Shithole Senators

People in politics and the media are taking note of some collateral damage from Republicans dishonestly framing the infamous "shithole" meeting at the White (Supremacist) House to discuss a bipartisan deal on DACA, especially lying weasel Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia. Both Senators, in conjunction with biohazard Stephen Miller and diminished Adult Day Care supervisor John Kelly, were instrumental in blowing up the bipartisan deal last week.

James Hohmann summarizes and assesses the damage to Cotton and Perdue:

After Dick Durbin said Friday that President Trump had complained about the United States taking immigrants from “shithole countries,” two Republican senators who attended the meeting took issue with their Democratic colleague. 

“[W]e do not recall the president saying these comments specifically,” David Perdue (Ga.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) said in a joint statement that read like it was drafted by a lawyer. 

By Sunday morning, their memories had cleared up. “I am telling you that he did not use that word. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation,” Perdue said indignantly on ABC’s “This Week.” 

“I didn’t hear it, and I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was,” Cotton said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” 

They didn’t stop there. Both men then impugned the Illinois senator’s integrity by alleging he has a history of making stuff up. 

Now we know the real story: “Three White House officials said Perdue and Cotton told the White House that they heard ‘shithouse’ rather than ‘shithole,’ allowing them to deny the president’s comments on television over the weekend,” according to Josh Dawsey, Robert Costa and Ashley Parker.  [snip] 

Cotton and Perdue will be defined by this moment, in part, because other senators will remember their attacks on Durbin. This will make them less trustworthy as potential partners and thus less effective as members of Congress.  (our emphasis)

Cotton deserves a holy hell comeuppance since this is far from his first offense to his country or decency (remember his attempting to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal?  How about his blind hatred of President Obama leading to blocking a highly qualified Ambassadorial nominee? Just for starters.) Perdue is just your garden variety plutocrat Republican who goes along with whatever he's told to do, and who also seems to have an irrational hatred for Obama.  We wonder what these white gentlemen have against the former black President.

Right- wing pundit Jennifer Rubin excoriates Rump, Cotton and Perdue:

So to recap: The president described a preference for Norwegian (i.e. white) immigrants over those from “shithole” countries (African nations). He gave the Congressional Black Caucus the back of the hand. (“At one point, Durbin told the president that members of that caucus — an influential House group — would be more likely to agree to a deal if certain countries were included in the proposed protections, according to people familiar with the meeting. Trump was curt and dismissive, saying he was not making immigration policy to cater to the CBC and did not particularly care about that bloc’s demands, according to people briefed on the meeting. ‘You’ve got to be joking,’ one adviser said, describing Trump’s reaction.”) He blew up a possible deal on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, bragged about his actions to friends and then lied to the public about what he said. Two U.S. senators lied as well and then were double-crossed by White House aides.

This raises several questions: Why should these Republicans hold elected office? Why should anyone believe them in the future? And lastly, what is the appropriate response to them? 

Amy Davidson Sorkin on the latest proof of the old adage that there's no honor among thieves:

What is notable is that, at first, Cotton and Perdue had tried, in a joint statement, to hedge by saying that they did “not recall the President saying these comments specifically.” But, as his lies escalated, so did theirs, to the point where they were backing up the idea that the media was involved in a fake-news conspiracy. They didn’t need to do so—after their Sunday appearances, Lindsey Graham said, according to the Post and Courier, “My memory hasn’t evolved. I know what was said and I know what I said”—yet they chose that route. But it is, apparently, hard to lie halfway for Trump; he won’t let you. Maybe it’s time for the Republicans to stop lying to themselves about that, too.  (our emphasis)

These two shithole Senators simply shine a light on the general state of the Republican Party -- it's now completely Trump's party -- and on the lack of truth, honor and decency in their ranks (it extends to their political appointees, too, of course: see Nielsen, Kirstjen).  But as these writers point out, ultimately lying for Rump won't save you.

(Photo:  Cotton, Very Stable Genius, Perdue)

Today's Cartoon - Not Cottoning To Him

(click on image to enlarge)

(Jeff Danziger, via gocomics.com)

"Under Mining" Republicans

Jon Stewart has fun with the Republican Party's moronic foreign policy alternate universe (with some patented Stewart both- siderism):

The Daily Show
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More Fallout From Attempted Republican Foreign Policy Coup d'Etat

Here's more reaction to the 47 Republican crackpot Senators who sent a letter written by dangerous fool Sen. Tom "Ear to Ear" Cotton (Yahoo-AR) to Iran's leaders in an attempt to sabotage the on-going nuclear negotiations.

