The outrages are well underway. The new congress hasn't even convened yet, and already the GOP is acting as though they've overthrown the entire government. Talking Points Memo has an article up detailing how Eric Cantor, the likely next House Majority Leader, has met privately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him this:
Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington. He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.
At this point, there is only one thing to do. Come January when the new Congress convenes, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden must resign so that House Speaker to be John Boehner can ascend to the presidency and restore legitimate government to America.
It's not like this wasn't inevitable. Sara Robinson wrote it up months ago: None Dare Call It Sedition.
Sedition: Crime of creating a revolt, disturbance, or violence against lawful civil authority with the intent to cause its overthrow or destruction
-- Brittanica Concise Dictionary
SNIP
Sedition on The Right
Openly advocating acts of sedition has become the conservatives' main political stock in trade over the past year. (The SPLC offers a strong summaryhere.) You hear it everywhere from Rush to Glenn to Michelle Malkin to Michelle Bachman. Everybody on the right is now roundly convinced that the fairly-elected President of the United States isn't even a citizen. He's a Muslim, and thus in treasonous league with terrorists. The main goal of his administration is to turn the country over to the One World Government. He's a socialist. He's a fascist. All of these are direct attacks on Obama's fundamental legitimacy and authority to lead the country -- and thus a deliberate incitement to revolt against his administration.
emphasis added
Cantor's actions affirm the GOP view: Obama is not the legitimate president of the United States. The only question I have about this is if sedition is the proper term for what Cantor has done, or whether treason would be a better charge. Cantor is essentially telling a foreign government he and his party are prepared to actively undermine the legitimate authority of the U.S. Government. The arrogant sense of entitlement on display here, and the contempt for the President and his administration is beyond the pale.
Can you imagine what the response by the Right Wing would have been if any high-ranking Democrat had done anything comparable during the George W. Bush presidency - or any other GOP president? Once upon a time there used to be a tradition that partisanship ended at the water's edge. Yeah right. IOKIYAAR.
I wonder if David Broder or any of the other worshippers of the 'bipartisan center' will be shocked or outraged by Cantor's unilateral seizure of Foreign Policy. I wonder if any country in the world will now give any credence to any U.S. diplomatic initiatives.
I wonder how much longer President Obama will keep saying he expects to be able to work with the Republicans.
UPDATE: Wow, the rec list already - and a front page mention. Thanks everyone!
Looking through comments, one thing I see coming up is the "Partisanship ends at the water's edge" generating some discussion. True, it is observed more in the breach than anything, but there's some history behind it. One reason the Constitution was adopted was, if I understand correctly, under the articles of Confederation it was possible for individual states to get tangled up in international relations. Imagine how much fun we'd be having today if each of the states was out there negotiating free trade agreements and such! Look how well individual states are doing trying to handle immigration issues.
Another reason the Executive branch ended up in charge of diplomacy was in the early years of this country, customs duties were a major source of income for the Federal government. This was something that needed to be handled on a daily basis, along with the other necessities of administering trade policies. Collecting revenue was one of the primary duties of the Coast Guard. (Hence their early ships were called revenue cutters.)
More to the point, it's vested in the Presidency and the executive branch in order that the United States can deal with other countries with a unified voice. Anything else is not practical. (Just look at Iraq for example which can barely put a government together, let alone develop coherent policies.)
Now people still have the right to express their opinions as individual citizens - but Cantor went way over that line. Does anyone think he would have had that meeting if he hadn't been a high ranking member of Congress? He was arrogating to himself powers that do NOT pertain to his office; he was dealing with a foreign head of state on the basis of his own political interests, NOT any legitimate government authority. This is why questions of sedition and treason trump free speech issues in this case.
Or to put in it terms people can understand at a basic level: Cantor is dragging the neighbors into a family fight for his own advantage.
UPDATE: Thanks for a comment from primarydoc pointing to a Glenn Greenwald piece at Salon which really takes down Cantor and the GOP hypocrites. Cantor is a real piece of work - no wonder he's in a leadership position in the GOP. Like calls to like.
UPDATE AGAIN: This video from TrueBlueMajority which uses Mr. Peabody to explain the history of U.S. with regard to Iraq and Iran is too good to leave buried in comments.