When Bill Clinton confessed his affair with Monica Lewinsky, he said it was for “the worst possible reason, because I could.” Too late he had come to realize that presidents, actually decisions that anybody makes but mostly those people with power over the lives of others, should be done with consideration of what their future effects might be. Shakespeare said it (Julius Caesar, Act 3 Scene 2) “ “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”
Now, for the benefit of new generation, we have the Cotton Letter; the letter sent by 47 Republican senators warning the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran that you can’t trust the United States. That makes the assumption that at some point the Ayatollahs did trust the United States, which in turn raises the question of which guys aren’t clued in to reality. The letter begins “it has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system. Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution ...”
Right at the start, the letter takes the tone that the Iranians aren’t too bright. Of course, it was drafted by Sen. Tom Cotton, the junior senator from Arkansas. Sen. Cotton is no stranger to open letters, since in 2006, while a captain in the US Army on active duty in Iraq, he came to public attention with a letter recommending that the Executive Editor of the New York Times, along with two Pulitzer Prize winning reporters, should be charged with espionage for publishing a story about the government’s tracking of terrorists financing. Bill Keller responded that if the Bush administration wanted to keep things secret, they shouldn’t invite groups of reporters for a show and tell about their top secret programs. Government leaks were, and probably still are, a reliable way of getting press coverage. What seems most impressive is the way Sen. Cotton, who is new to the Senate, induced his seniors, who should by now be steeped in cynicism about the ways of government, to sign the letter, which Amy Davidson of The New Yorker, brilliantly summarized as “Dear Iran, Please don’t agree to halt your nuclear-weapons program, because we don’t like Barack Obama and, anyway, he’ll be gone soon.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a professor of International Law, responded that the letter suggests that the signatories “... not only do not understand international law but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.” Not only do the Iranians understand international law, but, according to iSightpartners, have a very sophisticated spy system within the United States, which means they may know more about what’s going on in Congress than we do, or at least more than Congress does.
What the letter seems to show is that the Republican Party does not think things through. Many of us recall learning in elementary school that in the history of the United States only one President had been impeached. This was important because it represented a history of political stability. Sen. Edmund G. Ross (R-Kansas) earned a place in Profiles in Courage for voting to keep President Andrew Johnson in office. It mattered that over two centuries, the United States had functioned as a democracy. This symbol of national stability stood intact until the Republicans cheapened it with the impeachment of President Clinton and loose talk of impeachment of President Obama.
The Cotton Letter is even worse. For the moment it may be dismissed by Foreign Minister Zarif as the work of foolish political partisans, but its impact will last beyond the Obama administration. It will turn up every time the United States enters into international negotiation. It undercuts the ability of President Obama to negotiate with Iran, and will serve as a warning to other nations through other administrations for as long as the letter can be found on Google.
Beyond that, the Cotton Letter is similar to Republican behavior regarding the Affordable Care Act, which they’ve voted repeatedly to repeal, without once offering a credible alternative. When President Obama called the Republican leadership to a meeting to suggest improvements to the ACA, they repeated “repeal and replace” without offering them, or now, a practical recommendation for change. The Senate, which had been called “the world’s greatest deliberative body” is simply impulsive, not considering the outcomes of their actions.
History strips quotes of context, like the blurbs in a movie ad. The future won’t remember the circumstances of the letter, the immature senator from Arkansas and the senators lined up to sign as if it was a birthday card to the Sergeant at Arms so they could get out before the snow piled up. This is a document that will last as long as the Magna Carta. They signed it for the worst possible reason – because they could.
Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living on Long Island, N.Y. Email sdu01@outlook.com.
From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2015
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