Posted on 09/16/2015 9:48:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
After getting 42 votes in support of Barack Obama’s deal with Iran on nuclear weapons, Harry Reid led two successful filibusters of the disapproval bill that would have gone down to a veto anyway. The House easily passed its version of the disapproval bill, with a handful of Democratic votes to provide a wide — but not veto-proof — bipartisan margin. Stymied twice on getting an up-or-down vote for the bill before the 60-day window expires (at least by the White House’s calculation), Mitch McConnell plans to force Democrats into a potentially embarrassing vote on Thursday in an attempt to end the filibuster:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to force Democrats to walk the line on the Iran nuclear agreement, teeing up a vote on a contentious amendment on the deal.
The Republican leader scheduled a procedural vote on an amendment that would block President Obama from lifting sanctions against Iran under the nuclear deal until Iran publicly supports Israel and releases Americans currently held in Iranian prisons.
Under Senate rules, the vote would occur Thursday, which is also the deadline for Congress to pass legislation on the Iran nuclear agreement.
A condition of publicly supporting Israel is so obvious a deal-killer that it may let Democrats off the hook. However, a condition of blocking any sanctions relief until Iran releases four American prisoners is not only defensible, it points out the indefensible neglect of those detainees by the Obama administration. A competent negotiating team handing the Iranians basically everything they wanted would have gotten that much in return. Not only should that condition not be a deal-killer, it should have been a condition for even discussing sanctions relief.
Reid has Senate Democrats marching in lockstep with the White House on a deal that’s already widely unpopular. Only 21% of Americans support it, according to the last Pew Research poll, and that’s not even taking into account the hostage situation. McConnell’s amendment will force Democrats to explicitly attach themselves to Obama’s decision to leave American hostages to rot in Iran, and that will make a bad situation worse for them with voters in 2016.
Let’s say that Democrats double down on this and filibuster the amendment. What’s next? House Republicans want McConnell to follow Reid’s example and nuke the filibuster for good:
Multiple House Republicans want Senate leaders to “go nuclear” over the Obama administration’s deal with Iran now that Democrats have stymied efforts to derail the accord by conventional means.
A small but growing number of GOP lawmakers say that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should invoke the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules and prevent a filibuster on a resolution to kill the deal. …
“This was something with the Iran deal, the fact that it didn’t get debated, it didn’t get voted on — there’s a lot of people that are very, very upset about this,” said Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) in an interview on Tuesday, a day after he sent a letter asking McConnell to change the Senate’s rules.
Buchanan said that he wants to see the upper chamber eliminate the filibuster entirely, though others are calling for a more modest step to get rid of the procedural holdup only in specific cases, such as with the Iran deal.
Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) wrote a letter to McConnell last week calling for a change in rules for the Iran bill. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-
Texas) — chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee — is currently circulating a letter among fellow lawmakers with a similar call.“Some pieces of legislation, like the Iran nuclear deal, are simply so consequential that they demand revisions to the Senate’s procedures,” Smith wrote in the draft letter.
Reid pulled this stunt in the last session to get Obama’s judicial picks out of the Senate. Holding an up-or-down vote on a foreign agreement of this consequence rises above that issue by leaps and bounds. McConnell, having served in the minority long enough, understandably wants to keep that firewall, but Reid already set that precedent. The next time around, either he or another Democrat will demolish it to get what they want, and it won’t be on anything as critical to global security as this.
If it comes to that, though, it may be that Democrats will cave and allow the up-or-down vote on the deal rather than lose that leverage. Quite frankly, filibustering the deal vote is an inexplicable strategy anyway. It puts Senate Democrats at risk for no reward, only tying them to a wildly unpopular deal even more tightly. Obama already owns this deal, so the filibuster isn’t protecting him from a politically risky veto; the political risk has already been assumed by Obama. Even some who support the deal have argued that blocking the Senate from an up-or-down vote makes it look even more illegitimate, especially since Democrats can sustain a veto in both chambers of Congress. Does Reid really want to throw away his filibuster ahead of some very contentious votes on what’s already a sure thing?
McTurtle will cave on this and everything else always.
He’s a Liberal Rino GOPe WSJ 0bamabot funder of the Great Socialist Way.
I have asked this several times here. I hear the word “Democrat Filibuster” and what it means to the Iran Deal, but no one has conclusively answered my question.
Are the Democrats actively filibustering in the Senate now or are they just threatening to, and McTurtle is peeing his pants for nothing?
I’d tell them “Do it! Don’t tell me about it.”
That's why they didn't demand the hostages from the beginning.
Now when McBoner demands the hostage release and they are releases McBoner is a hero and the Iran agreement is now dead as an issue.
If McConnell was serious he would have made it the dreaded “Double-Dog Dare”.
How appropriate for this nonsensical BS to come from Hotair
McConnell to dare Democrats?
McConnell plans to force Democrats?
McConnell?
Zzzzzzzzzzz
Lol
Playing spin the bottle on Capitol Hill?
No way.
Not with pelosi, DWS, Mitch or (insert name of iggnint colored female Dem) around.
;-)
My prediction is nothing will happen, but at the end, the republicans will get the blame
Oh, give it up Gobbler! The only thing you instill in the Democrats is laughter.
I cannot believe this limp wristed dork is the leader of the Republican Senate.
B.
I’d tell them “Do it! Don’t tell me about it.”
Precisely, my FRiend.
.
,,,,, the democrat lemmings could care less about hostages ,,, the party comes before anything . The lemmings of the dem party will commit political suicide for the emperor if asked . To hell with the hostages just ask Jimma Carta how it works .
All of this activity is a waste of time because Obama has already broken his promise and he’s gone to the UN to ratify the lifting of sanctions.
And Donald Trump has said in the press that people don’t seem to understand that the $150 Billion is already in the process of being released. And that is the real deal.
Congress should stop playing games with Obama and start impeachiment proceedings for treason against the United States by going to foreign powers at the UN and negotiating financing of a terrorist regime without the approval of Congress.
But Congress led by McConnell and Boehner will never do what they should do.
So each one of these press releases about the ‘Iran Deal’ is a fraud on the American people. The harm is already being done. It’s over.
Yet McConnell loves to grandstand looking like a ‘conservative’ when it doesn’t matter at all what happens. He loves to point back to his ‘conservative accomplishments’ which are nothing more than for show because they mean absolutely nothing. When it really matters, he throws every block he can muster in the way of true conservatives.
Pathetic that we must hope for mcconnell to somehow play hero on a ‘Hail Mary’ pass late in the 4th quarter. The answer to this treaty should have been Constitutional - Congress will provide advice and consent.
McConnell: "Well, okay then. I'll stop. I see your shoes are scuffed, Harry. Mind if I shine them up a bit for you?"
Just wanted to repeat it!!!
Turtle will probably push instead:
“No agreement on Iran until the USA allows Syrians in to the country”
Let’s at least give them a chance.
Anyone having a favorite football team has been disappointed time and time again. Maybe this will be the one win??
Note: Not the Charlie Brown football fiasco.
McConnell to Dems: 'I dare you to filibuster!'
Dems: 'No way. Go F*** yourself.'
McConnell: 'OK.'
McConnell to us: 'We're limited in what we can do. I tried...'
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