I can't express enough enthusiasm for freshman Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and the spectacular letter that he and 46 other Republicans senators wrote to the leaders of Iran explaining how our constitutional republic works, how the US Senate must ratify treaties that the President negotiates by a two-thirds majority, how any agreement that is not so approved by Congress will be regarded "as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khameini," and therefore subject to revocation by the next president, or modification by Congress at any time.
In sum -- and in language that "leaders" of the US government, executive branch, or even American media can understand -- 47 Republican senators declared that Obama is not a king, and that Congress is not, contrary to popular wisdom, a potted palm.
As Cotton put it to an incredulous Jake Tapper on CNN, "an agreement that is not approved by the US Congress will not be accepted by the US Congress."
This is cause for fireworks, but not on Fox News, where Megyn Kelly seemed, if anything, evenmore appalled than her disapproving CNN counterpart. "It's not just Howard Dean. It's not just Vice President Biden," Kelly said to Cotton. "It's the Wall Street Journal, calling you out, saying, this is not helpful ...!"
Sigh. Here is something the Founding Fathers seem not to have thought of -- the process by which elected members of a co-equal branch of government (The White House's party in Congress) and the Fourth Estate willingly lock shields around a king-like executive branch.
Here's an idea: Sen. Cotton should take a copy of his open letter to the mullahs and readdress it to the Obama administration and members of the US media.
They don't "fully understand our constitutional system," either!