The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Senator Cotton soils the nest.

    By Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 12:56pm |

    It would be going too far to call Cotton a traitor, or even a saboteur because both those terms imply a subversive action which has disastrous real world impact---it doesn't take much imagination to conjure up real acts of monstrosity. But Cotton's open letter to Iran, signed by most of the Republican senators, does classify him as an impetuous, ambitious, running-off-at-both-ends backbencher who has just soiled the national nest.

    Is the reality of a Democratic President, elected in a country with a written constitution and two centuries of precedent that he conducts our foreign policy in the interest of all of our citizens just too much to stomach for the wet-behind-the-ears, attention grabbing Senator from Arkansas?

    Cotton's problem is that there are just too many Republican woodpeckers for the size of the dead tree trunk they inhabit and some of these birds will have to move out in order to breed. Forget about Graham, he's a frail sparrow. Cotton has to out-peck Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Rubio---for starters. Then there are the rest of the Republican flapping birds---Santorum, Carson, and on and on---look behind any rotten tree limb and you'll find one of them lurking. 

    To give Cotton's letter context, the new Republican Congress has so far demonstrated a monumental incompetence to achieve anything of relevance which can fly around Obama's veto pen. Imagine, if you can, an earnest self-serving fledgling from Arkansas who has eaten all the bugs in his pathway to arrive at the Senate. He is ready for some red meat, and on the tab of taxpayers. But here's this President, also from Harvard, who really shouldn't be where he is in the first place. So how do you get a piece of Obama? Has anyone in the Senate tried lately to take over the military? Probably not. Oh, well, I'll attempt to destroy his foreign policy and in the process alienate our most important allies. 

    As President Obama pointed out---Cotton's letter puts the Republican signers in company with the hard-liners in Tehran. That's an interesting foreign alliance. Sometime I would like to see Biden do the understatement and Obama do the outrage.

    If  Senator Cotton is going to soil the nest I would prefer him to confine his droppings to his own state of Arkansas rather than contaminate a serious effort by the U.S. and its allies to strike a deal with Iran.   

     

     

    Comments

    Senator, I don't much cotton to you.

     


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 1:10pm

    I have ranted about this in so many places I am out of words. So I will just congratulate you for yours.  Especially these:  

    Sometime I would like to see Biden do the understatement and Obama do the outrage.

    Priceless!  But don't hold your breath.


    by CVille Dem on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 1:31pm

    Thanks, C-Ville. To be honest your comment on the other thread sparked this. So, thanks, I'm outraged at Cotton's insult. (apologies to LuLu for poaching comments from his threads)

    And can you believe it---a huge blue jay just flew into the window and nearly knocked himself out.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 1:45pm

    The GOP no longer acts in the interest of the United States. First they bring in Netanyahu, now they openly threaten negotiations with a foreign power. The only end game can be a war with Iran. These actions make the U.S. seem weak.

    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 2:33pm

    Thanks, rmrd. This letter first and foremost continues the policy of Republicans from day 1 of the Obama Presidency---which is to deny him legitimacy.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 2:50pm

    The Republican Senators could have been more sincere if they just sent one sentence from the letter:

    for instance, President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then - perhaps decades.

    Accompanied with a YouTube of them singing McCain's: "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran". Although I don't know if doing so would improve or retard current negotiations....dissuade Iran from making a bomb, or secretly speed up their alleged bomb plans.


    by NCD on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 3:13pm

    Thanks, NCD. And "most of us" will never agree to anything---thus prolonging and increasing the danger of the confrontation.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 3:30pm

    I could see a conspiracy between members of the pentagon and members of the repub party.

    But damn, we as a nation really have a Constitution.

    And any treaties reached by a Prez must be okayed by the Senate.

    And then this Netanyahu  crap, hell the repubs just do not give a damn about our Constitution.

     


    by Richard Day on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 3:40pm

    All they care about is Adleson's money flowing into their campaign coffers. 

    Maybe they will see a backlash from voters. 


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 4:02pm

    Thanks, it's red meat to the base, but goes beyond what we've seen so far.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:29pm

    I'm not sure any chamber is large enough for both Cruz and Cotton. We may need a showdown between these two publicity hounds.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:28pm

    Maybe we should bring back the duel. 40 paces and all. 


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:38pm

    They are sorry pieces of crap and most of us are tired of them flying that racial flag.  Traitor is too nice of a title.  Also Turtle should of known better then to go along with that. He is no better then the Bone head. 

    I only wished Uncle Joe was a little uglier with them.  

    I want to thank all the US newspapers that pounced on the Republican Senate for this.  It is about time the print media wakes up.  


