Dear Commons Community,

The backlash against the letter that 47 of the Senate’s 54 Republican members sent to the “leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran”  on Monday that warned them not to make any deal with President Obama is receiving a swift backlash even among conservatives.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page called the senators’ letter a “distraction”.

“Democratic votes will be needed if the pact is going to be stopped, and even to get the 67 votes to override a veto of the Corker-Menendez bill to require such a vote,” wrote the editors, referring to a bill that would require Obama to submit to Congress the text of any potential deal with Iran for a hearing and a vote. “Monday’s letter lets Mr. Obama change the subject to charge that Republicans are playing politics as he tries to make it harder for Democrats to vote for Corker-Menendez.”

The New York Daily News went further with a one-word front-page headline (above) in capital letters spelling out “TRAITORS” with pictures of four Republican senators who signed the letter.  The News also condemned the “dangerous treachery” in a scathing editorial.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a hawkish critic of President Barack Obama’s foreign policies, expressed his disapproval yesterday of the letter.  Speaking to reporters at the International Association of Fire Fighters presidential forum Tuesday morning, King said that while he agreed with “the entire tone of the letter,” he likely would not have signed it had he been in the Senate.

“I believe in a strong presidency. I don’t know if I would have signed the letter. I don’t trust the president on this, quite frankly, though I don’t know if I’d go public with it to a foreign government,” he said, adding that it sets the wrong “precedent” to publicly go to a foreign government to undermine the president of the United States while he or she is dealing with that country.

This action of these senators will only serve to haunt the Republican Party especially as we move into next year’s presidential election.  Potential Republican nominees such as Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, both of whom signed the letter, will be skewered for undermining the office of the president.

Tony