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04/15/2004: "Senator Allen Supports Freedom in Iran"

From Free Iran mailing list, a letter from Senator George Allen (R, Virginia) supporting freedom in Iran. From the email introduction to the letter:

Prominent "Senator George Allen" (R-VA), former Governor of Virginia and
former Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has
declared his firm commitment to supporting freedom and democracy in Iran
in a letter addressed to Aryo B. Pirouznia of SMCCDI.

From the letter itself:

Iran remains a great threat to the United States and their neighboring countries by continuing to acquire weapons of mass destruction.... These efforts to develop intercontinental ballistic missile programs and other nuclear, chemical and biological weapons may destabilize the region and threaten international peace.

Cherry picked from the rest of the letter:

[Iran has] continued to support terrorist groups....The people of Iran deserve to have the right to religious freedom, political participation, free speech and due process of law.... I signed ... an effort to place U.S. foreign policy on the right track and encourage Iranians to strive for a more democratic Iran.

I started to write this post to decry the efforts of a legislative branch member to meddle in foreign diplomacy. I searched the US constitution for a real pithy rebuke like "the conduct of diplomacy shall be reserved to the president and the minoins he so chuses". Instead, all I saw was

• Article I, Section 8, listing the 18 duties of congress, none of which involves the conduct of diplomacy,
  
• Article II, Section 2, stating that the president shall appoint ambassadors with the advice and consent of the senate,
  
• Article II, Section 3, stating that the president shall receive foreign ambassadors, and
  
• Article III, stating that only the Supreme Court shall judge foreign ambassadors.
  

The string "diplo" does not even appear in the constitution.

Please do not misunderstand; not only do I support the sentiments of Senator Allen, I deeply respect his ability to express them. And I further believe that in a free, self governing, society, important issues need to be discussed openly. So while I was going to close with an attempt at my own brand of pith:

But I moreso support the contention that "politics stops at the water's edge." Where politicians tread, politics tend to follow. Politics seems to be getting it's feet wet here.

It just doesn't seem that simple.