Is the Senate Republican letter to Iran backfiring?

1. A strongly worded letter Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif gets letters. (Joerg Koch/Getty Images) Democrats stepped up their criticism of Senate Republicans' letter to Iran, spearheaded by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and meant to scuttle nuclear talks with the US. Vice President Biden: "The decision to undercut our president and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as a matter of principle." [NYT / Julie Hirschfeld Davis] Hillary Clinton: "Either the senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians or harmful to the commander in chief." [Vox / Zack Beauchamp] "Noting that she had opposed the war in Iraq under President George W. Bush, Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, her voice shaking with rage, said, 'I never would have sent a letter to Saddam Hussein.'" [NYT / Jennifer Steinhauser and Julie Hirschfeld Davis] They have a point; this kind of attempt to undercut presidential control over foreign policy is really unprecedented. [Vox / Max Fisher] And the whole fight confirms that Iran has become Republicans' top foreign policy issue, and an issue over which the 2016 primary will be waged. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp] But the letter might have undermined Republicans' effort by turning Iran into a partisan issue and making it harder for Democrats to buck Obama on it. [NYT / Jennifer Steinhauser and Julie Hirschfeld Davis] The letter also makes it easy to blame the US if negotiations fall apart, which weakens the US's ability to convince other countries to ramp up sanctions in that event (if it's America's fault, why should Iran be punished?). [The Atlantic / Jeffrey Goldberg] Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has responded with a spectacularly passive-aggressive letter that appeared intended to reassure US negotiators that he understood the domestic politics motivating the letter. [Vox / Max Fisher] The whole episode has provoked talk of Cotton being a "traitor," which is a preposterous and outlandish overreach. [Mark Kleiman] 2. "There were no security breaches" Hillary Clinton, exasperated. (Yana Paskova/Getty Images) Hillary Clinton held a press conference to insist that her use of a personal email account during her time as Secretary of State didn't break any rules or laws; she said she used the account "for convenience," and because she "thought it would be easier to carry one device." [Vox / Andrew Prokop] It was indeed standard practice, especially in 2009, to use one smartphone for personal matters and another for secure government communications. [Washington Post / Philip Bump] She stated "there were no security breaches" — but there's no way she could know that. [Vox / Timothy B. Lee] She also admitted to deleting about 30,000 emails, saying they concerned personal matters like her mother's funeral and her daughter's wedding and "yoga routines." [LA Times / Paul Richter and David Lauter] The other 30,000 or so emails got turned over to the State Department, which is going through them to determine which are eligible for public release. [The Atlantic / David Graham] Clinton rejected calls for a third party to review whether she had selectively kept or discarded emails in other to cover up certain matters: "I think I have met all of my responsibilities, and the server will remain private, and I think the State Department will be able over time to release all of the records that have been provided." [The Verge / Adi Robertson] You can read the full transcript of her remarks here. [Washington Post] Unfamiliar with this whole scandal? Check out our explainer here. [Vox / Andrew Prokop] 3. Taking Tikrit A member of the Iraqi government forces sits in an armed military vehicle on the outskirts of Tikrit. (Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images) After over a week of fighting, the Iraqi army and allied Shia militias have reclaimed most of the city of Tikrit from ISIS control. [NYT / Anne Barnard] The campaign had largely been restricted to towns outside the city until government and allied forces surrounded the city Tuesday; Iraqi security officials told the Wall Street Journal they expect to reach the center of the city by Wednesday. [WSJ / Tamer El-Ghobashy] Last June, ISIS massacred 560 to 770 Iraqi soldiers near Tikrit, raising concerns that Shia fighters will want to respond in kind. [AP / Sinan Salaheddin] The fear is amplified by the fact that Shia militias have already been engaging in major human rights abuses; there are allegations that Shia militamen massacred 72 Sunni civilians in January in an apparent reprisal for ISIS's massacre. [Human Rights Watch] There were reports that government-allied fighters lit homes on fire in a town near Tikrit, but whether large-scale reprisals are occurring or will occur is still unclear. [Reuters / Thaier al-Sudani] Iran is deeply involved in the campaign; a Shia milita commander told the BBC that the offensive was planned in part by Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who leads the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. [BBC] And regardless of whether or not major reprisals occur, the fact that the Iraqi military is so heavily dependent on sectarian Shia fighters and on Iran doesn't bode well for the integration of Sunnis into the state. [New Yorker / Robin Wright] 4. Misc. Enlightened brand ice cream boasts "one-third the calories, 75 percent less sugar and twice the protein of regular ice cream." [NYT / Janet Morrissey] If you crack open the new MacBook, it's almost all battery inside. That's how fast progress in processors is, and how slow progress in batteries is. [Vox / Timothy B. Lee] Bill Clinton has sent two emails in his entire life, both as president. [WSJ / Laura Meckler] Canada has a polar bear jail to rehabilitate polar bears so they don't commit polar bear crimes. [Now I Know / Dan Lewis] 5. Verbatim "In 1840, the US census recognized just two categories of mental disorders: 'insane' or 'idiots.'" [Slate / Amanda Hess] "When there are too many fish in Tinder's sea, you have to reel in the prize-winning catch and release the bottom feeders." [Racked / Eden Rohatensky] "She wants to revolutionize the fur trade by making roadkill (which she calls 'accidental fur') a viable sector of the market." [The Atlantic / Jenni Avins] "It’s bizarre, and chilling, to see seventy-year-old grandmothers, calledgogos in Swaziland, sitting in the room with their grandchildren’s murderer, listening to him describe how he met and killed them." [The Big Roundtable / Shaun Raviv] "To us nonengineers, rust seems not just a threat but a chemical manifestation of ill will, proof that the devil himself meddled with the laws of physics." [Slate / Jonathan Waldman] Read the latest Vox Sentences here!

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