• Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
The Screaming Moderate

Who's on first?

3/11/2015

0 Comments

 
Email and snail mail are in the news lately. Hillary’s email and a snail mail sent by 47 Republican senators to the leaders of Iran that, along with undercutting this country’s negotiations with a foreign country, also talked condescendingly to that country’s leaders. Oy.

First, Hillary. The email controversy is why even die-hard Democrats don’t want to go back to the future with a Clinton candidacy or presidency. As much as Clinton likers think he did a great job as president, they also remember the holier than thou approach of the Clintons, from all the scandals or alleged scandals, to the then-First Lady’s efforts at reforming health care (often in secret, there’s that word again) to the president’s “romancing” of a White House intern. Along with the good, we got the very, very bad.

I don’t understand all the intricacies of the email rules then or now in the government (when I worked there, we didn’t have email), but I do know that if carrying two Blackberrys or iPhones or one of each was the “inconvenience,” all I can say is Oy. I mean, the secretary of state has a bazillion aides with him or her all the time and one of them could have carried the extra smart phone if need be. And, with all due respect to high-ranking officials having a private life, the personal emails likely could have waited a few hours anyway when you're dealing with the nation's foreign policy.

Then Mrs. Clinton holds an almost impossible-to-get-to-last-minute press conference at the UN to clear it all up. Shades of why another Clinton in the White House isn’t the most exciting or transparent thing to look forward to despite how qualified she may be.

Then there is the arrogant, stupid, grand-standing pulled off by 47 U.S. Senators (all Republican) of sending a letter to Iran “teaching” them, because how could anyone who isn’t American understand our Constitution (??), how our Congress works with our Executive Branch but really saying, “don’t make a deal with this Obama guy, he only has half his term left and we’ll overturn everything he did in two years.” Really, boys? This is how you want our foreign policy run?

I know similar breaches have happened in the past and the Republic still stands but it was embarrassing when Nancy Pelosi did it to George W. Bush and it’s embarrassing now that all but seven GOP senators signed this letter and mailed it off to Iran. There were other avenues they could have pursued if they really had to teach the civics lesson. Maybe they could have used Mrs. Clinton’s personal email account to send the message, then it couldn’t have gone public. But then, that was the purpose, wasn’t it? Not so much to send a message to the Iranians but to score a point or two with the crazies who think everything the President does is dumb and, by the way, send $1000 and we’ll keep it from happening.

 Our government is based on hearing all views but, when it comes to foreign policy, letting the president be the only lead. There are reasons for that, good reasons. I disagree, too, with some of Obama’s executive orders, but he has that right. I disagree with the House inviting the Israeli prime minister to speak without coordinating with the Executive Branch, but they have that right. Having rights doesn’t mean you should exercise them.

Did I say “oy” already?



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

     
    Follow @bjaycooper

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

powered by bjaycooper.com