Republicans invite Netanyahu to address Congress as part of spurning of Obama

The Washington Post reports:

Republicans in Congress moved quickly Wednesday to reject many of President Obama’s proposals from the State of the Union address — and invited the prime minister of Israel to rebut Obama’s Iran policy from the same congressional podium next month.

That invitation to address Congress, extended by House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marked a sharp rejection of Obama’s plea for Congress to stay out of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. If Congress votes to sanction Iran, Obama had warned, it could upset delicate and long-running talks.

Boehner said he would ignore the president’s demand, taking the unusual step of inviting a foreign leader directly into an American political debate.

Obama “expects us to stand idly by and do nothing while he cuts a bad deal with Iran,” Boehner told fellow Republicans at a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning, according remarks provided by a senior GOP aide. “Two words: ‘Hell no!’ . . . We’re going to do no such thing.”

Great moments of the Obama era.