Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	I May Be Wrong
Date:	3/10/2015 9:41:32 PM

The first word I thought of was TREASON when I read of the letter the Right in Congress sent to the Iranian leader. However, after reading this news piece I sense there maybe a positive effect from the letter.

My Error

Name:	copperline -	Reply
Subject:	I May Be Wrong
Date:	3/10/2015 11:55:48 PM

Now that's funny!  Thanks for the link.

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Considering they are eating Obama's lunch
Date:	3/11/2015 8:24:30 AM

They have shown themselves to be superior in intellect and negotiation skills over dear leader so they could probably get the Republicans a great deal with him.  On the treason front, try and avoid the nonsense of the loony left.  It makes you seem so small.  Go back and look at the words of Obama, Biden and Clinton when they were in the Senate and were all for the Senate's role in foreign agreements.  And the biggest laugher of all is the bit about the hard liners.......it would be hilareous if these people didn't actually believe that there is a difference in Iran's despotic leadership.  Geez, if the moderates only want nucelar weapons and are determined to wipe Israel off the map and destroy the United States (you know, the ones we are negotiating in secret to allow them to develop nuclear weapons) I would hate to see what these so-called hard liners want to do.

Thank God for those courageous, patriotic Republicans that want to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons via a secret deal with the most incompetent administration since the worthless peanut farmer tried to destroy the country.  God bless them and God bless America!!!  The only traitor is sitting in the Oval Office.....oh, I mean rushing to his latest tee time.  

Name:	copperline -	Reply
Subject:	Considering they are eating Obama's lunch
Date:	3/11/2015 10:29:12 AM

Superior intellect?  Now THAT's even funnier!   

In their drive to undermine & discredit the Obama Presidency, 47 Republican congressmen including several Presidential hopefuls have just stated to the world that no country needs to pay any attention to present nor future Presidents in their international negotiations... because our domestic politics are so fractured, we want the world to know that they can't believe the Chief Executive of the United States.   Great idea!  

It is also really clever of these GOPers to join forces with the most hardline Iranians who WANT to develop the bomb.   Surely this will sew much confusion in their ranks.....   It certainly shows the world that the US has lost it's ability to develop a coherent international strategy due to dissent in its own government.   Great idea!

And.... since the sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table are mostly imposed by our European allies (we have had no trade relations with Iran in decades)... our partners are left scratching their heads and wondering why they went to all the trouble to work cooperatively with the US.   Their willingness to continue the sanctions may just disintegrate in light of this, then we will lose all leverage toward dissuading Iran from building nuclear weapons.

Scratch one set of hard fought negotiations to make the world a safer place and call it a Republicans.   Enter another half-baked Republican idea to tear down another initiative of this Presidency without any thought to the consequences... nor an alternative plan to address the problem.

Finally, the Radical Right has once again steered the GOP into a position it doesn't want to be in..... Until a month ago, both Democrats and Republicans were united in their approach to Iran's nuclear program.  Now, this action has split that coaltion wide open.    The last bipartisan agreement, gone.... and for what?   A vain & reckless publicity stunt.

This is their contribution to governing?      

Name:	copperline -	Reply
Subject:	Considering they are eating Obama's lunch
Date:	3/11/2015 10:32:14 AM

A late edit:    That should read "scatch one set of hard fought negotiations to make the world a safer place and call it a Republican victory".   

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Considering they are eating Obama's lunch
Date:	3/11/2015 10:44:52 AM

I don't think they are eating Obama's lunch.  They have merely reinforced the world view that the United States is fractured.  While Republicans are viewing this as a great victory on their part, they need only read what the rest of the world has to say to realize that they are only serving to reinforce the view that the U.S. is powerless and divided.  It's one thing to have a debate internally, but quite something else to take it out into the world. 

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Considering they are eating Obama's lunch
Date:	3/11/2015 10:46:39 AM

Negotiating an agreement in secret that allows Iran to have technology that can only be used for making nuclear weapons with a sunset provision that allows them at that point do anythign they want is a bad deal.  Only someone with inferior intellect thinks a bad deal is better than no deal at all.  And that describes dear leader and Lurch.  

