March 19, 2015 --

LPR, previously, has posted open letters. This was long before the controversy over "An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," dated March 9, 2015 and signed by 47 United States senators, all of them Republicans. The hostile reaction to the open letter from the Obama administration tells LPR that Democrats will regard an open letter from Republicans as impolite, impolitic and even protocol-challenged. LPR acknowledges that its open letters have been aimed more to LPR clicksters than to the named addressee. LPR has a hunch that this also applies to the open letters to Iran's leaders. Indeed, Senator Rand Paul told Secretary of State John Kerry, at a senate hearing, that he signed the letter to send Kerry, not Iran's leaders, a message.

The open letter from the Republican 47 seems intended to make the point that an agreement with Iran not ratified by the Senate will not bind a succeeding administration -- not even one headed by Lois Lerner. Curiously, LPR has neither seen nor heard of references to Federalist Paper No. 75 in the context of a Senate role in international agreements. LPR has seen letters in the New York Times chastising the Republican 47 for writing the letter and warning that breaking an executive agreement with a foreign power might violate international law - an argument also put forward by Iran's leaders. No 75 assures us that treaties must be ratified with the concurrence two-thirds of senators present. No. 75 also points out that a reason for this Senate role is that some president might seek to bind us to an agreement with a foreign power for personal gain.

LPR has found no provision in the Constitution for an executive agreement that will be binding without Senate approval. This, of course, does not keep Secretary Kerry from accusing the Republican 47 of violating the Constitution; this has not kept the Daily News from denouncing the Republican 47 as "TRAITORS" [Caps in the original.]

The Constitution, Article III, Section 3, defines "[t]reason against the United States" only as "levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

It seems that the Daily News would extend the concept to Republican senators writing an open letter, setting forth their understanding of terms of the Constitution. Perhaps the Daily News is just annoyed that the Republican 47 didn't try to publish their open letter in the paper's Voice of the People columns.