Republican
second guessing of Senator Cotton’s letter was in full swing last week. Some said it should have been addressed to
the president instead of the Mad Mullahs.
Many said it wasn’t “helpful.” My view is that both of those positions
are bunk.
I don’t think changing who the
letter was addressed to would have lessened the liberal screaming. For it to make any difference, you would have
to assume that the left needs a legitimate reason to complain. I believe that's
entirely false. They scream in proportion to how much damage is done. Senator
Cotton's letter with 46 cosigners was embarrassing because it was entirely
accurate in saying that executive agreements can be canceled at will, showed
that Obama could never get a treaty through the Senate and was timed just as
the administration was making additional concessions to clinch the deal. Just
like "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor," our Dear
Leader was lying about the binding force of an executive agreement to get a
deal, any deal for his legacy. By pointing out that Barry the Brilliant could
not really deliver, the letter wrecked the legacy and "Peace in Our
Time." The damage was massive, so the response was equally massive. No
tailoring of the message would have reduced the Pravda Press retaliation. They
threw everything they had at Cotton, including charges of treason, ignorance,
stupidity, arrogance and cowardice. All of the fireworks were needed to
distract everyone from the basic point that everything in the letter was
accurate. You were also not supposed to notice that the letter was posted on a
US government web site and was never sent anywhere else. Senator Cotton spoke
truth to power. When you do that, power has a tendency to massively retaliate.
Sugar coating the offence will not lessen the retaliation.
Addressing
the letter to the president would have been racism and disrespect for the First
Black President! They would not have written such a letter to a white
president! Nobody ever has written such a letter to a white president! It also
would have shown mere personal animosity to Obama, with no need to even discuss
policy disagreement.
I think the way Cotton did it was
better. This way, we got to talk about the Dear Comandante letter to the
dictator of Nicaragua in 1984, which was signed by 10 Senate Democrats
including John Kerry. We got to mention that there has been only one
prosecution under the Logan Act of 1799 and in 1803 they didn't get a
conviction. We got to talk about Nancy Pelosi's chat with Bashar al Assad. We
didn't have to talk about race. We made the Democrats look hypocritical. We had
them accuse a decorated combat veteran of treason. It played very well to our
base. John Kerry had to admit everything in the letter is true. My point is
either way you're going to take a lot of flak from the Pravda Press. Why bother
to over think this. They can only hang you once.
Contrary to the not “helpful”
argument, I think the letter was very helpful.
This administration is the most outlaw administration in history. I was pleasantly surprised that 47 Republican
Senators had the guts to sign the letter. Barry the Brilliant and his merry
band of outlaws have ignored the Constitution so many times that it's beginning
to look like a used Kleenex. Every time the administration circumvents a
Constitutional provision, the least we can do is publicly call them on it. The
talking heads on TV don’t see a pattern, but I do. On Obamacare, immigration, EPA regulation,
the internet, wilderness designation, recess appointments and other areas too
numerous to mention, our Dear Leader has ignored Constitutional and legal
processes to rule by decree. This time,
the Pravda Press can make the messengers the story. But repeatedly pointing out
that our Dear Leader is violating Constitutional provisions and linking the
behaviors together is the only way we can move the argument to where it ought
to focus. We have to force the talking
heads to connect the dots.
If the administration establishes
precedent after precedent that the Constitution is a dead letter, we will lose
our heritage of limited government and become an elected dictatorship. When the
elected dictator decides we no longer need elections, even those will be gone.