CLAUDIA ROSETT ON THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL FROM HELL, AND UN AMBASSADOR SAMANTHA POWER IN THE AGE OF GENOCIDE:

Surely Power is smart enough to see the fatal flaws in this Iran deal, even if her bosses do not. She may be a functionary of the Obama administration, but she is also an American citizen, free to speak the truth. There is nothing to stop her from speaking up at the UN to say, “Never mind my instructions from Washington. I take seriously the phrase, ‘Never again.’ I cannot in good conscience vote for this terrible deal. I cannot condone a plan that could pave the way to nuclear genocide in the Middle East. I vote no.”

Of course, were Power to do this, she would almost certainly lose her job. Obama and Kerry could dispatch a more compliant flunky to cast a U.S. vote in favor of the resolution, and the UN and the Obama administration could carry right on without Samantha Power. Nonetheless, a statement of principle from the U.S. ambassador, a willingness in the real interest of the U.S. and its allies, to tell the truth, would be, morally and in terms of enlightened self-interest, the right thing to do.

But as we’ve seen since the start of 2009, whether it’s foreign or domestic policy, this administration has an exceedingly warped view of what is “the right thing to do” for America.