“The particular comments of Mr. Huckabee are I think part of just a general pattern we’ve seen… that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad. Maybe this is just an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines but it’s not the kind of leadership that’s needed for America right now.”
— President Obama, quoted by ABC News, on Mike Huckabee’s inflammatory comments on the Iran deal.
“The Obama administration is preparing to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, according to U.S. officials, some of whom hope the move will smooth relations with Israel in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Such a move would end a decades long fight over Mr. Pollard, who was arrested on charges of spying for Israel in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison. The case has long been a source of tension between the U.S. and Israel, which has argued that a life sentence for spying on behalf of a close U.S. partner is too harsh. For decades, Israel has sought Mr. Pollard’s early release only to be rejected by the U.S.”
“This agreement condemns the next generation to cleaning up a nuclear war in the Persian Gulf… This is the greatest appeasement since Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler.”
— Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), quoted by BuzzFeed, on the nuclear deal reached with Iran.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said that not since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly 70 years ago has the world been closer to the use of nuclear weapons, Politico reports.
Said Cheney: “What Obama has done, has in effect sanctioned, the acquisition by Iran of nuclear capability. And it can be a few years down the road. It doesn’t make any difference. It’s a matter of months until we’re going to see a situation where other people feel they have to defend themselves by acquiring their own capability. And that will, in fact, I think put us to closer to use — actual use of nuclear weapons than we’ve been at any time since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.”
“Republican leaders in Congress are crafting their attack plan against the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran,” The Hill reports.
“Lawmakers will have 60 days to review the deal after the White House delivers the text of the historic agreement to Capitol Hill. The GOP could seek to move a measure of disapproval, but it will be difficult to win a filibuster-proof 60 votes, much less the 67 required to overcome a presidential veto. But Republicans believe they will win the public relations battle on the deal, which largely unites the GOP and threatens to divide the Democratic Party.”
New York Times: “For the White House, selling the deal to Congress, including doubters in the president’s own party, may prove almost as difficult as reaching agreement with Iran.”
“Many members of Congress remain deeply skeptical of the landmark deal announced Tuesday to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions but are unlikely to have the votes to stop it,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“While Democrats largely back President Obama’s pursuit of an agreement to lift sanctions on Iran in return for measures to prevent the country from building nuclear weapons, Republicans, who have the majority in the House and Senate, say the administration should walk away from a deal they fear concedes too much.”
“But in a promising sign for Obama, few Democrats stood up publicly Tuesday to oppose the deal and the party’s presidential front-runner, Hillary Clinton, expressed support.”
Washington Post: “Clinton’s endorsement also underscores the degree to which her political fortunes have been joined with Obama’s legacy.”
It will be days before Congress receives the full nuclear agreement with Iran and all of its classified annexes for review, but hawkish GOP lawmakers instantaneously began picking apart the final deal reached early Tuesday as “dangerous” and a “possible death sentence for Israel,” Politico reports.
“The GOP-led Congress plans to review the deal for two months before voting on whether to lift sanctions sometime in September.”
First Read: “If Congress passes a joint resolution of disapproval (from both the House and Senate), and sends it to President Obama’s desk for his signature, it would start another 12-day clock which gives Obama the ability to veto the resolution. After President Obama presumably vetoes the resolution, Congress would have 10 days to attempt to override the veto, which would require a two-thirds vote from both chambers.”
“Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States reached a historic accord on Tuesday to significantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions,” the New York Times reports.
“The deal culminates 20 months of negotiations on an agreement that President Obama had long sought as the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency. Whether it portends a new relationship between the United States and Iran — after decades of coups, hostage-taking, terrorism and sanctions — remains a bigger question.”
Bloomberg: “Under legislation passed in May, Congress will have 60 days for public debate and hearings by as many as eight Senate and House committees. Lawmakers then could vote on a joint resolution to approve or reject the nuclear deal, though they also may not act at all.”
Politico: “If it succeeds, the agreement could upgrade President Obama’s checkered foreign policy legacy, as well provide a crowning achievement for Kerry’s 30-year political career.”
New York Times: “Five former members of President Obama’s inner circle of Iran advisers have written an open letter expressing concern that a pending accord to stem Iran’s nuclear program ‘may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement’ and laying out a series of minimum requirements that Iran must agree to in coming days for them to support a final deal.”
“Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that its new monarch, King Salman, would not be attending meetings at the White House with President Obama or a summit gathering at Camp David this week, in an apparent signal of its continued displeasure with the administration over United States relations with Iran, its rising regional adversary,” the New York Times reports.
Wall Street Journal: “The decision marks a diplomatic snub from one of the top leaders in the region, and follows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the Saudi capital last week.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “may be forced to end debate on the Iran bill early this week, marking the first time he has shut down the open amendment process that was a central promise of his bid for control of the chamber,” National Journal reports.
“Sen. Tom Cotton’s surprise move on Thursday to force votes on his own amendment and one from Sen. Marco Rubio highlights the perils of McConnell’s commitment to an open amendment process. When Sen. Harry Reid was leader, he often ‘filled the tree‘ in Hill-speak, essentially preventing members from filing amendments without his express written permission. McConnell’s stated preference for a free-wheeling debate allows members to follow in Cotton’s footsteps and force votes on their amendments.”
“McConnell now has an unpleasant choice: allow the Senate to move to votes on the Cotton and Rubio amendments, or shut down debate and cancel votes on all of the remaining 67 amendments to the Iran bill.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds American voters support the preliminary agreement with Iran to restrict that country’s nuclear program by a wide margin, 58% to 33%.
“The White House relented on Tuesday and said President Obama would sign a compromise bill giving Congress a voice on the proposed nuclear accord with Iran as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in rare unanimous agreement, moved the legislation to the full Senate for a vote,” the New York Times reports.
“An unusual alliance of Republican opponents of the nuclear deal and some of Mr. Obama’s strongest Democratic supporters demanded a congressional role as international negotiators work to turn this month’s nuclear framework into a final deal by June 30. White House officials insisted they extracted crucial last-minute concessions. Republicans — and many Democrats — said the president simply got overrun.”
Huffington Post: Why Democrats are bucking Obama on Iran
President Obama “says that partisan wrangling in Congress over the emerging nuclear agreement with Iran has gone beyond the pale,” the AP reports.
“The president said Saturday he isn’t surprised that some Iranian leaders are criticizing certain provisions of the deal. But he says he is dismayed that some Republican members of Congress are giving more credence to the Iranian leader’s interpretation of the deal than they are to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s explanations.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities would take several days and be nothing like Iraq War, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Cotton: “Even if military action were required — and we certainly should have kept the credible threat of military force on the table throughout which always improves diplomacy — the president is trying to make you think it would be 150,000 heavy mechanized troops on the ground in the Middle East again as we saw in Iraq and that’s simply not the case. It would be something more along the lines of what President Clinton did in December 1998 during Operation Desert Fox. Several days air and naval bombing against Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction facilities for exactly the same kind of behavior.”
President Obama scoffed at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) suggestion that he would, on Day 1, revoke any nuclear agreement with Iran if he is elected president, NPR reports.
Said Obama: “It would be a foolish approach to take and perhaps Mr. Walker — after he’s taken some time to bone up on foreign policy — will feel the same way.”
First Read: “President Obama faces several obstacles before actually achieving his historic nuclear deal with Iran. There’s a Republican Party willing to fight him every step of the way. There’s an Israeli prime minister vowing to kill it. And there’s the fact that the U.S. and Iran still have to finalize key issues like the timing of sanctions relief. But the first test for Obama is making sure that his own party doesn’t scuttle the deal — by providing enough votes to override a presidential veto on bipartisan legislation scrutinizing the deal.”
“With just a few exceptions (like trying to make Larry Summers Fed chair), Obama has maintained discipline over his party — due in large part to the work of Harry Reid in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi in the House. Can he do so again?”
New York Times: “For a president whose ambitions to remake the world have been repeatedly frustrated, the possibility of a reconciliation after 36 years of hostility between Washington and Tehran now seems tantalizingly within reach, a way to be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize that even he believed was awarded prematurely. Yet the deal remains unfinished and unsigned, and critics worry that he is giving up too much while grasping for the illusion of peace.”
Politico: “The administration is planning an aggressive public effort to explain and defend the Iran framework — including a tough assessment of the alternatives — that President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday that he’d lead himself.”
Said one administration official: “This is very complicated. A lot of this is hard to talk about to the American people. This is tough stuff to put your mind around.”
Huffington Post: Polls find varying levels of support for deal
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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