OBAMA-CONGRESS CLASH COMING – AT 11:21 A.M. ET: The administration is engaging in preemtive strikes to avoid Congressional legislation that would affect the tentative deal with Iran over its nuclear program. From The Hill:
The Obama administration has launched an aggressive sales pitch aimed at convincing Congress to hold its fire on Iran in the wake of a framework nuclear agreement.
President Obama, Vice President Biden, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, “and a whole host of other White House and senior administration officials” have been making calls to lawmakers, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Friday.
The administration wants lawmakers to suspend legislation related to Iran until after June 30, the deadline for negotiators to finalize a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken made the media rounds Friday, telling CNN that the president wants “to move out aggressively” to work Congress and ensure lawmakers have “all the details” of the framework.
“The president has instructed us to move out aggressively to work with Congress in the weeks ahead," he said during an interview CNN. "To show them all of the details, to give them a chance to digest the details, and then to move forward with Congress.”
Though Obama has repeatedly threatened to veto any legislation that reaches his desk before the mid-year deadline, administration officials have also indicated they want to work with lawmakers to ensure they have input in the process.
But...
But, the president still has plenty of lawmakers to convince. Highlighting the tough sell facing the administration, a number of senior House Democrats are voicing strong reservations that the framework simply doesn't go far enough to ensure that Iran's nuclear-weapons capabilities are eradicated.
Reps. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a member of leadership, Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the party's top appropriator, and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee's subpanel on the Middle East, are all expressing doubts that deal will meet its goals.
"Until the full details are provided to Congress on June 30th, you can keep me in the 'highly skeptical' column," Israel said Thursday in a brief statement.
Rep. Alan Grayson, a liberal member of the House Foreign Affairs panel, is also dubious. Emphasizing that many details remain to be hammered out, the Florida Democrat said the framework falls short of the administration's ultimate objective: to ensure the end of Iran's nuclear-weapons ambitions in return for relinquished sanctions.
"From what I see, that deal is not this deal," Grayson said Friday in a phone interview. "[It's] a classic example of, let's kick the can down the road."
Resistance from Democrats would be a setback to the president, who has pushed hard against tough opposition for an Iranian deal he sees as, potentially, the crowning foreign-policy achievement of his second term.
COMMENT: I am just speculating that any important action by Congress will be put off until the June 30th deadline for completing an actual agreement with Iran, but that Congress will begin to move, through hearings and the drafting of legislation, before that.
Obama blundered badly by his arrogant attitude toward Congress earlier, and now he's trying to make it up through sweet talk and giving Congress "input," whatever that means. It may not work this time. Congress will have a say...even if a final deal is worked out.
April 4, 2015 |