Obama needs to protect the presidency
The Republican letter siding with the hard-liners in Iran is not only a threat to American diplomacy under Obama, it's a threat to every president that follows him. If that letter is allowed to stand, then it sends a signal to the world that the American president cannot negotiate agreements or at least those agreements cannot be trusted to stand. If that's true, that affects the credibility of the US to negotiate not only on matters with enemies, but with allies as well. If the Logan Act applies, the Justice Dept. needs to threaten to apply it unless the Republicans retract that letter in full. That letter is a disaster.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/13/mistrust-growing-european-leaders-blast-gop-senators-letter-iran
An open letter to Iranian leaders from 47 Republican senators has provoked sharp rebuke from European countries that are party to the nuclear talks.
Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier blasted the U.S. GOP senators on Thursday, telling journalists, "This is not just an issue of American domestic politics, but it affects the negotiations we are holding in Geneva."
"Obviously mistrust is growing," he added.
In addition, the Associated Press reported Thursday that unnamed diplomatic officials in France and London made similar criticisms of the open letter. "In Paris, a senior French diplomat said the letter made it hard on the American negotiators, who have been leading the talks with Iran on behalf of the rest of the group," wrote journalist Matthew Lee.
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