47 Republican Senators get everything wrong in letter to Iran.

Sen. Tom Cotton's Letter to Iran: It'll be some time before Republicans can outdo what they did to Obama's efforts to prevent another war and to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear threat. Imagine "President" Scott Walker at the helm:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also did not say that he’d sign the letter, but said, “Unless the White House is prepared to submit the Iran deal it negotiates for congressional approval, the next president should not be bound (by) it.”

What, "word salad" Walker didn't commit again? Who cares, opposition won't be a problem under a one party system.

Traitors? Reading the Logan Act, Republican do look like traitors, yet legal experts and historians don't agree. Here's the Act;

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments: Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

Surprisingly, our own Rep. James Sensenbrenner tried to rewrite the act in 2006, focusing instead on false statements, which Sen. Tom Cotton's release contained: 

Sec. 923. False statements influencing foreign government — Whoever, in relation to any dispute or controversy between a foreign government and the United States, knowingly makes any untrue statement, either orally or in writing, under oath ... to the injury of the United States, or with a view or intent to influence any measure of or action by the United States or any department or agency thereof, to the injury of the United States, shall be imprisoned not more than ten years.

Here's how the media pundits presented it. starting with the Logan Act and dissecting presidential/congressional power:



Right Wing Callers Wrong Again: WPR's morning guest, Ohio State Professor Richard K. Herrmann, answered questions from some very conservative callers:



This Politicususa story summed it up well:

Although their goal was interfering with “measures of the United States,” the Iranians are smart and took the open letter for exactly what it was; pathetic propaganda and a gross display of Republican ignorance of the Constitution and international law. It is what one expects from a bunch of petulant punks who are too stupid to understand they embarrassed themselves by lacking even an eighth-grader’s understanding of the document the swore to uphold.

Of course, the always frightened panicky guy from Wisconsin Dumb Ron Johnson, knew more than anyone else:

"I agreed to sign Senator Cotton’s open letter because I believe it describes reality — it tells the truth," Johnson wrote … that the president is mistaken for "acknowledging Iran’s right to enrich uranium.  As a result, the negotiation was lost before it even began."

One final word:

Anthony Cordesman, a senior national security analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the letter was “an appalling mess.” “One thing about sending international letters, they better be serious, they better be well-drafted, they better have a convincing intellectual content, and they better not seem just a hollow political gesture for partisan purposes,” Cordesman said. “This letter can’t meet any of those four tests.”

I just came across this loony tunes interview Sen. Tom Cotton, by ABC's Jonathan Carl. Keep this one thing in mind;  Executive foreign agreements do not involve congress. It's the UN P-5 +1-China, Russia, Germany, Brits, France that make these agreements, they are not treaties, with requires Senate approval: