March 12, 2015 11:56 AM UTC

GOP Senators Reeling From Iran Letter Backlash

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• by: Colorado Pols

As we noted in today’s Get More Smarter news roundup, Senate Republicans are expressing surprise over the fierce backlash against their letter to the government of Iran attempting to scuttle negotiations to halt that nation’s nuclear program. A little more from the Politico story we linked to:

Some Republican senators admitted Wednesday they were caught off guard by the backlash to a letter warning Iranian leaders against a nuclear agreement with President Barack Obama. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Republicans — many of whom blessed the missive during a brisk signing session at a Senate lunch a week ago, as senators prepared to flee a Washington snowstorm — should have given it closer consideration.

“It was kind of a very rapid process. Everybody was looking forward to getting out of town because of the snowstorm,” McCain said. “I think we probably should have had more discussion about it, given the blowback that there is.” [Pols emphasis]

Editorial boards around the nation have weighed in blisteringly against the Senate GOP majority, here’s a brief roundup beginning with the Los Angeles Times:

In the past, individual members of Congress have criticized foreign policies being pursued by the president and even met with foreign leaders the president sought to isolate. But this letter is an exponentially more offensive encroachment on presidential authority.

The Boston Globe:

The letter not only undercuts the president’s traditional authority to oversee the shaping of foreign policy but badly undermines America’s credibility in the international community.

And the San Francisco Chronicle:

The latest message stands as another example of GOP obstructionism that stalls immigration reform and climate-change policy, brings government to the brink of closing down, and repeatedly goes after Obama’s health care law. Some Republicans appear almost maniacal in their zeal to deny the president any accomplishments. The Senate letter now pushes this mind-set into foreign affairs. By interfering, these lawmakers are breaking with the time-honored notion that the nation should have one foreign policy.

Here in Colorado, we’re seeing a somewhat different reaction to freshman Sen. Cory Gardner’s signing on to the Iran letter from our state’s newspaper of record, the Denver Post. A day ago, the Post published a very short editorial condemning the letter titled “Grandstanding on Iran in the U.S. Senate.” Last night, however, the Post ran an unusual second editorial within 24 hours on the same issue. The Post’s second editorial is still critical of the letter, but also subtly works to downplay its importance, as well as to quash any notion that the letter was “treasonous”–even going as far as portraying that allegation as more unreasonable that the GOP’s sending of the letter. To this end, they tangentially smack Rep. Jared Polis for referring to the letter’s author, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, as “Tehran Tom.”

The Post doesn’t go quite far enough to contradict themselves, but it’s pretty obvious that between their first editorial on the Iran letter and their second one, they got a phone call. This is the same Denver Post, after all, that endorsed Gardner after a widely-rumored intervention by longtime publisher Dean Singleton.

With public backlash continuing to grow over the Senate Republicans’ actions, we seriously doubt that the Post’s nuanced running of cover for Gardner will shield him from criticism. It’s increasingly clear that “different kind of Republican” Cory Gardner seriously miscalculated the response to signing this letter, and this incident puts a major dent in his veneer of bipartisanship.

Other Republicans up for election much sooner may come to regret it as well.