[huldah1776]

Yup, sounds like he was talking privately against the dear leader first and then with the homeland security program that if you see something you say something he got in trouble because the terrorism he saw was coming straight from the dear leader. Saying something got him in trouble, just as it would in Russia, China, or North Korea.

[Ben Ficklin]

This began in Dec 2013, when the NeoCon Republicans, led by Republic Mark Kirk, and the Liberal Interventionist democrats, led by Menendez, wanted to preemptively add sanctions on Iran in case the negotiations failed. So Kirk and Menendez co-authored legislation called Kirk-Menendez that contained the sanctions. All the NeoCons and Liberal Interventionists in the senate signed on so there were 58 co-signers, and most people assumed that if the legislation reached the floor of the senate, it would get the 60 votes needed for cloture.

But the Republican Realists led by Bob Corker and the Democrat Realists led by Feinstein were opposed. The isolationist republicans(Rand Paul and Mike Lee) also opposed and the antiwar dems also opposed.

AIPAC supported the legislation but J Street was opposed.

Menendez as majority chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee brought the legislation(Kirk-Menendez) out of his committee. But, Harry Reid(a Realist) refused to allow the legislation onto the floor of the senate for a vote, so it died in early 2014.

Then in Nov 2014, the GOP won the senate, and McConnell(NeoCon) said he would allow Kirk-Menendez onto the floor of the senate when he took over in 2015. Except, now Corker is the majority chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and won't let Kirk-Menendez out of his committee and Corker writes different legislation which he brings out of his committee which competes with Kirk-Menendez. So Kirk has to bring Kirk-Menendez out of the banking committee.

This put McConnell in a tight spot on how he would proceed with these two bills.

Then it got more complicated. A small group of senators traveled to Israel and met with Mossad, who dis-agreed with Netanyahoo. So two of those senators, McCain and Graham switched their support from Kirk-Menendez to Corker.

Then it got more complicated. Obama convinced Menendez to back off on his bill until the negotiations were over(a few weeks).

It is likely that either/or Kirk-Menendez and Corkers bill will pass the senate, but the issue is which of the two bills would most likely get the 67 votes needed to override Obama's veto.