American progressives have been having their two-minute hate against the Republican Senators who published an open letter expressing reservations about President Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran.  The progressives’ complaint seems mainly that elected legislators are reminding the world that they have a Constitutional role in ratifying treaties.

The New York Daily News went so far as to call the Senators “traitors” on its front page.  This vitriol has trickled down to the rank and file of the Left, as proven by a letter from Vincent Fugere of Cranston, in yesterday’s Providence Journal:

The letter sent by 47 Republicans to Tehran, warning that any deal made by President Obama with Iran could be nullified by Congress, puts in sharp focus how ugly the Republicans really are. …

The Republicans have bordered on treason since Obama took office. It’s high time they were held accountable for their ugly actions that put politics and profits ahead of people and progress.

It’s actually high time that we stopped pretending that the progressive movement actually believes in democracy and freedom if they’re at the point of openly calling for the prosecution of elected officials for free speech.

And it’s so obviously not principled.  John Hinderaker reminds us of a Michael Ledeen article reporting that Obama, while running for president, sent a behind-the-curtain message to Iran, in the midst of its negotiations with the Bush Administration, to “assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies.”  If we’re talking treason, we’ve got an instructive lesson in comparison and contrasts, here.  As Hinderaker suggests:

Unlike Obama’s secret overture to Iran, the GOP senators aren’t discouraging Iran from dealing with Obama so that they can get a better deal later. On the contrary, their letter strengthens Obama’s bargaining position. He can say, “Even if I wanted to, I can’t give in on nuclear enrichment. It would never get through the Senate.” But of course, that isn’t what Obama wants to do. He wants to agree to a weak deal that will allow Iran to become a nuclear power.