Republicans Send Love Note To Iran That Obama Isn't Really President, Wink Wink

In an interesting maneuver of uber-patriotic diplomacy, Senate Republicans have decided to go rogue and educate Iran on how does the U.S. Constitution work, and how "President" Obama is, like, barely even the president:

A group of 47 Republican senators has written an open letter to Iran's leaders warning them that any nuclear deal they sign with President Barack Obama's administration won’t last after Obama leaves office. [...]

“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the senators wrote. “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

That sure is subtle! We are old enough to remember a time when it was considered uncouth and un-American even for members of Congress to take it upon themselves to do diplomacy, because that is exclusively the realm of the president of the United States, at least when the president is white:

Ms. Pelosi was criticized by President Bush for visiting Damascus at a time when the administration -- rightly or wrongly -- has frozen high-level contacts with Syria. Mr. Bush said that thanks to the speaker's freelancing Mr. Assad was getting mixed messages from the United States. Ms. Pelosi responded by pointing out that Republican congressmen had visited Syria without drawing presidential censure. That's true enough -- but those other congressmen didn't try to introduce a new U.S. diplomatic initiative in the Middle East.

Ah, but that was back in 2007, when everything was different because everything was different, and besides, the Constitution is silent on how things work when the president is Barack Obama.

Besides, Arkansas tea party hero Sen. Tom Cotton, who rounded up the Gang of 47 to scribble their letter to "the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," wasn't even around back in those days anyway, and he's on a mission that is far more important than not undermining international negotiations or respecting the office of the president or the authority of his commander in chief:

"The end of these negotiations isn't an unintended consequence of congressional action. It is very much an intended consequence. A feature, not a bug, so speak," Cotton said in January, speaking at a conservative conference hosted by the advocacy group Heritage Action for America.

See? Republicans are simply trying to undermine the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran, because that's their job now, since "President" Obama obviously has no authority and he'll be gone soon anyway, so pay no attention to the man in the Oval Office. (Unless that man is a white Republican, Q.E. Motherfucking D.)

Cotton is a newbie to the Senate, but he's wasted no time dazzling everyone with his impressive logic. Like that time he explained in February that it is impossible the existence of Guantanamo Bay could inspire our enemies to do terrorism to us, because of how all our enemies are already locked up there anyway, which is why we don't even worry about terrorism anymore, or something, who knows? Sen. Cotton is A Idiot.

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But Sen. Cotton and his fellow Republicans think it is important for Iran to know that they're going to be in office a lot longer than President Obama, so don't go making any deals with that usurper, because once they repeal him and get arealpresident in there, they can just bomb the crap out of Iran anyway, and revoke any "deals" Iran might make with the current "president."

That's some stellar diplomacy right there. Excellent logic, Republicans. As usual.

[ Bloomberg View / WaPo / HuffPo /Image via Pete Souza ]