Al Franken added his name Thursday to the list of Senate Democrats
who will support the Iran agreement in September vote.
Max Fisher's
interview with Gary Samore at Vox Thursday ought to be required reading for any Democrat in Congress who still has doubts about the Iran nuclear agreement. It ought to be required reading for Republicans, too, including those who have decided to follow their leadership lockstep into opposing the pact negotiated by six world powers and Tehran. But all except a handful of them aren't interested in checking out his expert opinion since they've never been interested in
any agreement with Iran that doesn't amount to outright capitulation on not just its nuclear program but a bunch of other matters as well.
Samore was, until recently, the president of the group United Against a Nuclear Iran. He's a highly respected expert not just on Iran's nuclear program but arms control in general. Until April, he was of the view that no worthwhile agreement could be negotiated with Iran. But when the parameters of the deal came out in April, he indicated that he was impressed, though still wary of the final deal. In July, when the 20 months of painstaking negotiations bore their fruit, he concluded the agreement was a good one. That cost him the president's post at UANI, which is now headed by Joe Lieberman, one of the bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran crowd. Here's Fisher:
While [Samore] was careful not [to] criticize UANI, he said he'd come out of the past year worried that "the American capacity to have a reasoned debate about national security issues has really been damaged by the polarization in Washington. ... There are still experts, but their voices are really muted by the politics."
The decisive moment for his presidency at UANI came, he said, when the group decided to run an ad campaign encouraging Congress to kill the deal. "I'm skeptical that we can reject this agreement and negotiate a substantially better deal within any kind of reasonable time frame," Samore said.
The vast majority of Republicans and an as-yet unknown number of Democrats in both the House and Senate hope to scuttle the agreement with a September vote on a resolution of disapproval under the Nuclear Agreement Review Act overwhelmingly passed in Congress in the spring. While that resolution will most certainly pass in both houses, assuming that Senate Democrats don't have the support needed for a successful filibuster, the likelihood that opponents of the agreement can muster enough votes in either house to override a presidential veto is extremely slim. That doesn't mean activists who favor the agreement should rest easy, however.
For the past month, one by one, Democratic lawmakers have been making their stance known. So far, in the Senate, only New York's Chuck Schumer has come out solidly against the agreement, although Bob Menendez of New Jersey and a few others are expected to throw in with the Republican opposition by September.
But Thursday, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota said he will support the agreement. You can read the details below the fold.
Please join our campaign to urge senators and representatives to support the Iran nuclear agreement.
Franken said:
We'll still have work to do to diminish the threat Iran poses to our national security and the safety of our allies in the Middle East, beginning with Israel. As sanctions are lifted, the non-nuclear threat to the region may grow, and we'll need to bolster our support to regional counterweights such as Saudi Arabia, and increase our support of and cooperation with Israel, accordingly. And, of course, we'll need to maintain our terrorism-related sanctions, which are unaffected by the deal.
Depending on who is counting, his announcement makes 18 or 19 Democratic senators who say they will support the agreement, which means they will vote against any disapproval resolution. To block an override of an Obama veto of such a resolution requires 34 votes. And while it may seem there is a long way to go, many Senate Democrats who haven't publicly announced their position are certain to show their support for the agreement in the next few weeks. Some may be waiting to see if enough supporters emerge so that they can safely vote against it while not wrecking it.
Both The Washington Post and The Hill are publishing ongoing "whip counts" on the Senate alignment of Democrats and the two independents on the issue, and The Hill has now added a House count as well.
Their Senate tallies match except for one person: The Hill includes Jack Reed of Delaware, but the Post puts Reed in its "clearly leaning yes, but reserving judgment" category. Here is the list of announced supporters with Reed included:
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI); Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA); Sen. Dick Durbin (IL);
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA); Sen. Al Franken (MN); Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY); Sen. Martin Heinrich (NM); Sen. Tim Kaine (VA); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN); Sen. Angus King (I-ME); Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT); Sen. Chris Murphy (CT); Sen. Bill Nelson (FL); Sen. Jack Reed (RI); Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT); Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI); Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (NH); Sen. Tom Udall (NM); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA).
In addition, The Hill says these seven senators are "leaning yes":
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT); Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH); Sen. Tom Carper (DE); Sen. Joe Manchin (WV); Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO); Sen. Jeff Merkley (OR); Sen. Harry Reid (NV)
The Post has two categories of yes leaners: They include all seven of those senators listed by The Hill plus Sen. Ed Markey (MA); Mazie Hirono (HI); Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)
Here is The Hill's House count of 44 Democrats who so far have announced they favor the agreement:
Rep. Don Beyer (VA); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR); Rep. Lois Capps (CA); Rep. André Carson (IN); Rep. Jim Clyburn (SC); Rep. Gerry Connolly (VA); Rep. John Conyers (MI); Rep. Joe Courtney (CT); Rep. Danny Davis (IL); Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR); Rep. Lloyd Doggett (TX); Rep. Donna Edwards (MD); Rep. Keith Ellison (MN); Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA); Rep. Sam Farr (CA); Rep. John Garamendi (CA); Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (IL); Rep. Raúl Grijalva (AZ); Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM); Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX); Rep. Hank Johnson (GA); Rep. Joe Kennedy (MA); Rep. Dan Kildee (MI); Rep. Barbara Lee (CA); Rep. Sandy Levin (MI); Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA); Rep. Doris Matsui (CA); Rep. Betty McCollum (MN); Rep. Jim McDermott (WA); Rep. Jim McGovern (MA); Rep. Seth Moulton (MA); Rep. Richard Nolan (MN); Rep. Beto O’Rourke (TX); Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ); Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA); Rep. Mark Pocan (WI); Rep. David Price (NC); Rep. John Sarbanes (MD); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL); Rep. Adam Schiff (CA); Rep. Louise Slaughter (NY); Rep. Mark Takano (CA); Rep. Mike Thompson (CA); Rep. Dina Titus (NV); Rep. Niki Tsongas (MA); Rep. Chris Van Hollen (MD); Rep. Tim Walz (MN); Rep. Peter Welch (VT); Rep. John Yarmuth (KY).
These 10 Democratic representatives say they will oppose the agreement:
Rep. Steve Israel (NY); Rep. Nita Lowey (NY); Rep. Ted Deutch (FL); Rep. Eliot Engel (NY); Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL); Rep. Grace Meng (NY); Rep. Kathleen Rice (NY); Rep. Brad Sherman (CA); Rep. Juan Vargas (CA); Rep. Albio Sires (NJ).
These three lean no:
Rep. Alan Grayson (FL); Rep. Loretta Sanchez (CA); Rep. David Scott (GA).
11:30 AM PT: Rep. Jim Himes (CT) has announced that he favors the Iran pact.
1:32 PM PT: Sen. Jon Tester (MT) has announced that he will support the agreement.