Vice President Biden

In thirty-six years in the United States Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which Senators wrote directly to advise another country -- much less a longtime foreign adversary -- that the President does not have the constitutional authority to reach a meaningful understanding with them. This letter sends a highly misleading signal to friend and foe alike that that our Commander-in-Chief cannot deliver on America’s commitments -- a message that is as false as it is dangerous. 

The decision to undercut our President and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as a matter of principle. As a matter of policy, the letter and its authors have also offered no viable alternative to the diplomatic resolution with Iran that their letter seeks to undermine. (our emphasis)

The New York Daily News (click on image to enlarge)

That's Republican Senators (l. to r.) McConnell, Cruz, Cotton and Paul in the picture above, all signees of the letter to the ayatollahs.

Charles P. Pierce

Cotton stands revealed as a true fanatic. He's stalwart in his convictions as regards things about which he knows exactly dick. What he and practically every Republican in the Senate did was nothing short of a slow-motion, partial coup d'etat. It was not quite treason, and it was not quite a violation of the Logan Act, no matter how dearly some of us might wish it was. (Imagine the howls if the Justice Department actually inquired into that possibility, which it certainly has a right to do. Lindsey Graham might never rise from the fainting couch.) But it stands in history with Richard Nixon's grotesque sabotage of the Paris Peace Talks in 1968 and with whatever it was that the Reagan campaign did to monkeywrench the possible release of the American hostages from their captivity in Iran in 1980. It is an act of unconscionable and perilous presumption, reckless at its base and heedless of eventual consequences. Nobody elected Tom Cotton or the rest of these clowns to undermine the ability of this president to conduct foreign policy. (Nobody elected Bibi Netanyahu to do it, either, as sad as this might make Jen Rubin.) It long has been acceptable on the respectable American right to call this president practically anything. It now is acceptable on the respectable American right to do anything to thwart his ability to conduct his office. A twice-elected president must bow to the uneducated whims of the representative of 478,819 Arkansans. We have fallen through the looking glass and left it far behind. (our emphasis)

Sens. Harry Reid and Dianne Feinstein

“This is not a time to undermine our commander in chief purely out of spite,” Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday afternoon in an impassioned 10-minute speech attacking the Republican intervention. “We should always have robust debate about foreign policy, but it’s unprecedented for one political party to directly intervene in an international negotiation with the sole goal of embarrassing the president of the United States.” 

Other Democrats agreed. “This letter only serves one purpose — to destroy an ongoing negotiation to reach a diplomatic agreement in its closing days,” said Sen Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.  (our emphasis)

Like perhaps no other episode in recent memory, this extraconstitutional gambit by Republican loons should prove beyond any doubt that, when it comes to matters foreign and domestic, this is a party that places its own interests over that of the United States.  Even if the Beltway Villagers and  "mainstream media" were not obsessed with the shiny object of Hillary Clinton's State Department emails, they undoubtedly would still find reasons not to shame these cynical cornpone crackpots for what they're doing, and have been doing for the past 6 years.  History will have to do it for them.

Senate Republicans Unconstitutionally Conducting Own Foreign Policy

Oh, look at what those responsible Republicans- ready- to- govern are up to in the Senate:

All but seven Republican senators have signed on to an open letter to Iran warning that as soon as President Obama leaves office, Republicans will undo any nuclear deal he might enter into with Iran:

Organized by freshman Senator Tom Cotton and signed by the chamber's entire party leadership as well as potential 2016 presidential contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, the letter is meant not just to discourage the Iranian regime from signing a deal but also to pressure the White House into giving Congress some authority over the process. 

“It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system … Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement,” the senators wrote. “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

Fresh from trying to de-stabilize the nuclear deal by partnering with a foreign government (the odious Israeli Prime Minister Bibi "Bomb Bomb" Netanyahu), Republicans are now working the other side of the diplomatic street, trying to signal to the Iranian government that any deal may not be a deal after all.  And, leave it to these Republican Konstitushional Skolars, they don't really understand how the Constitution works.  They also have likely never read the Logan Act.  Perhaps someone should read pertinent parts to them, while they're standing in the dock in a courtroom.

Stupid and malicious - just the right mix for a Republican.  That Sen. Tom "Ear to Ear" Cotton (Yahoo-AR) was behind this is not surprising -- he's a scary loon's loon, or as Digby has dubbed him, "Sarah Palin with a Harvard degree."

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had it right when he said on the floor of the Senate, "Republicans are undermining our Commander-in-Chief while empowering the Ayatollahs." More, please!

Because, treason patriots!

UPDATE:  Here's what President Obama had to say (and why the Administration likely won't pursue the violation of the Logan Act angle):

“I think it is somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hard-liners in Iran. It is an unusual coalition. I think what we’re going to focus on is actually seeing whether we can get a deal or not. And once we do, then we’ll — if we do, then we’ll make the case to the American people, and I’m confident we’ll be able to implement it.”