The big controversy this week, besides Hillary Clinton running her own e-mail server, is the president’s negotiations with Iran. That’s right, the president is negotiating with terrorists!
Not only did Reagan deal with terrorists as president, as revealed in the Iran-Contra scandal, the preponderance of evidence now supports the charge that his campaign negotiated with Iranian hostage-takers while he was running for president in 1980, to delay the release of hostages before the election, which could have helped Carter win reelection — what was known as “The October Surprise.” Given that Reagan wasn’t president then, but was negotiating to thwart a president’s attempt to get hostages released, this is not simply questionable behavior, it is arguably an act of treason. Democrats’ reluctance to vigorously investigate Reagan’s misdeeds — the exact opposite of GOP attitudes toward Clinton and Obama — has left much of the true story still shrouded in mystery, but what we do know is damning enough in itself, and still cries out for a truly thorough investigation.
Oops. Wrong decade and wrong party. My bad. As I said yesterday, this entire debate has nothing to do with ideology or stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The Republicans are butthurt over the possibility of President Obama successfully negotiating an anti-nuclear deal with Iran because it would be a feather in the Democratic Party’s hat. Historically the Republican’s darling child, Ronald Reagan (queue a chorus of angels singing as that seems to happen whenever a Republican mentions Reagan’s name), negotiated not only with Iran but with Iranian hostage-takers. In the end he also armed them as part of the Contra deal. So you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t find the Republican’s sudden outrage at Obama’s negotiations convincing. The only thing they’re upset about is that one of their guys isn’t negotiating the deal (which is probably good since the last time one of their guys negotiated with Iran it ended in the United States supply weapons to the country).