Obama To Senate: Back Off On Iran

In an effort to reassert control over the domestic political debate surrounding sensitive negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, the White House penned a letter Saturday night warning senators to hold back on legislation that would detract from the president’s ability to affect and approve a final agreement with Iran.

The letter, written by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), reiterates a veto threat of the bill, while insisting that Congress will have a say in reviewing and affecting the ultimate outcome. But in far more detailed and foreboding terms than normal, McDonough lays out the administration’s concerns should Corker’s Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 end up becoming law.

The bill, he writes, would “likely have a profoundly negative impact on the ongoing negotiations — emboldening Iranian hard-liners, inviting a counter-productive response from the Iranian majiles; differentiating the U.S. position from our allies in negotiations; and once again calling into question our ability to negotiate this deal.”

“Put simply,” adds McDonough, “it would potentially make it impossible to secure international cooperation for additional sanctions, while putting at risk the existing multilateral sanctions regime.”

The letter comes in the wake of members of the Senate admitting they screwed up on a Dubya-esque level as the press castigated Senate Republicans:

[A]t least a few of the Republicans who signed the letter are admitting regret for their decision to send the message directly to Iranian officials. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Bloomberg News Friday that his “only regret” is “who it’s addressed to.” He also told the Associated Press it “probably would have been better just to have it be an open letter addressed to no one.”

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), who also signed the letter, conceded that the letter “could have been addressed to other folks and gotten the message out,” but added that, “I think the message is more important than who we send it to.”

Some of the seven senate Republicans who didn’t sign the letter sharply criticized the move, along with many editorial boards that have supported the senators as candidates and former Republican Gov. George Pataki. Sen. Susan Collins (R-MI) shared the criticism that comments should have been directed at Obama rather than Iranian leader, while the editorial boards called it a “disgraceful decision” and diminishing the “dignity of the Senate.”

Stay tuned. This swift move by a White House that has been ruthlessly effective in pushing back against the Republican majority allegedly “controlling” Capitol Hill is sure to get the chattering class buzzing– and they’ve been a bit less kind to the GOP in recent weeks than they have in a very long time.

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By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.