Letter not only sabotages Obama, it harms U.S.

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, March 15, 2015 | 2 a.m.

I have found the 47 percenters.

They call themselves United States senators. And they are doing their best to destroy what makes this country great.

When Mitt Romney used that term to describe Americans who paid little or no taxes (mostly because they made little or no money and were dependent upon the largesse of the government for some kind of assistance) many thought he cost himself the election in 2012 because it showed an elitist attitude that American presidents should not have and the American people do not deserve.

All that happened, though, was Mitt lost an election.

This past week, 47 percent of the Senate did what no group of senators has ever done when they signed an open letter addressed to Iran’s ayatollah. Its purpose was to undermine the sensitive negotiations underway between Iran and America to prevent Iran’s obtaining a nuclear bomb!

What were those senators thinking? It may not have been much more than how can they best embarrass President Barack Obama, which has been some kind of blood sport ever since he was elected by the American people in 2008. Assuming that was the case for the 47 percenters — and not a treasonous intent as many believe — what they have managed to do is reduce the chances for a meaningful agreement with Iran and increase the odds that at some point in the near future our only reaction to Iran’s nuclear ambitions will be some warlike ambitions of our own.

It should matter not how and what people think of President Obama at this point, whether he can actually strike a good deal or if he even knows what a good deal is. The fact is that he is president and, as such, he is empowered with the responsibility to conduct foreign policy for the United States. The Constitution and more than 200 years of precedence is clear. When it comes to negotiating a deal, or not, it is the president, the person elected by the American people, who is empowered to act. It is not Congress and especially not 47 percent of them!

We all know there is precious little Congress has been able to agree on in the past few years. Notwithstanding the fact that Americans do not want to shut down the government, do want to extend and maintain Social Security and also want to provide medical insurance for all Americans, it is clear there is a significant minority of people in the Congress who wish otherwise. Unfortunately, it is the American people who suffer as a result of this childish behavior.

At no time, though, through all the immature games-playing was there ever any reason to believe Congress would try to sabotage the nuclear talks with Iran. Strengthen them? Yes. Threaten Iran with difficult choices if it doesn’t capitulate? Of course. Make the ayatollahs pay a huge price for their intransigence when it comes to nukes and their antipathy toward Israel in all other regards? Certainly.

Politics in the United States always stopped at the water’s edge because, regardless of our domestic disagreements, we spoke with one voice overseas — especially when our enemies were listening. National security and foreign policy is an American issue. It is not the province of any one political party. Peace and stability in the Middle East has always been a bipartisan issue.

Now, that may have changed irreparably because 47 percent of the Senate thinks trying to dismiss or discourage President Obama’s actions is OK, even when their own actions could lead to a nuclear nightmare.

This is a time when cooler heads must prevail. Whether it is supporting a secure and peaceful Israel or a more peaceful transition of the broader Middle East — especially in the face of our own idiotic moves like sending letters to ayatollahs — there is one person who I know has been resolute and unbending when it comes to seeing the bigger picture.

Nevada’s own senior U.S. senator, Harry Reid, has to be that man. As both majority leader and minority leader, Harry has shown the backbone to stand up to his party and the president when he disagreed with them. He also has demonstrated the good sense to support the president when appropriate. With Harry, when it comes to Israel and, especially a nuclear-tipped Iran in the Middle East, principle always trumps politics.

In fact, it was Sen. Reid who quietly and most efficiently marshaled the Democratic voices in the Senate to support a bill aimed at imposing severe sanctions on Iran if the nuclear talks failed and congressional oversight of any deal that may have succeeded. As you can imagine, in today’s unreality-based Washington, what Sen. Reid has been able to achieve defies description.

This time, however, the 47 Republicans who signed that letter — interfering with the conduct of U.S. foreign policy in a most foolish and idiotic way — have made Harry’s job almost impossible. Notice that there were seven Republican U.S. senators who did not sign that letter. Let’s call them the sane ones, the people who understand what is important and what is not, and the people who know how critical a good deal with Iran is because the alternative most certainly would be a war.

These seven are the people who were and are pushing hard for a bipartisan expression from Congress to promote stiffer sanctions if the talks fail and much-needed oversight should they succeed. Writing letters to the ayatollah is not their style.

They acted like grown-ups, eschewing the need for some kind of instant political gratification derived from sticking their fingers in the eye of President Obama because they couldn’t wait two more weeks to see if a proper deal could be struck.

As an aside, Nevadans should check the list to see whether our junior senator signed that letter. Did he act with sanity or did he become a lemming rushing headlong into a sea of stupidity? OK, I will answer the question. Dean Heller joined the 47 percenters, but to his credit he had an excuse. He said it was President Obama’s fault. Uh, OK!

So now our good Sen. Reid is faced with a choice. Does he recoil from the childish, dangerous and un-American actions of the 47 percenters and encourage those Democrats who were willing to defy their president to act in a partisan manner? A kind of tit-for-tat approach.

Or does Sen. Reid swallow hard at the foolishness of the 47 Republicans who have, by their partisan short-sightedness, made the Middle East a far more dangerous place than it already is, and work with the seven GOP senators who did not sign the letter and responsible Democrats to hold fast to the need to do the right thing — in the face of so much wrong.

I hope Sen. Reid chooses the latter. He has always been the champion of a strong and secure Israel. And he has been stalwart in his belief that Iran should never have a nuclear bomb. The latter would affect the former in this case.

And while responding in kind would be an understandable and human reaction to the harm the Republicans are causing, it wouldn’t be right. And it wouldn’t be good and it wouldn’t act to make a more secure world for all of us.

Someone has to be a grown-up right now before the Middle East fulfills the dreams of the madmen in Iran, aided and abetted by 47 madmen of our own who call themselves senators.

I am comfortable that this task falls to Harry Reid. He has the spine for such a challenge. And the experience and wisdom to make it happen.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Las Vegas Sun.