Steve Benen @ MaddowBlog notes that if the Republicans wish to quash the Iran deal, they’ll need help from the Democrats – and they’re not getting enough:
That strategy is already unraveling. This week, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) of Indiana, one of Congress’ most conservative Democrats, announced his support for the diplomatic solution. This morning, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) of Missouri, widely seen as an on-the-fence member, also backed the deal. The Kansas City Star published the senator’s endorsement.
“I’ve spent weeks digging into the details of this agreement. And I’ve had extensive conversations with both those countries who are part of the negotiated agreement, and those countries currently holding Iran’s sanctioned money.
“It is clear to me that there is no certainty that Iran’s resources will be withheld from them if America rejects the agreement. Instead, I believe it likely that the sanctions regime would fray and nothing would be worse than Iran getting an influx of resources without any agreement in place to limit their ability to get a nuclear weapon.”
At this point, the arithmetic is hard to ignore. As we’ve discussed, congressional Republicans, no matter how intense their zeal, cannot kill the policy on their own. GOP lawmakers will need no less than 44 House Democrats and 13 Senate Democrats to partner with far-right members to crush the international agreement.
As of now, the grand total of Senate Dems opposed to the deal is two, while in the House, there are 12 Democrats siding with Republicans.
According to The Washington Post, the two Democrats against the deal are Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The latter leans heavily towards Israel, and so is influenced by Israel government politics, which is against the deal. Menendez was elected chair of Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and so may have enough experience to evaluate the deal – i.e., he may have an honest opinion and it happens to differ from his Democratic colleagues and many other experts.
Finally, flitedocnm @ The Daily Kos is waxing ecstatic over an Op-Ed piece by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). While it is not a piece filled with overwhelming rhetoric certain to overwhelm even the toughest critic of the deal, it gives his credentials and then his evaluation in a calm, direct manner which I can appreciate.
I have studied both the science and the politics of the nuclear-age world we live in from an early age. I grew up listening to my father, who served in the Navy in the ’50s, tell what it was like to watch a nuclear blast firsthand and to see the formation of a mushroom cloud over Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. While studying engineering at the University of Missouri, I worked at one of the largest research reactors in the United States. More recently, I have seen the centrifuges dedicated to the peaceful production of nuclear energy, which are housed in New Mexico. …
The comprehensive, long-term deal achieved last week includes all the necessary tools to break each potential Iranian pathway to a nuclear bomb. Further, it incorporates enough lead time so that, should Iran change its course, the United States and the world can react well before a device could be built; a scenario I hope never occurs, but one that leaves all options on the table, including the military option.
It’s worth reading the entire piece, either at The Daily Kos or in the Albuquerque Journal.
