Taking on the Democratic line, eagerly embraced by the news media, on the letter to Iran from Republican Senators, the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes declared on Tuesday’s Special Report: “The idea that this is somehow new, or this is ending the idea that foreign policy stops at the water’s edge, is totally preposterous.”
Hayes reminded FNC viewers of past Democratic intervention into foreign policy when a Republican held the White House, starting with when, financed by Saddam Hussein, top Democrat David Bonior “flew to Baghdad” and went on U.S. television to “trash the Bush administration.”
He also recalled how Nancy Pelosi traveled to Damascus and “embraced Bashar Assad and basically got his back” and how, before the 1990 Gulf War, Jimmy Carter “wrote a secret letter to members of the U.N. Security Council telling them that they should oppose the resolution that George H. Bush was pushing.”
Hayes’ exposition matched his noontime WeeklyStandard.com post: “NBC News Whitewashes History on Iran Diplomacy”
Earlier Tuesday:
> “MSNBC Falsely Claims No ‘Precedent’ for Congress Defying President on Foreign Policy”
> “CNN’s Cuomo to Cotton: GOP Senators’ Letter is 'Undermining' Obama”
Hayes, during the panel segment on the March 10 Special Report with Bret Baier on FNC:
The whole idea that this is controversial is preposterous on its face. Republicans write this letter, basically re-stating their long-held views that they’re not going to be bound, as Members of Congress, as Senators, by an agreement that President Obama doesn’t include them in. That’s stating the obvious. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. And the idea that this is somehow new or this is ending the idea that foreign policy stops at the water’s edge, is totally preposterous.
Remember, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives flew to Baghdad – we later found out on a trip financed by Saddam Hussein -- appeared on Sunday shows from Baghdad – this is David Bonior – to trash the Bush administration and the arguments they were making about Iraq.
In 2007, Nancy Pelosi went to Damascus, despite the Bush administration’s request that she not to do that, embraced Bashar Assad and basically got his back, suggested he wanted peace with Israel.
In 1990 – go back to the Gulf War – Jimmy Carter wrote a secret letter to members of the U.N. Security Council telling them that they should oppose the resolution that George H. Bush was pushing that would have led to war in Iraq.
The idea that this is unprecedented or new is preposterous. The only thing wrong with the letter is it should have come earlier and should have included references to Iran and al Qaeda.
