Senate Dems block GOP measure to kill Iran deal

POLITICO

Senate Democrats on Thursday successfully blocked a measure meant to kill President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, dealing a decisive defeat to Republicans’ attempts to derail the controversial agreement and ensuring its survival.

With a 58-42 vote, Democrats filibustered the disapproval resolution that Republicans and other deal opponents had tried to send to Obama’s desk, where it would have been vetoed. But with more than enough support from Democrats to sustain that veto, the fight largely turned to the minutiae of Senate procedure and the suspense of whether Democrats would halt the bill from reaching the White House altogether.

Unable to move their legislation forward, frustrated Republicans instead lobbed rhetorical attacks against Democrats in the final hours of the Iran debate, knowing they couldn’t ultimately stymie Obama’s deal. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a long-shot candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, warned of “holy hell” after the deal ultimately goes into effect.

“Sen. [Harry] Reid has come out of nowhere to change what was the common understanding of how we would proceed,” Graham said. “But no, we couldn’t do that. We’re more worried about protecting Barack Obama from having to veto this than you are about having a debate on the floor of the Senate.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, remarked: “It always amazes me how compliant the [Democratic] caucus seems to be to what the leadership tells them.”

“I can guarantee you as the whip on the Republican side it doesn’t work on our side,” Cornyn added. “We’ve been always more of a bottom-up caucus as opposed to top down. somehow they’ve gotten this far.”

The fate of Obama’s deal — which lifts some economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for strict controls on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions — was already sealed when the White House secured 34 Democratic votes in the Senate last week. Those pledges of support meant Obama had enough support to sustain his veto of the disapproval bill.

But the White House and key allies in the Senate continued to whip up votes among undecided Democrats, winning the backing of senators such as Ron Wyden of Oregon, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Cory Booker of New Jersey — all once viewed as potential votes against Obama’s deal.

On top of the Senate machinations, the disarray sparked by a conservative revolt in the House one day earlier complicated the GOP-led Congress’s response on Iran even more.

The outcry from conservatives — who wanted GOP leaders to delay the Iran vote until the Obama administration handed over the text from the so-called “side deals” between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran — forced the House to recalibrate their strategy. Their new, three-step plan ends with the Republican chamber voting on a resolution to approve the Iran deal — a measure that’s certain to fail and the complete opposite of what the Senate voted on.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who also argued that the Iran vote should have been delayed, wrote to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday suggesting ways that Cruz said would halt the Iran deal.

In the Senate, Cornyn said Thursday that his chamber will take up more Iran votes next week, whether it’s cloture on the disapproval measure again — which would force Democrats into a second vote that could be politically tough — or other Iran-related bills. But that strategy isn’t likely to change the ultimate outcome in the Senate.

“They are not willing to do a vote on the merits because they’re gonna lose a vote on the merits,” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said. “So they’d rather hide behind this silly argument that somehow this is a filibuster.”

Although the vast majority of congressional opposition to Iran deal came from Republicans, so did a handful of influential Democrats in the Senate: New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader-in-waiting, and both the current and former ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Ben Cardin of Maryland and Bob Menendez of New Jersey.

“While I came to a different conclusion than many in my own caucus, I recognize for them, this is a vote of conscience,” Schumer said in his first floor remarks since he announced his opposition to the Iran deal in early August. “Just, as it is, for me.”

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a perennial Democratic swing vote on controversial matters, also opposed the deal.

In the House, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, also opposes the nuclear deal – anchoring a small opposition among House Democrats that hailed largely from the Empire State. And the scores of Democrats who backed the deal did so with caveats, conceding that the agreement between six world powers and Iran was not perfect.

“This agreement is flawed. It is not the agreement that I would prefer,” said Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who aligns with Democrats. “There are elements of it that I wish could be improved.”

But King added: “The question is, how does this deal, no matter what its flaws, compare with the alternatives out there?”

Democrats are already preparing for the likely onslaught of attacks from Republicans for supporting the deal.

“This is one of those votes of conscience where you have to look in the mirror and feel comfortable with what you’re doing and have no regrets,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, one of the last Democratic senators to announce a position on the Iran deal. “This is one you will remember the rest of your life.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/iran-deal-senate-dems-block-gop-measure-to-kill-213506