Recently I posted on the concept of Failure Theater. This happens when the GOP pretends to do something but in reality intends to do nothing. The resulting kabuki drama is carried out solely for the benefit of the people they are trying to fool. The letter written by Senator Tom Contton to Iran’s leaders has allowed a small group of GOP senators to put on yet another show of doing something while, in fact, simply going supine before Obama. Via Politico and an article headlined GOP dissenters: Iran letter could backfire

Not every Senate Republican signed on to Sen. [mc_name name=’Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’C001095′ ]’s extraordinary letter to Iran’s leaders, and several of those who didn’t are fuming about the freshman senator’s Monday-morning foray into nuclear diplomacy.

Some of the seven dissenters told POLITICO they have doubts about Cotton’s move, saying there are more effective means to force President Barack Obama to address Congress’ concerns about the deal.

With Republicans needing significant Democratic support to achieve their goal of derailing the talks — or at least altering the emerging deal — some senators said Cotton’s effort could backfire by injecting excessive partisanship into the debate over how best to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman [mc_name name=’Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001071′ ] said he was approached to sign the letter by Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, but he concluded it might set back his ultimate goal: veto-proof support for a bill he has sponsored requiring a congressional vote to approve or reject an Iran deal.

This is simply Failure Theater by a handful of GOP senators who are devoid of honor, courage, self-respect and respect for their fellow Americans. The fact that [mc_name name=’Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001071′ ] can even contemplate that the votes can be put together to override an Obama veto of a bill requiring Congressional oversight shows that Corker is either a complete moron (and this is by no means a wild flight of imagination) or that he thinks the Democrats would be happy to see America nuked by Iran because someone was all meany-pants to Barack Obama (again, based on what we’ve seen of the Democrats this is very likely true). In reality what Corker is doing is trying to fool you into thinking that he had found the path to success and, when Obama inevitably vetoes the bill and the Democrats slavishly vote to sustain the veto, he will try to blame [mc_name name=’Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’C001095′ ] for his failure.

Susan Collins, a veritable Queen of #FAIL, was also available to be quoted:

[mc_name name=’Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001035′ ] (R-Maine) expressed doubt about her colleagues’ tactic of skirting the White House and trying to affect foreign policy by going directly to Tehran.

“It’s more appropriate for members of the Senate to give advice to the president, to Secretary Kerry and to the negotiators,” Collins said. “I don’t think that the ayatollah is going to be particularly convinced by a letter from members of the Senate, even one signed by a number of my distinguished and high ranking colleagues.”

For the record, the seven senators who refused to go along with Obama’s plan to let Iran have nuclear weapon were:

Lamar Alexander @SenAlexander

Dan Coats @SenDanCoats

Thad Cochran @SenThadCochran

Susan Collins @SenatorCollins

Bob Corker @SenBobCorker

Jeff Flake @JeffFlake

Lisa Murkowski @lisamurkowski