BY B. JAY COOPER
MAR 11 | Reprinted from The Screaming Moderate (bjaycooper.com)

Email and snail mail are in the news lately. Hillary’s email and a snail mail sent by 47 Republican senators to the leaders of Iran that, along with undercutting this country’s negotiations with a foreign country, also talked condescendingly to that country’s leaders. Oy.

First, Hillary. The email controversy is why even die-hard Democrats don’t want to go back to the future with a Clinton candidacy or presidency. As much as Clinton likers think he did a great job as president, they also remember the holier than thou approach of the Clintons, from all the scandals or alleged scandals, to the then-First Lady’s efforts at reforming health care (often in secret, there’s that word again) to the president’s “romancing” of a White House intern. Along with the good, we got the very, very bad.

I don’t understand all the intricacies of the email rules then or now in the government (when I worked there, we didn’t have email), but I do know that if carrying two Blackberrys or iPhones or one of each was the “inconvenience,” all I can say is Oy, a Yiddish expression that captures the feeling of frustration and dismay. I mean, the secretary of state has a bazillion aides with him or her all the time and one of them could have carried the extra smart phone if need be. And, with all due respect to high-ranking officials having a private life, the personal emails likely could have waited a few hours anyway when you’re dealing with the nation’s foreign policy.

Then Mrs. Clinton holds an almost impossible-to-get-to-last-minute press conference at the UN to clear it all up. Shades of why another Clinton in the White House isn’t the most exciting or transparent thing to look forward to despite how qualified she may be.

Then there is the arrogant, stupid, grand-standing pulled off by 47 U.S. Senators (all Republican) of sending a letter to Iran “teaching” them, because how could anyone who isn’t American understand our Constitution (??), how our Congress works with our Executive Branch but really saying, “don’t make a deal with this Obama guy, he only has half his term left and we’ll overturn everything he did in two years.” Really, boys? This is how you want our foreign policy run?

I know similar breaches have happened in the past and the Republic still stands but it was embarrassing when Nancy Pelosi did it to George W. Bush and it’s embarrassing now that all but seven GOP senators signed this letter and mailed it off to Iran. There were other avenues they could have pursued if they really had to teach the civics lesson. Maybe they could have used Mrs. Clinton’s personal email account to send the message, then it couldn’t have gone public. But then, that was the purpose, wasn’t it? Not so much to send a message to the Iranians but to score a point or two with the crazies who think everything the President does is dumb and, by the way, send $1000 and we’ll keep it from happening.

Our government is based on hearing all views but, when it comes to foreign policy, letting the president be the only lead. There are reasons for that, good reasons. I disagree, too, with some of Obama’s executive orders, but he has that right. I disagree with the House inviting the Israeli prime minister to speak without coordinating with the Executive Branch, but they have that right. Having rights doesn’t mean good judgment means you should exercise them.

Did I say “oy” already?

Editor’s Note: B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and now is deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide’s Washington, D.C., office.