Tom Cotton is a freshman Senator from Arkansas. He has an awesome pedigree. Cotton was born in Arkansas. His father served in Vietnam. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard and went on to Harvard Law School. After law school Cotton joined the Army and served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star.
Cotton actually wrote something on the record while at Harvard, something Obama, despite being on the Law Review, really never did.
And he ain’t afraid. Not of the press, not of democrats and not afraid of dictators in Iran or the US.
Cotton authored a letter informing Iran that the Congress would have to approve any formal agreements or treaties. The letter can be seen here.
Cotton has taken a lot of fire for that letter, with the New York Daily News calling him a traitor. democrats (democrat being defined as someone with absolutely zero long term memory) conveniently forget a lot, some of which I’ve already covered, but there’s even more. In 1984 demcorats wrote to Daniel Noriega, undermining Ronald Reagan.
Cotton made clear the intention of the letter:
“We’re making sure that Iran’s leaders understand if Congress doesn’t approve a deal, Congress won’t accept a deal,” Cotton, 38, whose letter evoked a sharp rebuke from the White House, said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “Because we’re committing to stopping Iran from getting a weapon.”
Joe Biden laced into Cotton:
“This letter, in the guise of a constitutional lesson, ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to undermine the ability of any future American president, whether Democrat or Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States.”
You can see already that Biden is wrong, but Biden is seldom anything other than wrong. If you leave out being a pervert, that is.
Cotton doesn’t suffer fools well and shot right back.
“Joe Biden, as [President] Barack Obama’s own secretary of defense has said, has been wrong about nearly every foreign policy and national security decision in the last 40 years,” Cotton said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” in a reference to former Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who ripped Biden in a tell-all memoir after leaving office.
“Moreover, if Joe Biden respects the dignity of the institution of the Senate he should be insisting that the president submit any deal to approval of the Senate, which is exactly what he did on numerous deals during his time in Senate,” Cotton said.
Barack Obama is a liar. He guaranteed that Iran would not get a nuke and of course, that guarantee was no better than any other Obama assurances.
Cotton is doing us all a big favor questioning Obama. Cotton is a hero. He’s got balls. I could see him as President one day.
I love this guy.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
So, this ”letter” was not SENT anywhere.
Follow the news reports and you’d think it was delivered to some Iranian.
(See:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2015/03/sen_tom_cotton_s_letter_to_iran_is_plainly_stupid_the_arkansas_freshman.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/by-sending-a-letter-to-iran-did-republican-senators-go-too-far/ea237467-d267-4c3a-a39c-eac04d5c1d6e_poll.html
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/file-charges-treason-against-47-senators-who-sent-letter-iran/VThNgTHy
http://www.newsmax.com/Reagan/47-iran-netanyahu-nuclear/2015/03/12/id/629711/ )
But it was a OPEN LETTER.
It was merely POSTED on Sen Cotton’s official web site!
All this mental gymnastics over a posting to a web site!
I had said before, the letter signatories intention was to get OBAMA to read it.
The fact that some Iranians read it, too, is icing on the cake.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/415456/cotton-letter-was-not-sent-anywhere-especially-not-iran-deroy-murdock
@Greg:
Oh, now that’s funny. You wanting to call me out because I did not respond to a point you made while you continue to refuse to comment on the fact that Hanoi John Kerry and Teddy Kennedy BOTH tried to usurp negotiations with a foreign nation by a sitting president, both violating the law you claim the 47 Republicans are guilty of.
Nothing like proving your hypocrisy, Gullible Greggie.
@Nanny G:
What better to distract from the scandal that is Hillary and her emails than to accuse Republicans of some wrong doing, like violating the Logan Act? It’s a tactic that the Dems have used for years.
Top that off with Denis McDonough sending a letter to Senator Corker whining how any legislation that would guarantee the Senate plays a part in the Iranian deal making would hinder “the President” in his negotiations. IOW, Obama expects the Congress to concede power because he’s awesome, or something.
Scandals and failures? “OH, LOOK!!!! Over there!!”
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/14/health/cdc-americans-ebola/index.html
@George Wells: 242
George, I just have to ask this question: If you are going to enter into a business deal and there may be some details you are not familiar with, or comfortable with, do you just go ahead and sign the deal then go and find someone to advise you on it, or do you get some advice and then sign the deal. Just asking.
@Greg:
I didn’t figure a normal person would require a comment on that, but it’s you, so okay.
I’m surprised the number is that low, only 80%. Maybe the other 20% figure a deal would be a sell out so they don’t approve. I certainly would like to have a ‘deal’ with Iran that insures they NEVER get a nuke weapon. That’s what the 80% want. Almost none want a sell out, which is what Obozo is attempting to negotiate. The writers of the constitution knew there would be non-thinkers like Obama that are truly impressed by ‘themselves’ so they wrote a constitution that does not allow the president to cut a deal without the Senate. Obozo doesn’t like that, he’s trying to circumvent them. He can’t, he’s pissed.
@Redteam, #250:
That wasn’t an explanation. It was a rationalization.
As was pointed out, Tom Cotton and the other 46 who signed the letter do not represent the Senate. Their number doesn’t constitute a simple majority, and nobody even bothered to put the matter of the letter before the Senate for a vote to begin with. Even so, they published the letter directed to the government of a foreign power on official Senate letterhead. It’s a pretense. They’re pretending to speak on behalf of America with a Senatorial authority that they do not possess.
