Francis A. Avila Jr.: President siding with terrorists against our own Senate

President Obama’s gameplan on the Iranian nuclear arms deal has been to bypass Congress. If he can recast it as a multilateral agreement, have it baptized by a UN Security Council resolution, he can present it as an international fait accompli. If Congress objects to any of this, he will simply demagogue them as “warmongers.”

As Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, lectured the senators that Congress may not modify the terms of such an agreement. The recent letter sent by Dennis McDonough, White House chief of staff, to Sen. Bob Corker endorsed Zarif’s position and basically told the United States Senate that they are irrelevant. You know it’s a sad day in American diplomacy when the president’s strategy is accurately described by the lead negotiator of a terrorist regime that is already in violation of Security Council resolutions against enriching uranium.

The uncomfortable fact for both the civics-challenged Obama administration and The Bee’s editors is that the president is unable to bind the nation to his treaty unless and until Congress ratifies it. The President cannot supplant the constitutional authority of the other branches of government by masking it under his powers to conduct foreign policy.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Francis A. Avila Jr.: President siding with terrorists against our own Senate."