Yesterday the Senate was almost unanimous (with only one “no” vote) on a bill that would require Obama to submit his horrible Iran nuke deal to Congress before it is put into place. Yes, every Democrat in the Senate that voted on the bill voted against giving Obama carte blanche on the issue.
Sadly, even this bill won’t stop Obama from doing whatever he wants, but it is significant that even the Senate Dems couldn’t stomach the idea of not even raising a voice against Obama’s imperial presidency. It was a tiny voice, but a voice.
HotAir did a fairly good job explaining what the deal is with the bipartisan bill. It isn’t a good bill. But it is “better than nothing” and better than just giving Obama free reign with no checks and balances at all.
In theory, if the terms of the final deal reek even more than everyone expects, some of these 145 could peel off and Boehner would have a shot at a two-thirds veto override. In practice, there’s no earthly way that Democrats would abandon O after going to the mat for him with a public pledge of allegiance like this. The text of the letter could have been written by the White House press shop…
They’re backing whatever Obama and Kerry end up farting out because, contra what the White House has been telling the public for months, Democrats think a bad deal is better than no deal. No deal leaves war on the table as an option for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program; a bad deal, which will make an Iranian bomb more likely, takes it off the table. A bad deal is better than no deal.
As for that Senate vote on Corker’s bill, the lone no vote came from Tom Cotton. Presumably the hawks who voted yes simply gave up after McConnell refused to give any of Cotton’s or Rubio’s poison pill amendments a chance to end up in the final bill. It was Corker’s text or nothing, and Corker’s text at least gives Republican a theoretical chance to block the final deal by convincing Democrats to help them form a two-thirds majority against it. That’s another “virtue” of a post-constitutional system. If your only choices are between congressional inaction, in which case Obama’s deal definitely gets implemented, and a weird scheme like Corker’s, in which case the deal almost definitely gets implemented, you go with the latter, right? Those are the choices facing our fightin’ Republican majority these days.
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson–one of the more conservative members, though inconsistent lately–was all over radio this morning saying this was the best deal they could get but that it was nonetheless a bad bill. “Obama’s foreign policy has been a disaster for world security,” he said on WLS AM 89 out of Chicago this morning.
Sadly, what we find is that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell failed to put the stronger language in the bill and essentially made this bill pretty hollow.