing them.

Last year, the Economist pointed out that the Iranian cabinet has more people with PhDs from American universities than does the Obama cabinet.   So much for Cotton's arrogance in presuming that they need schooling in the U. S. Constitution.

President Obama's reaction was a cool observation on the irony of Republican senators trying to make common cause with the hard liners in the Iranian government who want to kill the negotiations.   Vice President Biden supplied the heat for them both.   He was livid and didn't mind letting it show as he blasted the signers, saying the letter was "beneath the dignity of the institution that I revere."   Biden served in the senate for 36 years, and was chair of the Foreign Relations Committee.

The most authoritative legal opinion however came form Jack Goldsmith, currently a professor in Harvard Law School and former top legal counsel to the Bush administration.  Goldsmith pointed out that the letter is not correct in saying that the Senate has to ratify an agreement, which "in a letter purporting to teach a constitutional lesson, the error is embarrassing."

So far, it looks like Zarif, at least, is not going to let this ruin the talks.  But it will give ammunition to the Iranian hardliners, who can more justifiably now say that they can't trust the U. S.    Let's hope that the Iranian moderates want this settlement badly enough to chalk this up to petty politics and ignorance on the part of some newcomers.

I can't though.    What were people like Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch, Chuck Grassley, Richard Shelby, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham -- all seasoned senators who know better -- what were they thinking?   No matter how hawkish, they know better than to let this 2 month old whippersnapper senator lead them into such a protocol sin.

This was a black day for the institution of the United States Senate.  

Seven senators, including Bob Corker (Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee), Susan Collins, Jeff Flake, Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski, Thad Cochran, and Dan Coates showed wisdom in not signing the letter.   But that's all;   47 lemmings were willing to jump off the cliff.   Predictably, the increasingly ridiculous Gov. Bobby Jindal wheedled to get his name added, even though he is not a senator.  He just couldn't let his rivals Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz get all the credit with the crazed right-wing base that will see them as heroes.

Ralph