Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) succeeded at collecting a lot of signatures ... and drawing widespread condemnation.
Republican presidential hopefuls may be racing to sign onto the Senate GOP's open letter to Iran, but it's not playing so well in newspapers across the country—including in many of the states whose senators signed on.
- Both of Kentucky's senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, signed the letter. Their state's Courier-Journal asked:
Has Congress gone crazy? [...]
A blatant attempt to sabotage the discussions to limit Iran’s nuclear capacity, the letter is signed by by 47 GOP senators, aligning themselves — President Obama noted ironically — with hardliners in Iran who oppose any deal with the United States.
- The Concord Monitor focused very directly on New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte:
Unlike the thousands of other times she has signed her name, Ayotte will remember this signature. How could she forget? It’s not every day that a United States senator attempts to undermine U.S. foreign policy and weaken the nation in one cursive swoop.
- Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey signed the letter, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's editorial board wrote:
The senators who signed the letter should be ashamed.
- The Salt Lake Tribune's headline is almost all you need to read: Utah senators increase risk of war. Although the editorial itself is worth a look:
It will be up to history to judge whether the latest partisan stunt joined by Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch amounts to an act of End Times warmongering or merely another bit of cringe-worthy buffoonery on the global stage.
Um, guys? Forget dismissing it as "cheeky" or hedging about how you "react[ed] maybe in not the most effective fashion," this might be a chance to practice just saying "we screwed up."
