GOP Disrespect for the President is Virtually a Constitutional Crisis

     I wrote about this in my last post, but after reading The Plum Line, if anything I understated it-and I'm not normally one to understate things, I think it's fair to say. My previous post I had quoted Harry Reid:

     "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) attacked the Republican letter as a "juvenile political attack" aimed at "undermining our commander in chief." Republicans, he said, "cannot accept the fact that this good man, Barack Obama, this man with the unusual name, was elected twice by overwhelming margins by the people of this country."

     "In Senate floor remarks, he said Democrats never contemplated sending a letter to Iraq's leaders highlighting their disagreements with President George W. Bush. "So I say to my Republican colleagues: Do you so dislike President Obama you would take this extraordinary step? Obviously so," he said. "Why was it taken? I really don't understand other than the dislike of the president."

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-gop-plan-to-steal-2016-election.html#comment-form

     Paul Waldman, however, puts it well. The way they are treating him truly is an unprecedented way for a US Congress to treat it's Commander in Chief going back to that absurd Netanyahu conference. 

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/03/netanyahu-says-he-respects-obama-and-us.html

     Waldman:

     "It’s safe to say that no president in modern times has had his legitimacy questioned by the opposition party as much as Barack Obama. But as his term in office enters its final phase, Republicans are embarking on an entirely new enterprise: They have decided that as long as he holds the office of the presidency, it’s no longer necessary to respect the office itself.

Is that a bit hyperbolic? Maybe. But this news is nothing short of stunning:

     A group of 47 Republican senators has written an open letterto Iran’s leaders warning them that any nuclear deal they sign with President Barack Obama’s administration won’t last after Obama leaves office.

    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.”

      It’s one thing to criticize the administration’s actions, or try to impede them through the legislative process. But to directly communicate with a foreign power in order to undermine ongoing negotiations? That is appalling. And just imagine what those same Republicans would have said if Democratic senators had tried such a thing when George W. Bush was president. 

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/03/09/republicans-are-beginning-to-act-as-though-barack-obama-isnt-even-the-president/

     Waldman suggests the last time anything like this happened was Nixon secretly speaking to the govt of South Vietnam behind LBJ's back. 

     "The only direct precedent I can think of for this occurred in 1968, when as a presidential candidate Richard Nixon secretly communicated with the government of South Vietnam in an attempt to scuttle peace negotiations the Johnson administration was engaged in. It worked: those negotiations failed, and the war dragged on for another seven years. Many people are convinced that what Nixon did was an act of treason; at the very least it was a clear violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits American citizens from communicating with foreign governments to conduct their own foreign policy."

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/03/09/republicans-are-beginning-to-act-as-though-barack-obama-isnt-even-the-president/

     Which got me to thinking: what about Reagan in 1980? Isn't there a theory that he talked Iran not to release the hostages until Reagan got into office?

    https://consortiumnews.com/2010/050610.html

    Ok, so maybe GOP treachery isn't so unprecedented though that makes it no less treacherous.