Democrats are funny. When Ronald Reagan was president and he was trying to undermine the communist regime in Nicaragua through support of the Contra rebels, House Democrats had no shame whatsoever about not only expressing their support for the Soviet-aligned communist regime, but actually traveling to Managua and meeting with then- and now-President Daniel Ortega.
Why would they do this? Because when you don't agree with the president's foreign policy, it's perfectly fine to do anything you want to undermine it! It's the same principle that saw House Democrats David Bonior (also one of the Managua tourists) and Jim McDermott travel to Baghdad in the early 2000s to show their solidarity with Saddam Hussein in defiance of George W. Bush.
Because peace! How dare you suggest that members of Congress don't have the right to conduct their own foreign policy on the fly when they disagree with the one coming out of the White House?
Unless, of course, Barack Obama is the president. In that case, any act by Congress - even if it's merely to assert its own authority under the Constitution -
is treason!
Republicans warned any deal agreed before Obama leaves office in 2017 is "nothing more than an executive agreement between President Barack Obama and (supreme leader) Ayatollah Khamenei."
"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," they added.
Obama reacted by saying he would make his case to voters.
"I think it is somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with hardliners in Iran," Obama said. "It is an unusual coalition."
"What we are going to focus on right now is actually seeing whether we can get a deal," added Obama.
"Once we do, if we do, then we'll be able to make the case to the American people."
Vice President Joe Biden, a former senator with decades of experience in Congress, opened fire with a harsher edge saying Republicans put the United States in peril with their misstep.
"The letter sent on March 9th by forty-seven Republican Senators to the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressly designed to undercut a sitting President in the midst of sensitive international negotiations, is beneath the dignity of an institution I revere.
"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," he said.
"This letter sends a highly misleading signal to friend and foe alike that our commander-in-chief cannot deliver on America's commitments -- a message that is as false as it is dangerous.
Note the passage in bold for its irony. Why yes, Joe, the letter does undermine the president' ability to make deals with other nations entirely on his own. That's what it's intended to do, because the Constitution grants the president no such ability. Treaties are supposed to be negotiated with the advice and consent of the Senate - in fact, two-thirds of the Senate. Since Obama knows he can't get that and has no intention of trying, this gambit amounts to little more than a personal deal between Obama and the mad mullahs. The 47 senators rightly note that this deal legally obligates no one but Obama himself, because he refuses to submit it to the ratification process proscribed in the Constitution.
The left can yelp all it wants about Republicans undermining Obama's foreign policy. Obama is undermining the Constitution by going rogue and dealing on his own without even considering the pursuit of ratification. When the president thumbs his nose at the law to this extent, that is exactly what Congress should do.
Now let's notice something about the pattern of Democrats historically. Whether you're talking about Nicaragua in the '80s or Iraq in the 'aughts, these were nations whose regimes were hostile to the U.S. and its allies, and aligned with our enemies. And these were the nations that Democrats undermined administration policy on behalf of.
Now, a Democrat administration is trying to deal with an enemy of America - putting our ally Israel in jeopardy in the process, and completely turning a deaf ear to Israel's concerns about it - while Republicans are trying to intervene on behalf of our friend.
So yes, in that respect Democrats are being completely consistent. When someone needs to take action on behalf of rogue regimes that are hostile to America, and to freedom in general, you can count on Democrats every time.