Besides, the Repoublicans are only following Obama, Biden and Hillary's lead when it comes to the Senate's role in these kind of foreign agreements.  Take your whining to them.  Go GOP!  America understans this is for the best and besides, they are focused on Hillary's lies.  No one but the loony left cares about this.

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Gee, where was that advice
Date:	3/11/2015 10:50:02 AM

When W was president?!?!?  Sorry Hound, but the left spent 8 years actively trying to undermine America's foriegn policy because they did not agree with it.  Now that the shoe is on the other foot they are whining.  They believe a bad deal with Iran is worse than the status quo.  Sanctions didn't bring Iran to the the table.  Recognizing an easy mark and only two years ot make a sweetheart deal brought them to the table. 

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Gee, where was that advice
Date:	3/11/2015 1:48:12 PM

But, Democrats never wrote a letter and sent it to a foreign country.

I don't give a darn about the debate and disagreement - I think it needs to be debated.  But Kerry said something today that I think is right - the debate stops at the borders.  (that's probably the only thing that Kerry will ever say that I agree with. I dislike him intensely.  But in this case, I think he was right).

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Gee, where was that advice
Date:	3/11/2015 2:19:47 PM

Apparently no one gave that advice because Democrats in the Senate, includng dear leader, took it upon themselves to actually travel to foreign countries while we the executive branch was in the middle of negotiations with them.  Democrats have been interefering in all sorts of ways for many years when Bush was president and not just inside our borders.  Did they ever write an open letter?  Not sure.  But how cares about the form when the substance is exactly the same?!?!?  

They were all for this kind of activity until it is them on the receiving end and they are now whining.  And for Kerry to state that the debate ends at our border is beyond belief.  Go back and look at his actions as a Senator and candidate for President.  What a blathering hypocrite.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Gee, where was that advice
Date:	3/11/2015 3:47:14 PM

Give me some examples where Democrats traveled to a foreign country in the middle of negotiations and told the opposite party that the agreement under negotiation wasn't worth the paper it was written on.  I don't think you can cite one, other than speculation.  And don't you agree that the written word has always been more weighted than a spoken one?  Otherwise, what is all the hubbub about Hiliary's emails?  And why bother to put anything in writing.  No, this is a major scew-up by 47 Republicans. 

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Gee, where was that advice
Date:	3/11/2015 5:12:13 PM (updated 3/11/2015 5:25:54 PM)

Who knows what they said so you don't have a clue whether what they impacted the negotiations or not.  Plenty of examples of Dems inserting themselves during the Bush years, including Harry Reid announcing to the world that the war was lost.  Stephen Hayes at Weekly Standard has a litany of examples of Democrat Senators inserting themselves into these kinds of issues, including Obama himself.  In those cases I suppose since you agreed with them so you were fine with their interference but now its a different story.  Writing it down versus secret meetings is a matter of form and not substance and had Tom Cotton flown to Terhan and met with the mullahs and told them the same thing it would have raised all the same howls from the hypocrites.  Quit focusing on the form as if that matters a bit and focus like a laser beam on the scanty detaisl of this secret agreement.  That's where the problem lies, not in their stating the obvious to Iran who probably already knew it. But probably have Hillary's emails so they know if she is elected they can blackmail her into submission.

So no, the GOP didn't screw up.  In fact, if they scuttled a bad deal with the Iranians they deserve a medal.  They are true patriots that had the guts to point out to the Iranians that any secret deal they do with Obama without the Senate being involved can be done away with at the stroke of a pen by the next President.  For the life of me I cannot fathom why you trust Obama on any of this given his and Hillary's sorry track record on foreign affairs.  Maybe had the President followed the lead of his predecessor and gotten the Senate involved in this instead of keeping everything secret this would not have been necessary.  The only screw up here is with this incompetent and corrupt administration.

Name:	copperline -	Reply
Subject:	Gee, where was that advice
Date:	3/11/2015 6:01:17 PM

No, your post is chock full of innuendo and misdirection, it's baseless in fact.   No Democrat (nor Republican) has ever before signed a letter to a foreign government during a multilateral negotiation that specifically discredits the President of the United States in those negotiations.    Congress was always going to have their say about continued Iran sanctions and the final agreement without taking it upon themselves to sabotage the process....

