Impropriety or Illegality?

Apparently the 47 United States Senators listed below have some spare time on their hands.  They've taken on the task of teaching comparative government to the leadership of Iran.  First, the names of these generous, sharing politicians:

Senator Tom Cotton, R-AR
Senator Orrin Hatch, R-UT
Senator Charles Grassley, R-IA
Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY
Senator Richard Shelby, R-AL
Senator John McCain, R-AZ
Senator James Inhofe, R-OK
Senator Pat Roberts, R-KS
Senator Jeff Sessions, R-AL
Senator Michael Enzi, R-WY
Senator Michael Crapo, R-ID
Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC
Senator John Cornyn, R-TX
Senator Richard Burr, R-NC
Senator John Thune, R-SD
Senator Johnny Isakson, R-GA
Senator David Vitter, R-LA
Senator John A. Barrasso, R-WY
Senator Roger Wicker, R-MS
Senator Jim Risch, R-ID
Senator Mark Kirk, R-IL
Senator Roy Blunt, R-MO
Senator Jerry Moran, R-KS
Senator Rob Portman, R-OH
Senator John Boozman, R-AR
Senator Pat Toomey, R-PA
Senator John Hoeven, R-ND
Senator Marco Rubio, R-FL
Senator Ron Johnson, R-WI
Senator Rand Paul, R-KY
Senator Mike Lee, R-UT
Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-NH
Senator Dean Heller, R-NV
Senator Tim Scott, R-SC
Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX
Senator Deb Fischer, R-NE
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV
Senator Bill Cassidy, R-LA
Senator Cory Gardner, R-CO
Senator James Lankford, R-OK
Senator Steve Daines, R-MT
Senator Mike Rounds, R-SD
Senator David Perdue, R-GA
Senator Thom Tillis, R-NC
Senator Joni Ernst, R-IA
Senator Ben Sasse, R-NE
Senator Dan Sullivan, R-AK

These fine men and women took it upon themselves to assume that a sovereign foreign nation doesn't have the ability to fully understand our system of government, and wanted to educate them on the difference between a fully ratified treaty and a mere "executive agreement."  So they wrote the following "open letter"

An Open Letter to the Leaders of :

It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system.  Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously consider as negotiations progress.

 

First, under our Constitution, while the president negotiates international agreements, Congress plays the significant role of ratifying them.  In the case of a treaty, the Senate must ratify it by a two-thirds vote.  A so-called congressional-executive agreement requires a majority vote in both the House and the Senate (which, because of procedural rules, effectively means a three-fifths vote in the Senate).  Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement.

Second, the offices of our Constitution have different characteristics.  For example, the president may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms.  As applied today, for instance, President  will leave office in January , while most of us will remain in office well beyond then — perhaps decades.

What these two constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President ___________ and ________________.  The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.

We hope this letter enriches your knowledge of our constitutional system and promotes mutual understanding and clarity as nuclear negotiations progress.

Yes, I've made a few small edits.  I've removed every reference to Iran and the specific leaders involved in these negotiations.  Now I'd like you to engage in an exercise with me.  Fix my edits so that this letter is addressed to the leaders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, headed at the time by President Mikhail Gorbachev during the 99th Congress, written by the Democratic majority at the time in the House of Representatives, led by the legendary Tip O'Neill.  At the exact moment when Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev were negotiating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.  I'm taking a small liberty here, since the Democratic majority in the Senate would not reemerge until the 100th Congress, but bear with me.

Imagine the outrage the 47 Senators listed above would have expressed at the time.  They would have yelled that these elected officials are engaging in clear violations of the Logan Act, and should be arrested and charged with sedition.

The time for Senators to engage in political action in public, where they involve themselves in direct (and an open letter is clearly a direct act, even with the Rove-like spin-doctoring in this piece of crap) contact with leaders of foreign nations, is never.  Not while the President is so engaged.  These 47 fools will get their chance to refuse to ratify a treaty once it has been signed.  Not before.  As a nation, we don't need to be telling other nations how our government works.  It is beneath condescending.  It is downright rude.

I'm sure the 47 of you can find other, more productive uses of your limited free time than this exercise in probable illegality has been.