Pretending to advise the President is also total bullshit. Any president fully grasps the difference between executive agreements and formal treaties. Nor was the letter addressed to the President of the United States; it was specifically addressed to “The Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” who have no more need to be enlightened about the workings of the U.S. government than Obama.
Nor was the intent of the letter to advise. It was to disrupt. Anyone with an ounce of sense understands that, after the public discussion following Boehner’s stunt with Netanyahu.
@Greg:
And exactly who did the 47 Republicans send the letter to? Was it sent by courier? Snail mail? Email? Text message? How?
Hey, you little coward, why don’t you get back to us when you decided to finally comment on the actions of Hanoi John Kerry negotiating with the North Vietnamese in Paris, or Teddy Kennedy’s negotiations with the KGB to thwart the negotiations with Russia being done by Reagan, or even Nancy Pelosi’s unapproved invite to the Mexican President Calderon without Presidential approval?
Nah, you’ll just remain the coward you have always shown yourself to be. Like I said before; 5 year old little girls are braver than you are.
And an idiot.
@retire05, #258:
They published it as an open letter on the U.S. Senate’s official letterhead, so all of the world could stand back and wonder at their power of office and extraordinary cleverness.
Unfortunately they weren’t speaking on behalf of the U.S. Senate at all, and they’re apparently as dumb as a box of rocks—possibly not quite clever enough to grasp the irony and sarcasm of Iran’s reply. They’re a national embarrassment.
@Greg:
The national embarrassment is John Kerry, and his corrupt predecessor. And liberal/progressive/Marxist/Leninist/Communist Democrats like yourself.
Hey, little coward, ever going to discuss violations of the Logan Act by Hanoi John Kerry and the KGB’s best friend, Teddy Kennedy?
Nope. You seem have those topics pretty well covered.
Are you switching emphasis to “coward” because “idiot” isn’t working? It really does pay to expand your vocabulary.
@Greg:
Since when did that ever stop you from defending the indefensible?
Not expanding my vocabulary. Expanding your resume.
@Redteam #255:
I’m having trouble getting past your insistence that the 47 senators were trying to HELP THE ENEMY.
Would it not have been better to figure out some way for Obama and the senate to talk to EACH OTHER?
If the senators were convinced that Obama was a bigger “enemy” than Iran, wouldn’t correcting THAT problem be a more pressing priority than “educating” the ENEMY on the intricacies of the American constitution?
I don’t think a private person’s decision-making process relating to signing “deals” has much relevance to matters of state, but if in your mind it does, I’ve never signed a “deal” (or decided NOT to sign a “deal”) that required someone else’s advice. So your question doesn’t make to me whatever point you are trying to make.
@Greg:
A US Senator is a senator until his term ends, just a as president is a president until his term ends. The treaty clause in the Constitution says it has to be approved by 2/3 (presently 67) of the senators. It does not specify how many have to ‘advise’ on the treaty. I’m guessing it can be from 0 thru 100. If Obozo chooses to not have any advise on it, they can choose not to approve it.
Whoa…….US Senators do not have the authority to act as US Senators? Well, it is Greg making that point, so we’ll just overlook it. That’s kinda like saying the US President does not have the authority to act as a US President. How about Sec of State, does he get to have the authority to act as a US Sec of state? I know you don’t represent all libs, but I think they would be embarrassed by your statement.
@Greg:
Okay, now you’ve done it, you’re trying to get John Lurch Kerry, Teddy Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi up to the standards of the US Senate, well it won’t work. I don’t know of any US Senators that have driven any young ladies off into a river and killed them, well, except Senator Kennedy. Next you’re gonna be trying to get Obozo up to those standards.
@George Wells:
Yep, they were advising the president on how to put forth an agreement that the Senate might approve.
The Senate figured out a way to wake Obama up. They got his attention, didn’t they?
They recognized that Obama is mostly concerned with allowing Iran to pursue their nuke program and they wanted to remind him that for that to happen, he would have to get 67 senators to want the same thing and that was not likely to happen, but go ahead and waste their time if they wanted to.
With all your worldly experience, I guess I mistakenly assumed you had been in a decision making position at some time in your life. Obviously not, so now I understand why you don’t understand the decision making process. You should’ve taken at least one Management course in your college education, see what you’re missing? Kinda like Obama, it’s obvious skipping every class at Columbia and Harvard has not helped him very much.
Oh, I see: you said:
I don’t think ‘getting advice’ is ‘required’, I think it’s good business and a good practice, but I don’t think it’s required of anyone. Certainly not ‘required’ that the President ‘is required to get advise’ from the Senate, but it is ‘required’ that he get approval. If they don’t like him choosing to not get their advice, they can choose to not approve.
@Greg:
In your case, they both work very well.
@Redteam, #267:
Hey, some guy on al Jazeera wants to challenge you to a fight during recess. Let me know how it turns out.
An ‘open letter’ to US Republicans
@Greg:
So now you’re the mouthpiece for al Jazeera? I didn’t see an ‘open letter’.
Iran is just waking up to the fact that any ”agreement” they might make with Obama is NOT binding.
After the Open Letter posted to Sen Cotton’s web site they confronted Sec State Kerry about this fact and were informed that it is true what the Senators claimed.
There will be no binding agreement between the USA and Iran unless the Senate makes it so.
And it is Obama, not Iran, which refuses to jump through his legally required hoops.