When anti-Trump behavior becomes more than “spoiled brat” behavior

What is it about Barack Obama and members of his now blessedly former administration that causes them to plague the nation with their opinions on the words, deeds and thoughts of President Donald Trump? What prevents them from doing what nearly all members of previous administrations have done: return gracefully to the life of a private citizen, and keep your mouth shut about the successor’s presidency?

The Washington Post, no fan of President George W. Bush, complimented the former president’s behavior during the Obama administration in 2016 as “exemplary.” “W” has kept himself out of the limelight; despite the strong enticements Obama’s policies provided him and others. Until recently, that is, when he expressed concern over president Trump’s pulling out of the Iran deal.

Hillary Clinton is the most vocal of the bunch, and having been a candidate for president, such criticisms of her opponent are part and parcel of a campaign. But since then, she is forever criticizing Trump and the things he does and doesn’t do.

Her criticisms of Trump are nearly as numerous as her list of reasons she lost the race. As bad as her behavior is, and as bad as the shenanigans in the Justice Department and FBI are, former Secretary of State John Kerry’s behavior is just as bad, or worse.

Kerry was in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, and for him there are two Vietnams. In the first one, after returning from the war he despicably trashed American military personnel, accusing them of all manner of war crimes. But then, when the presidency lured him toward it in 2004, the second one appeared, and he then used his Navy deployment as a star in his crown justifying why he should be elected.

And oddly enough, whenever the negatives of Kerry’s Vietnam service were used against him, he attempted to shame his detractors, actually accusing them of attacking veterans. Blessedly, he was not elected, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to act against the best interests of the nation.

Mackubin Thomas Owens, a contributing editor for National Review Online, explains that  “John Kerry 1) played a major role in helping to poison the attitude of the country toward those who fought in Vietnam and 2) laid the groundwork for the foreign and defense policy he embraced as a senator – a record he has not been forced to confront by the press.”

Kerry was Obama’s secretary of state, beginning in 2013, and was a key player in the Iran agreement Obama eventually heralded as the greatest thing since … well, the last greatest thing the “Leader from Behind” did.

Obama, Kerry and Clinton were among the throng of Democrats that raced to complain about Trump’s withdrawal from the deeply flawed Iran deal, with predictions of worldwide catastrophe.

But Mort Zuckerman described the deal in a 2016 edition of U.S. News, writing, “President Barack Obama never submitted his Iranian nuclear deal for ratification by the Congress because he knew it would have no chance of passing. That does not make the United States unique: The Iranian parliament has never approved it either (that body passed a heavily amended version) and the Iranian president has never signed it. The Iranian cabinet has never even discussed it. … Indeed, President Obama ‘may end up being the only person in the world to sign his much-wanted deal, in effect making a treaty with himself,’ as the Gatestone Institute's Amir Taheri has said.”

Zuckerman went on to report that a State Department official confirmed that the deal "is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document."

When you add in the sanctions lifted and the cash and other rewards, it may be the worst deal ever conceived.

And now that Trump has identified the deal as the mess that it is, we find Kerry engaging in shadow diplomacy trying to salvage the Iran deal.

On May 7, The Federalist reported: “Kerry’s highly unusual shadow diplomatic maneuvers include engaging in multiple meetings with high-level Iranian officials in the last several months. For instance, Kerry met with Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif two months ago then again two weeks ago at the United Nations in New York to discuss ways to keep the Iran nuclear deal intact.” He also lobbied members of the U.S. Congress, including House Speaker Paul Ryan.

This has fostered accusations that Kerry has breached the Logan Act, which according to The Free Dictionary “is a single federal statute making it a crime for a citizen to confer with foreign governments against the interests of the United States. Specifically, it prohibits citizens from negotiating with other nations on behalf of the United States without authorization.”

Fortunately for Kerry, no one in the Act’s two century history has ever been prosecuted under it, not even members of the Trump team, so he may escape the penalty of three years in prison for his malfeasance.

What really needs to happen to put a stop to, or at least dramatically slow down, these anti-Trump corrupt, and often-illegal actions by members of the government, past and present, is to prosecute, convict and jail these perpetrators.