Traitor Republicans: Can't Obama And Iran Take A Joke?

Oh, those Republicans, just jokin' around all the time about how President Obama was born in Kenya (still fresh!) and reads his speeches from TelePrompters (that never gets old!) and is not going to be president forever, so Iran should not even bother negotiating its nuclear program with this particular lame duck White House.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAH! Don't you get it? 

Republican aides were taken aback by what they thought was a lighthearted attempt to signal to Iran and the public that Congress should have a role in the ongoing nuclear discussions. Two GOP aides separately described their letter as a “cheeky” reminder of the congressional branch’s prerogatives.

“The administration has no sense of humor when it comes to how weakly they have been handling these negotiations,” said a top GOP Senate aide.

That's funny -- funny peculiar, not funny ha ha -- because when gang leader Sen. Tom Cotton appeared on "Morning Joe" on Tuesday to try to dig himself out of his hole, he didn't say nothin' about how it was just some light-hearted fun. He insisted he and his colleagues were simply trying to give Iranian leaders a U.S. civics lesson, for their own good, even though they are our sworn enemy and we hate them and will bomb them to kingdom come.

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Also, pardon us for being dumb and humorless, but we thought Republicans have been furiously fist-shaking at the Obama administration for not taking our enemies and the danger they pose seriously enough? He refuses to invade all the countries or slur every single Muslim on the planet -- all of which proves that while the Very Serious Terrorists are COMING RIGHT FOR US, the president just Does Not Get It.

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Which is why 47 Senate Republicans -- followed by honorary wannabe senators Bobby Jindal and Rick Perry -- took matters into their own hands to deal with Iran directly, since President So Lame Duck refuses to git er done. Not that he has the authority to do that anyway.

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While anonymous aides are trying to shrug off the whole international clusterfuck their bosses created as a joke and jeez, lighten up, Francis, their bosses are maybe slowly starting to think joshin' around about the president's constitutional authority in the middle of negotiations to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons is, perhaps, not the best idea, according to SOURCES:

Behind the scenes, Republicans are wondering if sending an open letter to Iran’s leaders was the best strategy to keep a bad nuclear deal from being negotiated. [...]

But even among Republicans whose offices have signed the letter, there is some trepidation that the Iran letter injects partisanship into the Iran negotiations, shifting the narrative from the content of the deal to whether Republicans are unfairly trying to undercut the president.

Aw, nuts. You mean the silly prank to humiliate and undermine the president is actually making the Republicans look bad? No one could have seen that coming -- and by no one, of course, we mean no one in the Republican Party, since they keep doing the same damned thing to themselves over and over again and never learning their lesson.

On Tuesday night, Sen. John McCain, who has never been wrong about anything, maverickly defended signing the letter while admitting that maybe it wasn't the best idea after all:

“What that letter did was tell the Iranians that whatever deal they make, the Congress of the United States will play a role,” he said on Fox News’s “On the Record with Greta van Susteren.”

“Maybe that wasn’t the best way to do that, but I think the Iranians should know that the Congress of the United States has to play a role in whether an agreement of this magnitude."

Then he went on to blame President Obama because this is somehow his fault, he forced Republicans to act like a bunch of traitors because he's so partisan, blah blah, McCain is still real mad Obama kicked his ass in 2008.

But instead of looking like a bunch of heroes for getting tough on Iran by sending a love note to Iran to cut out President Middleman, Republicans have the media calling them traitors and Vice President Joe Biden telling them they all suck at senator-ing.

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Hell, they even have Iran's foreign minister explaining to them how the U.S. Constitution actually works:

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he was astonished that "some members of the U.S. Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own president and administration." He said the 47 senators who signed the letter "not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy."

But pffft, clearly Iran's foreign minister just doesn't know how to take a joke either.

So Republicans can't decide whether their messaging is "why so serious?" or "Obama made us do it," but they'll keep digging until they're not in that hole. Where's Frank Luntz to craft their talking points when they need him? Help them, Luntz. You're their only hope.

[ The Daily Beast / NBC News / The Hill ]