Murray: Senate Republicans Partners In Dangerous Iran Deal

07.28.2015 | News | Patrick Murray |

That a legacy-chasing Barack Obama handed Iranian Mullahs the keys to the nuclear weapons store is now widely known by anyone who isn’t invested in wedging Barack’s visage onto Mount Rushmore. After the Republican-controlled Congress votes this deal down Obama will veto it, and that will be that. Senate Majority Leader McConnell will not be able to muster a two-thirds veto override vote.

Most Senate Democrats will support their president, national security be damned. Waiverers will either get taxpayer-subsidized carrots, recall: the Obamacare lubricating Louisiana Purchase, Florida Gatorade and Cornhusker Kickback.

Or an Obama Justice Department-delivered stick–just ask Bob Menendez.

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution states: “He (the President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur…. (emphasis added). It is a high hurdle that the Founders included to make sure that due diligence and proper reflection was given to international agreements into which the United States would enter. How’s that working out for us? Read on.

There was zero chance Obama would get the 67 votes necessary to support this treaty, and that was a very good thing, at least until Senate Republicans inexplicably forfeited their Constitutional authority of Advice and Consent.

Among other things the now infamous “Corker Bill,” named for Sen. Bob Corker (R.-Tenn.), treats this as ordinary legislation, thus putting the two-thirds onus onto Congress and not the executive. The 98-1 vote on the Corker Bill was hardly partisan. The lone Ranger who voted against it was Senator and fellow Army veteran Tom Cotton. Apparently Senator Cotton is the only senator who actually adheres to his oath to “support and defend the Constitution.”

All four Republican presidential candidates who double as senators; Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are out excoriating Obama for this Iran deal.

Rightfully so. But all four also voted for the Corker Bill. Someone needs to ask them, along with Corker, McConnell, et al.

Why, they neatly wrapped up their constitutional authority and gifted it to President Obama.

Here’s a bonus question: how are the results of a McConnell and Boehner-led Congress one whit different than a Congress led by Reid and Pelosi?

If ever America needed Congress to step up to being a separate-but-equal branch of government, it would be to confront a president who believes that the Constitution is “deeply flawed” and therefore immensely malleable. And that time is now.

Patrick Murray is a 25-year Army veteran and former congressional candidate. He is a political and military commentator and author of the new book Government is the Problem.