I can't find an appropriate picture to go with my rant today...

O.K., O.K., although it’s been a long time since I lived in Arkansas (until the beginning of my adolescence), I confess that I am sorely embarrassed by the action taken against President Obama and my country by Tom Cotton, the junior senator from my birth state.  First, it's that opening of Senator Cotton’s letter:  “An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," which in a news conference he pronounced I Ran… leaving me thinking he probably calls people in Iran’s neighboring countries A Rabs.  If his letter isn’t a silly political stunt, which he insists it is not, shouldn’t he have addressed the leaders by their names?  Did he write the letter to the supreme leader, the President, the Revolutionary Guards, the Parliament…or hasn’t he bothered to know the actual names of leaders or their offices? If this was meant to be considered a serious letter to Iranian leaders, it’s especially odd that it didn’t come from the Senate Majority Leader, one of the 47 co-signers, instead of a virtually unknown senator who has been in office for only a couple of months. 

The letter is clearly meant to undermine the President of the United States. What the stupid stunt does is show the world the extent of disfunction of our Congress in these dangerous times.  Does Cotton imagine Iranian leaders will believe his letter represents the keenest thinking and clearest writing that can come from our Senate?  The first sentence is especially idiotic: “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system.” Good grief!  This from a senator of the United States… and endorsed by 47 other senators! Is it possible that Tom Cotton doesn’t know about the other countries participating in the negotiations? Didn’t any of the senators endorsing the letter read it before signing or maybe talk about it with members of their staff? 

Enough already…