Earlier this month, 47 United States Senators provided Ayatollah Khamenei and other Iranian leaders with a 271-word “explainer” on the Constitution’s prescriptions for how the U.S. conducts relations with other countries. This was done in the form of an open letter – written and organized by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and signed by nearly all of his fellow Republicans. The Senators wrote that under the Constitution, agreements made between the President and foreign leaders without congressional support were not necessarily binding, and could be modified or even cancelled by future elected leaders.
Despite the relatively straightforward nature of the letter’s content, it set off a whirlwind of controversy in the mainstream media. The root of their offense appears to lie in their idea that the people’s elected representatives in a co-equal branch of government have no business sharing information that could be seen as contradictory to the administration’s own diplomatic efforts. The reality, however, is the Senators only explained various constitutional positions. If the administration’s defenders think this basic lesson on our laws poses such a danger to an Iranian nuclear deal, perhaps their problems go beyond – far beyond – Senator Cotton and his colleagues.
Certainly, there seems to be little excuse for the level of vitriol that has been directed at these Members of Congress. The media would seem to want their readers to believe the world is coming to an end because of one open letter – and they seem to be having entirely too much fun discussing it.
The left-leaning Huffington Post dismissing the letter as “a stunt that has damaged the [Republican] party’s reputation” may well be expected, but plenty of so-called “legacy” media outlets are getting into the act as well. Jonathan Capeheart at The Washington Post called the letter “a slap in the face of President Obama and an affront to the presidency,” and quoted retired Major General Paul Eaton who said the Senators were “mutinous” and had committed “what could be construed as an illegal act.” One cable network went even further in flinging charges of illegality stating, “[f]orty-seven Senate Republicans may have broken the law … [b]ut no one’s losing any sleep over it.” The New York Daily News outran them all in the race to outrage, splashing the epithet “TRAITORS” across their front page along with pictures of Cotton and other signers of the letter.
Perhaps some publications are taking their cues from the Obama Administration itself, which has openly expressed its displeasure with the lawmakers’ actions at the highest levels. The President accused his colleagues in the Senate of “wanting to make common cause with the hard-liners in Iran.” Vice President Joe Biden accused the 47 Senators of actions “beneath the dignity” of the institution in which they serve.
The media and those who fan their flames of controversy need to take a collective step back, along with a deep breath. We should seriously consider the question: do they really believe that some Senators issuing an open explanation of constitutional principles constitutes “an affront to the presidency?” Did this group – which includes everyone from freshmen senators, long-serving veterans like John McCain and foreign policy luminaries like Marco Rubio – really seek to execute a “mutiny” or “make common cause” with Iranian radicals? These are United States Senators, not ragtag leaders of an attempted coup d’etat.
The simple fact is even if the senators highlighted constitutional points that some in the media or in the administration would rather ignore, they are duly elected representatives of the American people – the same American people who elected President Obama. The U.S. Constitution provides for a divided government and in such an arrangement – believe it or not – there are sometimes disagreements. But taken together, the positions of the three branches of government are supposed to reflect the nation’s collective mind. Our democratic system has not failed us yet, and one open letter describing aspects of the Constitution will not send it all crashing down nor should it elicit charges of treason.