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 3:53pm

    Trking, I wonder how the oligarchs would like a ground war with Iran?


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:32pm

    I hate having to go around in a perpetual state of outrage, but the Republicans leave me little alternative.   This is ludicrous.  Why would this idiot Senator want to make the U.S. look weak and unreliable, not only to her enemies, but to her allies?  Well, we all know the reason and it isn't for any principled belief, it's for the craven desire for political power even when acquired at the country's expense.  
     


    by MrSmith1 on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 4:03pm

    Republicans do it for the same reason as Egyptian King Den. And 'War President' 'Strong on Defense' baloney still works pretty well for re-election.

    The King with mace and whip, from 2985 BC, in what the British Museum calls 'the first image of a ruler of humanity...It's striking, perhaps a bit disheartening that right at the beginning the ruler wants to be shown as commander-in-chief, conquering his foe'.


     


    by NCD on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 4:49pm

    NCD, that's the perfect thought.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:44pm

    Thanks, Smith. I know what you mean by a "perpetual state of outrage". This one really pushed my buttons.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:34pm

    As usual, Republicans have an odd sense of timing. Why they decided to do this in the middle of the Clinton "controversy" is anyone's guess. But on behalf of democrats everywhere - nice work, Senators.

    Maybe they were jealous of their House counterparts. The Bibi fiasco grabbed headlines and tickled the bellies of their base, so they had to do one better. In the grand scheme of things, it's highly possible that both tactics will strengthen negotiations if they have any effect at all. The real damage is being done to themselves here at home.


    by barefooted on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 5:18pm


    Thanks, barefooted. This Congress seems like a class room out of order. And Boehner and McConnell, wanting nothing to be accomplished, go along with bad behavior.

    I would like to think that damage is being done to the conservative Republicans but I'm not sure.

    You make an interesting point about Hillary, headlines moved on.

    Actually, i get so pissed at guys like Cotton it just makes want to open my wallet for Hillary.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:40pm

    All the time you are thinking "what will they come up with next."  What a sorry way to conduct congressional business. Oligarchy needs to consider firing some of these people.  I am sure they would if they did this to their business. It is their money that puts them in office. 


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 6:45pm

    It is not going too far to refer to this letter as the act of traitors. There are many more people involved with this kind of negotiation than just the President. These Senators piss freely upon hundreds who make this kind of work possible. And what are those hundreds of people trying to do? Reduce the number of weapons turned against us.

    The Senators give comfort to our enemies when they place injuring political rivals above the work of defending the nation. They have seceded from the Union. Time to speed dial Sherman.


    by moat on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 9:59pm

    Thanks, Moat. What a poignant statement in recognition of the hard working people who spend their lives doing their utmost to make sense of a dangerous world out there and who strive to get things right.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 03/10/2015 - 11:21pm

    The Arkansas Senator is in high cotton. He is begging for money from speaking to defense contractors. I wonder if he is going to receive a standing ovation for pushing for war with Iran?

     

    https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/09/upon-launching-effort-scut...


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 03/11/2015 - 10:23am

    Just follow the money.  They don't even try to hide their graft. His interview on Morning Joe, all he did was repeat the same talking poiints through the questioning.  A dozen versions of the same statement saying they wanted Iran to understand that agreements with this President was null and void.    


    by trkingmomoe on Wed, 03/11/2015 - 1:30pm

    If this stunt results in the negotiations breaking down, and eventual war with Iran, I would like to propose that the first 94 boots on the ground are those of the signers of the letter, and that they stay until the war is over, unless they leave in a body bag.

    Cotton is a Cruz wannabe, but at least he's a rookie, and an argument could be made that he didn't realize what a serious error he was making (except that now that he's been called on it, he refuses to admit it was a mistake.) The ones that really piss me off are McConnell and McCain. There is no doubt that they BOTH know better. And McConnell should have shut it down.

    Cudos to the 7 who had brains enough to decline to sign.


    by stillidealistic on Thu, 03/12/2015 - 4:03am

    You are not the only one wondering why the old bulls in the Senate on the Republican side sign off on this.  I have read many comments on the web stating just that.  They should of known better.  Their winnings in the last election could of went to their heads and they are miss reading the general public's mood on all things on the right's wish list. 


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 03/12/2015 - 2:34pm

    The Arkansas legislature voted a new bill that will allow Cotton to run for the Senate and the Presidency simultaneously in 2020.

    http://m.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/mar/12/senate-would-let-cotton-see...


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 03/12/2015 - 5:57pm

    I read they were going to do that. I wish him luck.  A lot can happen in 6 years. Rubio was the darling of the GOP in 2010.  


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 03/12/2015 - 10:01pm