Forty-seven Republicans on Sunday wrote an open letter to Tehran suggesting any nuclear deal with the Obama administration would not be constitutionally binding because a future president or Congress could take steps to revoke it.

a-OBAMAIRAN-386x217Hey Iran

Vice-President Joe Biden kicked off the Democrat meme by calling the letter an unprecedented affront “designed to undercut a sitting president.”

… […] “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.” (link)

Which led to the New York Daily News putting forth this headline:

New York Daily News - Traitors

“Traitors”?  Hyperbole much?

Well, let’s consider what Vice-President Joe Biden is saying for a few moments, as it was his initial job to lead the effort against the GOP:

[…] “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 –“…

FLASHBACK #1

MIDEAST SYRIA US

– April 2007 – “U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday for talks criticized by the White House as undermining American efforts to isolate the hard-line Arab country”. (link)

FLASHBACK #2:

Kennedy Bresnev

1984 – […] “According to Soviet documents unearthed in the early 1990′s, Kennedy literally asked the Soviets, avowed enemies of the U.S., to intervene on behalf of the Democratic party in the 1984 elections. Kennedy’s communist communique was so secret that it was not discovered until 1991, eight years after Kennedy had initiated his Soviet gambit:

… Kennedy’s message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. “The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations,” the memorandum stated. “These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign.” (link)

FLASHBACK #3:

nicaragua

 April 1984 – Democrat Letter To Nicaragua Daniel Ortega […]” The 10 authors include Jim Wright of Texas, the majority leader; Edward P. Boland of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and other senior Democrats in the foreign policy field. The letter tells Mr. Ortega that it was written ”in a spirit of hopefulness and goodwill” and voices regret that relations between Nicaragua and Washington are not better.

The writers stress that they all oppose further money for rebel campaigns against the Sandinista Government. In a veiled reference to the Reagan Administration, the letter says that if the Sandinistas do hold genuine elections, those who are ”supporting violence” against the Nicaraguan leaders would have ”far greater difficulty winning support for their policies than they do today.” (link)

FLASHBACK #4:  Jimmy Carter actually sent secret correspondence to the UN, lobbying against the U.S. resolution from the first President Bush administration.  President Carter was telling the U.N. Security Council to vote against the U.S.A.

carter and jackson

Scowcroft 1991 – In the midst of this careful diplomacy, former President Jimmy Carter wrote the members of the [UN] Security Council asking them not to support the resolution. He argued that the costs in huiman life and the economic consequences, not to mention the permanent destabilization oif the Middle East, were too high and unnecessary,”unless all peaceful resolution efforts are first exhausted.”

He called for the UN to mandate a”good faith” negotiation with the Iraqi leaders to consider their concerns, and to ask the Arabs to try to work out a peaceful solution,”without any restraint on their agenda.”

It was an unbelieveable letter, asking the other members of the council to vote against his own country. We found out about it only when one of the recipients sent us a copy. Carter later acknowledged he had sent the letter, but claimed he had told President Bush what he was doing.

He did send the President a similar one, but without mentioning he had also lobbied the President’s foreign colleagues. It seemed to me that if there was ever a violation of the Logan Act prohibiting diplomacy by private citizens, this was it. President Bush was furious at this interference in the conduct of his foreign policy and the deliberate attempt to undermine it, but told me just to let it drop. – Brett Scowcroft 

Reid-Schumer

…Methinks they doth protest too much !

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