By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--March 13, 2015
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Under the Logan Act passed by Congress way back in 1799, U.S. citizens are prevented from influencing "disputes or controversies" involving the United States and a foreign government, without express authority to do so. Now, it appears the Iran letter was carefully drafted by Sen. Tom Cotton, a smart constitutional lawyer, to come as close as possible to the line of legality without crossing it, specifically by not explicitly taking a position against the Iran negotiations.In other words "I admit it. There's no crime here. There's no way to prosecute these 47 Senators, since they didn't actually do what we've all been trying to say they did." Cue the sad trombone. It seems the "traitor" label is slowly being taken off the table. However, that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other accusations still to be made. The libs have a time-tested playbook and they intend to use it. As usual, it looks like "racism" is going to be the knee-jerk rallying cry.
Is the lack of respect being shown toward President Obama about race, as some have suggested? Yes and no. Certainly, for a segment of the country, it really is about being uncomfortable with a black president. Indeed, even former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, noted what he described as a "dark vein" of intolerance in the party and parts of the country in general. But beyond that hopefully shrinking share of the population that is explicitly racist, there is a far wider issue of implicit racial bias -- an unconscious, yet nonetheless real tendency, to subject President Obama to extra scrutiny because of the color of his skin.See how that works? The Iran letter is just another symptom of the GOP's disrespect for President Obama - and that disrespect has manifested itself because he's black. Sure, the "everyone's a racist even if they don't know it" gambit is getting pretty stale, but it has a major upside for the lefties who embrace it. Unlike treason, it's completely unprovable. Much like the "jobs created or saved" canard, it's a nebulous get out of jail free card that can be applied to almost any argument. Since there's no tangible way to verify the claim, you just have to repeat it until the sheep line up behind what you're saying. According to recent NBC News/WSJ polling, 71 percent of voters think Obama's Iran deal is a bad idea that's doomed to failure. That's probably because they're smart enough to realize that placing Iran on the path to a nuclear bomb is a plainly terrible plan. As usual the administration doesn't care what the American people think which - just maybe - has something to do with his little "lack of respect" problem. ...But "racism." Sure. Ok. If Kohn and her progressive ilk think that Obama deserves more respect, maybe they should stop carrying his water and urge him to earn some.
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