Heads are exploding over on aisle right-wing over today's wonderful news that five people held in Iran, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been held since 2014.
Take, for example, Marco Rubio's press release pictured above, where he criticized the Iran deal for not including negotiations for the hostages. Proving, of course, that he didn't ever give the Obama administration any possible credit for dealing with it without talking about it publicly.
Today's Marco Rubio sings a different tune?
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Saturday morning he was not aware of the specifics of the release of four Americans held prisoner in Iran, but said it would be wrong to for their release to have come as part of a prisoner exchange, saying it creates an incentive for enemies of the United States to take U.S. nationals hostage.
Oh, Marco. That fell flat and sank to the bottom fast.
Even Ted Cruz's first reaction was to at least acknowledge the goodness of released hostages.
I delighted in Donald Trump's early predictions being half right.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made an implied comparison to himself and Ronald Reagan by saying that if he wins, the four Americans held prisoner in Iran will be released before he ever takes office.
Indeed, they were released before he took office, since he's never going to take office as long as I'm alive on this planet. No Reagan rerun for the Donald. Damn.
His comments today were not quite as ebullient, and more than half wrong.
"Now I have to see what the deal is for the four people, because someone said they were getting seven back. So essentially, they get 150 billion plus seven, and we get four. Doesn't sound too good. Doesn't sound too good," he said. "I am happy they are coming back, but it is a disgrace they have been there this long, a total disgrace."
Trump forgot to mention the part where $150 billion is their money.
Jeb! jabbered.
"I would say ... if you do not release them, that there's going to be military action, that that's an act of provocation, an act of war. What I would do in January is recognize that Iran is not an ally. That's how the Obama administration views this," Bush said.
He put some words together, but they don't seem to resemble anything that makes sense.
There's no way to spin this, not really. This is a huge diplomatic win for the United States, and it came because of the work of John Kerry and Barack Obama, who did the heavy lifting for diplomacy over war. That's something Republicans just hate, so expect them to turn the noise dial up to maximum levels now.
