FARS is Iran’s semi-official news agency. It collaborates closely with the regime and publishes the regime’s talking points. So what FARS has to say, in English, about the open letter to Iran’s leaders drafted by Tom Cotton and signed by 47 senators, is of interest, as it no doubt reflects the thinking of the Supreme Leader and his minions.
FARS responds to the letter with an attack on Congress. Interestingly, the critique is one that we often hear in the United States, especially from liberals. FARS complains that Congressmen are often wealthy, that campaigns are expensive, and that campaign contributors run the show:
It is now an open secret that the easiest way to get rich in the United States is to get elected to Congress.
This is where the legal absence of institutional checks and balances allows lobby groups, politics and money to come together on a scale that is not imaginable in any other country in the world.
The Senate and Congress are packed with wealthy people that are very rapidly becoming even wealthier. Their collective net worth is now measured in the billions of dollars.
But it is not that easy to get elected to Congress. Candidates have to be heavily connected to lobby groups like Wall Street, National Rifle Association, AIPAC, Military-Industrial Complex and those that are very wealthy. It takes a lot of cash to win campaigns.
Note how FARS follows American liberals in identifying only conservative groups as sources of “bad” money. “Good” money comes, presumably, from “green energy” fraudsters.
The following facts are very difficult to believe but they are actually true. They show that Congress is all about money and lobby politics:
1. The collective net worth of all members is reportedly over 2 billion dollars. But it could be higher, as more than 50 percent are millionaires.
2. This is during a time when the net worth of most American households has declined.
That, unfortunately, is a fact, not a propaganda point.
4. The average cost of winning a seat in Congress is $1.1 million, while in the Senate it is $6.5 million. Spending on political campaigns has gotten way out of control. …
There are lots of ways these politicians are raking in the cash. One way is making investments in companies that will go up significantly if legislation that is being considered “goes the right way”. This happens constantly and nobody seems to get into any trouble for it.
For instance, when it comes to the National Rifle Association, climate change deniers, Israel, Big Oil, or Military-Industrial Complex, these “hired guns” waste no time to pass legislation that would support their “friends”. In return, they get all the cash they need for their election campaigns.
Again, note the liberal slant. The reference to “climate change deniers” is significant: Iran, like Russia, which finances the anti-fracking movement in the U.S., wants to shut down America’s oil production so that we will be weaker in foreign affairs, and Iran’s oil–Iran is fourth in the world in oil production–will be more valuable.
This is not new. The emperor is butt naked.
A weirdly inappropriate colloquialism.
Whoever Americans vote for, the money and the lobby groups get in. The law allows unlimited campaign contributions by lobby groups, corporations and unions. The organizations that are taking advantage of this law are known as Super Pacs and they can remain anonymous.
These are incorrect statements about campaign finance, but they are assertions often made by American liberals.
As is, money in American politics is the elephant in the room. In the interim, the White House tenants are asking us to ignore both the sight and the stench. They want us to believe no one is buying the candidates and access to power, and that there is no coordination between the compromised members of Congress and the Super Pac.
But wait! What does all of this have to do with the senators’ letter on negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program? Here it comes:
In reality, however, this is little more than a fig leaf. Any doubters should go through an unusual open letter from Republican senators, which was made public recently, cautioning Iran against a potential nuclear deal with President Obama. The letter shows us how class interests and the influence of money and lobby groups have visibly corrupted an entire political culture.
Got that? “Class interests and the influence of money and lobby groups” are behind the Cotton letter! I’ve never noticed that the mullahs were Marxists, but they are willing to take up any cudgel that comes to hand. It is interesting that the mullahs believed their most effective counterattack against Republican senators was to adopt talking points that come, generally, from the American left–in particular, from Democrats. Are Democrats who assert false charges about campaign finance making common cause with the hard-liners in Tehran? I don’t think so, but imagine the claims that would be made if the shoe were on the other foot.
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