Is Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) still grinning after the reception his open letter to Iran received?
One-third of Republican insiders in Iowa and New Hampshire have problems with the open letter to Iran from Senate Republicans, according to Politico's ongoing anonymous survey. "The Politico Caucus"
surveys "More than 100 of the most plugged-in activists, operatives and elected officials in Iowa and New Hampshire" every week, and this week the feedback wasn't great. Predictably, all of the Democrats disapproved of the attempt to sabotage the Obama administration's diplomacy, but Republicans also served up some
very unhappy quotes:
“The GOP letter — while sound in substance — caused the debate to shift from the administration’s wrongheadedness to the GOP’s tactics,” said a New Hampshire Republican, who — like all 92 respondents this week — completed the survey anonymously in order to speak candidly. “That’s not helpful.”
“Policy wise, the deal Obama is trying to cut is a bad one,” said another. “Politically speaking, however, the letter has been a disaster. The Democrats have totally framed and owned the debate, and our GOP senators are getting pummeled.”
If this is the kind of thing one in three Republican activists and operatives is thinking, it's not good news for the senators who signed the letter—rank-and-file Republicans are likely to be less favorable, to say nothing of swing voters.