They sabotaged more than the Peace Process.   They have gone from damaging the country's domestic agenda to attempting to blow up our foreign policy efforts.   

Better face facts, GOP.  You are being pulled further off course by the Radical Right.   Better get on with the divorce soon, or your party's future prospects are toast.

Name:	Talullahhound -	Reply
Subject:	Gee, where was that advice
Date:	3/11/2015 7:03:17 PM

MM, have you lost your mind? 

And you did not answer my question:  cite examples when democrats went abroad and said to foreign officials that an agreement that was being negotiated wasn't worth the paper it was written on.  The point is that you can't.  It's pure speculation on your part.  Yes, members of Congress go all over the world on "fact finding missions", and then they make promises for money, military support, etc.  We should keep them home and save the cost of the trip and whatever it is that they promise.

Yes, Harry Reid has said incredibly stupid things, as has John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi.  But they havn't put those things in writing in a letter to a foreign party that we are negotiation with.  Words do not carry the same weight as a letter.  That's why international agreements are done in writing. 

I haven't made any value judgement about the Iranian agreement, because I haven't read the agreement.  I suspect, like most agreements, it will be symbolic, because frankly most international agreements I have read have no real teeth for execution.  But, it doesn't mean they don't accomplish anything.   Sometimes they can serve as a basis for continued meaningful discussions, or serve as a basis for future inspections. 

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	MM Can't Find Winning Talking Points
Date:	3/11/2015 8:12:50 PM

Your best excuse is that the Dems did it. I am sure you and the Right told everyone how bad it was for the country when the Dems did it. Now, you justify the Right doing it based on what those Dems did. You are on a losing merryground.  I thought you and your party loved our country unlike the Dems led by Obama who hate it. Why then follow their pathetic example? Or, could it be that the Dems never did anything like this???

Why didn't Bush go after the axis of evil..Iran and N. Korea? Explain that one dude.

Name:	wix -	Reply
Subject:	Goofhead, Copperboy, T-hound
Date:	3/11/2015 8:46:39 PM

The Republicans who sent the letter to the rogue regime in Iran, did so to save the US.  At no time in America's history has the leadership at the top of the Executive Branch been so weak, so misguided, and so dangerous.  The mere thought of o-BAMA and Kerry negotiating with far superior minds is extremely frightening.  Your arguments above about this never having happened before is senseless.  At no time in history has the country been so poorly led that leaders in Congress (that other equally powerful branch of gov) felt it NECESSARY to step in and clarify the dangers our enemy has in attempting to deal with the o-BAMA IDIOT.

It is indeed a frightening situation when many leaders of the US Gov, HAVE to notify our enemy that they're dealing with an IDIOT....as if they don't already know it!

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Dems have done much worse
Date:	3/11/2015 9:02:39 PM

Go back to 1983 and look at what Dems did to try to submarine Reagan in his eventual victory over the USSR a without having to fire a shot. Next point?  But I guess in your mind writing an open letter is worse than passing legislation. History is a real bitch isn't hound?

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Yeah I know Copper
Date:	3/11/2015 9:06:58 PM

Nothing is Obama's fault right?  IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, ISIS, Arab spring, Russia invading neighbors, worst recovery since the Depression and on and on. All the GOP's fault right?  I will say this again, if this letter scuttles a deal that will clearly let Iran get nuclear weapons in order to destroy Israel then they deserve a medal. In fact the Medal of Honor!  Deal with it. 

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Amen
Date:	3/11/2015 9:09:18 PM

I think these guys have such low expectations for our first black president that they view anything he does as acceptable.  So Iran gets nukes and kills millions of Jews!  We are just expecting too much from the black guy. Such low expectations and the soft bigotry on parade. Kind of sad. 

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Just pointing out the hypocrisy
Date:	3/11/2015 9:11:47 PM

As I have said repeatedly, if this scuttles a bad deal with Iran that would allow them to get nukes those Senators deserve the Medal of Honor!