Now you know: The guy who is happy to throw the Constitution in the shredder if Congress won't give him his way about pretty much anything at all is officially upset because Congress breached "protocol" by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address them.
Even funnier is Obama's excuse for refusing to meet with Netanyahu: Supposedly it's "longstanding principle and protocol" that U.S. presidents don't meet with foreign leaders when they're in the midst of running for re-election, which Netanyahu is coming up on April elections in Israel. Think about it: Netanyahu might take a selfie with Obama and show it to the Israeli electorate as evidence of his close relationship with the most respected leader in the world. We can't have that!
Someone should ask Obama if this sounds familiar: If he won't lead, we will. Flip the sentiment. You get the idea? Obama is only too happy to throw over the Israelis in order to get (what he sees as) a legacy-building deal with Iran. And we all know how Obama negotiates with tyrants. Ask Raul Castro. You give away pretty much everything just so you can announce you've made history. The Israelis know who their allies are in America, and none of them are in the White House at the moment. So if Netanyahu doesn't have to waste his time shaking hands and preening with Obama or the even more self-admiring John Kerry, I'd say it's a score for Bibi:
The White House initially gave an icy response to news of Netanyahu's trip, saying it had not been informed -- a break with protocol.
Twenty-four hours later, the Obama administration announced that neither the president nor his Secretary of State John Kerry would meet Netanyahu.
The Israeli prime minister -- and his Republican Congressional hosts -- have expressed deep skepticism about a brokered deal, believing Iran cannot be trusted to keep its side of the bargain.
US lawmakers have even sketched plans to impose fresh sanctions on Iran, legislation Obama has said would wreck talks and which he has pledged to veto.
"The president has been clear about his opposition to Congress passing new legislation on Iran that could undermine our negotiations and divide the international community," said Meehan.
Make no mistake: Obama's end game here is to be able to announce a piece-of-paper-waving, "peace in our time" deal with Iran that would make Neville Chamberlain blush. He has no intention of submitting it to the Senate for ratification either because a) he'll rationalize that it's not precisely a treaty and doesn't need ratification; and b) come on, he's Barack Obama, and since when does he submit to Congress on anything?
Boehner's decision to invite Netanyahu in defiance of Obama is encouraging not only insofar as it shows Congress is having none of Obama's nonsense on Iran. It also shows that they have little inclination to let Obama set the agenda, hopefully on anything. That might also augur well for the GOP's approach to Obama's giveaway-a-week approach to governing, which is to say they might completely ignore his proposals and lead with their own. That's exactly what they should do. The electorate basically shoved Obama to the side in November and told him enough is enough. The Republicans are being given their chance to lead, and they need to do it. Letting one of our most important allies know that the White House might not be with them, but America still is, is a great way to start.
