Outgoing Senator Barbara Mikulski today delivered Barack Obama and John Kerry the 34th vote necessary to block a veto override on a resolution of disapproval on the president’s Iran Deal. The blocking vote, no surprise to anyone who can count, was greeted with…. How to say this?… Unseemly glee by both Team Obama and its echo chamber in Tehran. John Kerry raced to the podium at the State Department to deliver the by-now familiar talking points — best deal ever, cuts off all pathways to bomb, opponents only want war, no better option, inspections galore, etc. — in the tone that has won him so many friends in Washington and beyond.
Fine. As with Obamacare, Mr. President, you have won and forced down the throats of the American people the most momentous national security agreement of recent decades on a partisan vote. That is any president’s prerogative. So what should Congress do? Some say don’t bother to vote, and the right answer to that is, get every single supporter of this deal on record. Barbara Mikulski may be retiring, but there are plenty of other water carriers who should be made to face up to a vote that gives Iran a pathway to a nuclear arsenal in a decade plus. Ditto for the House. Vote.
Then, start work. Congress has shied away from the oversight and the legislative leadership of yesteryear, and now is the time to resurrect that role. The president has told us what the deal does, and what it doesn’t do. As my colleague Fred Kagan writes in The Hill today, it’s time to codify all the things the president insists he won’t do, including lifting terrorism and human rights related sanctions, missile sanctions and more. Take the president at his word and make it law. Set in place the mechanisms of serious oversight, including a sharp eye for violations of the JCPOA. Haul John Kerry and his colleagues up to tell Congress how the Obama administration will contain Iran and reassure our allies, beyond selling billions worth of weapons. Let them tell the American people how they’re going to keep the region safe from Iranian overreach.
Congress has plenty to do about Iran in the days and months ahead. This vote is only the beginning.
Fine. As with Obamacare, Mr. President, you have won and forced down the throats of the American people the most momentous national security agreement of recent decades on a partisan vote. That is any president’s prerogative. So what should Congress do? Some say don’t bother to vote, and the right answer to that is, get every single supporter of this deal on record. Barbara Mikulski may be retiring, but there are plenty of other water carriers who should be made to face up to a vote that gives Iran a pathway to a nuclear arsenal in a decade plus. Ditto for the House. Vote.
Then, start work. Congress has shied away from the oversight and the legislative leadership of yesteryear, and now is the time to resurrect that role. The president has told us what the deal does, and what it doesn’t do. As my colleague Fred Kagan writes in The Hill today, it’s time to codify all the things the president insists he won’t do, including lifting terrorism and human rights related sanctions, missile sanctions and more. Take the president at his word and make it law. Set in place the mechanisms of serious oversight, including a sharp eye for violations of the JCPOA. Haul John Kerry and his colleagues up to tell Congress how the Obama administration will contain Iran and reassure our allies, beyond selling billions worth of weapons. Let them tell the American people how they’re going to keep the region safe from Iranian overreach.
Congress has plenty to do about Iran in the days and months ahead. This vote is only the beginning.
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