Kevin Williamson ponders for National Review Online readers the significance of the congressional letter to Iranian leaders.
What, exactly, is the point of that great big hulking building with the cast-iron faux Roman dome in Washington? Joe Biden worked there for many years, and Barack Obama worked there for about five minutes, and neither of them has figured it out.
“Biden Rebukes Senate Republicans over Letter to Iran,” harrumphs the New York Times, Gomer Pyle and Forrest Gump apparently having been otherwise occupied. Joe Biden is a national figure of fun, and it is difficult to remember that Barack Obama’s campaign brought him into the fold for his special brand of gravitas, which is, like the subtle notes of freshly cut grass and charred orange rind emanating from a freshly decanted bottle of fine wine, detectable only by the rarest breed of connoisseur and the most common sort of bulls–t artist. Before becoming president, Barack Obama’s main foreign-policy experience had been gazing wistfully at a Rand McNally desktop globe and trying to figure out which spot on earth would place him the farthest from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Joe Biden was added to the ticket purportedly to ease our national mind about the question of whose hand was on The Button. People joke that Biden’s real role in the Obama administration is acting as a human insurance policy against assassination, and, if you think about the key Democrat players of the Obama years — Biden, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder — there does seem to be a walk-tall-among-the-dwarves strategy in place.
Biden is tumescent with indignation because 47 senators reminded the president — by reminding the Iranians with whom he is engaged in nuclear negotiations — that the president does not have the authority to enter into a binding, long-term international agreement based on nothing more than his own juice. If he cuts a bad deal, Congress can reject it — something the Atomic Ayatollahs ought to have in mind.
