So far, not a peep out of Obama or Kerry.  Part of the whole “re-set” strategy, I suppose.  Fitting, seeing as how this Administration is hoping to reset the economy to the Carter years:

Iran has named a member of the militant group that held 52 Americans hostage in Tehran for 444 days to be its next ambassador to the United Nations.

The Iranian government has applied for a U.S. visa for Hamid Aboutalebi, Iran’s former ambassador to Belgium and Italy, who was a member of the Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line, a group of radical students that seized the U.S. embassy on Nov. 4, 1979. Imam was an honorific used for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Relations between the Islamic Republic and the U.S. and its allies are beginning to emerge from the deep freeze that began when the self-proclaimed Iranian students overrun the embassy and took the hostages. The State Department hasn’t responded to the visa application, according to an Iranian diplomat.

A controversy over Aboutalebi’s appointment could spark demands on Capitol Hill and beyond during this congressional election year for the Obama administration to take the unusual step of denying a visa to an official posted to the UN. It also could hamper progress toward a comprehensive agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program, which the U.S. and five other world powers are seeking to negotiate with Iran by July 20.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani chose Aboutalebi to serve at the UN, which is headquartered in New York City on international, soil after the interim nuclear deal was forged last Nov. 24.

Here it is, plain and simple. This guy is a terrorist.  The Iranians know it, including the so-called moderate President, who is sticking his thumb in Obama’s eye.  Because he doesn’t fear the feckless socialist throwback in the least.

If Aboutalebi is given a visa to enter the US, the American people should at long last rise up and say enough is enough and insist we pull support for the UN entirely, starting with our massive funding.

Ted Cruz, (R-Actual), is among those who spoke out immediately, on Tuesday vowing to bar him from entering the US:

Cruz said it was outrageous that Iran had selected Hamid Aboutalebi, who was a member of a Muslim student group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, and was seeking a visa for him. The Texas Republican said he was offering legislation to ensure that Aboutalebi would be prevented from entering the country.

“It is unconscionable that in the name of international diplomatic protocol the United States would be forced to host a foreign national who showed a brutal disregard of the status of diplomats when they were stationed in his country,” Cruz said in a speech on the Senate floor. “This person is an acknowledged terrorist.”

Hamid Babaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Mission to the United Nations, had no comment Tuesday on his government’s choice for ambassador.

Cruz said Aboutalebi has insisted his involvement in the group — Muslim Students Following the Iman’s Line — was limited to translation and negotiation. But the senator said the organization still features Aboutalebi’s photograph on its website to mark the takeover of the embassy.

Cruz said his legislation would require the president to deny a visa to a U.N. applicant if the president determines the individual has engaged in terrorist activity. He said there was a bipartisan effort to get the legislation passed expeditiously.

Cruz called the ambassadorial choice by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani “willfully, deliberately insulting and contemptuous” and questioned the Obama administration’s continued talks with Iran about its nuclear program.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described it as “really kind of an in-your-face action by the Iranian government, sending a guy who was responsible for the absolutely, totally illegal incarceration of American citizens.”

Given McCain’s fluffing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his other sell-outs, one is tempted to warn the Administration that if they’ve lost John McCain, they’ve lost the more centrist wing of the Democrat party, if such a thing can be said to even exist.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was scheduled to testify before a House panel Wednesday on the Obama administration’s budget request. She was likely to face questions about whether the administration would deny a visa to Aboutalebi.

I got fifty bucks says she answers by pushing a minimum wage increase and blaming Reagan or the Shah for something.