3/12/2015 politicususa.com: Obama White House Rips Senate Republicans For Their Treasonous Letter To Iran
3/9/2015 voanews.com: Iran's Ayatollah Slams Republican Senators' Letter

I agree the 47 Senators that signed the the letter to Iran leaders to inform them of the role Congress plays in approving treaties made a stupid move. The arrogant, condescending and threatening tone of the letter left Democrats and Iran no alternative but to get their panties all in a bunch.

A far more subtle, and in my opinion more effective, way to remind all parties of the role the Senate plays in international treaties would have been to send Iran, Secretary Kerry and the President a copy of the United States Constitution highlighted as follows:

Constitution of the United States, Art. II, Sec. 2: He (the President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The cover letter would have simply read "For Your Review" and would have been signed the 47 Senators.

In principle I agree with most of the issues the Republican party has with the Obama administration. Too often, however, their efforts to counter the Administration's folly make them look like second graders competing for attention and they continually over play their hand. Republicans need to step back and take a page out of President Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy hand book: "speak softly, and carry a big stick."

March, 2015