Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) discovers why he is an idiot
In a Senate hearing on Thursday, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) lambasted Secretary of State John Kerry about the Iran deal he negotiated.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker on Thursday offered a scathing indictment of the Obama administration’s shifting goals and rationales for its nuclear deal with Iran, going so far as to tell Secretary of State John Kerry that “I believe you’ve been fleeced” by Iran. Corker said the agreement reached July 14 in Vienna would “codify a perfectly aligned pathway for Iran to get a nuclear weapon.”
Turning to Kerry, who took notes as he spoke, Corker said: “What you have really done here is you have turned Iran from being a pariah to Congress – Congress – being a pariah.”
Actually, it was Corker who turned Congress into a pariah. It was his bill, approved by a Republican Congress, that has made a rejection of the Iran deal almost impossible. While the Constitution requires treaties to only be approved with a two-thirds Senate majority, Corker wrote a bill and pushed it through Congress that allows this particular treaty to be approved automatically, unless two-thirds of both Houses of Congress vote to override it. In other words, instead of needing only 34 votes to kill it, Corker’s bill now requires 67 in the Senate and 292 in the House.
Why he and the Republicans in Congress did this suggests strongly to me that they are either all idiots, or far more corrupt and tied to power than anyone imagined. Unwilling to fight for our country or for the principles for which it was founded, they instead bent over and begged to be screwed by this corrupt President and Democratic Party that wishes nothing more than to destroy the free society we once had.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In a Senate hearing on Thursday, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) lambasted Secretary of State John Kerry about the Iran deal he negotiated.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker on Thursday offered a scathing indictment of the Obama administration’s shifting goals and rationales for its nuclear deal with Iran, going so far as to tell Secretary of State John Kerry that “I believe you’ve been fleeced” by Iran. Corker said the agreement reached July 14 in Vienna would “codify a perfectly aligned pathway for Iran to get a nuclear weapon.”
Turning to Kerry, who took notes as he spoke, Corker said: “What you have really done here is you have turned Iran from being a pariah to Congress – Congress – being a pariah.”
Actually, it was Corker who turned Congress into a pariah. It was his bill, approved by a Republican Congress, that has made a rejection of the Iran deal almost impossible. While the Constitution requires treaties to only be approved with a two-thirds Senate majority, Corker wrote a bill and pushed it through Congress that allows this particular treaty to be approved automatically, unless two-thirds of both Houses of Congress vote to override it. In other words, instead of needing only 34 votes to kill it, Corker’s bill now requires 67 in the Senate and 292 in the House.
Why he and the Republicans in Congress did this suggests strongly to me that they are either all idiots, or far more corrupt and tied to power than anyone imagined. Unwilling to fight for our country or for the principles for which it was founded, they instead bent over and begged to be screwed by this corrupt President and Democratic Party that wishes nothing more than to destroy the free society we once had.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Corker bill is not an amendment to the Constitution, so it is null and void. This is especially the case since the Obama administration has not revealed the secret agreements to Congress. However, a challenge to it will take so long to be heard in the Courts that its damage has already been done.
I still cannot comprehend the Corker bill, other than giving cover to the likes of GOP leadership, “pro-Israel” Democrats and AIPAC to fulminate meaninglessly without actually having to oppose, and worse, fight the Obama administration. As another blog site puts it so well, it’s an exercise in failure theatre.
Still, I wonder, and have not heard discussed, whether removing US sanctions requires an affirmative act of Congress. If so, then I hope no vote is taken, as U.S. Sanctions alone are substantial and impactful against Iran.
Good point. And the right conclusion. Timing is everything
Many of the sanctions include a provision which allows the President to waive them. This disastrous deal will result in a war in the Middle East.
Choose one: Either Corker knew exactly that his bill was designed to essentially ensure this specific negotiation to become law or he was put up to it by someone who is once removed from the bill for plausible deniability and that makes Corker a beard or a stooge. He is an idiot or we are the idiots? Who really believes that he wrote this bill without understanding its implications? Not me.
Either way his efforts screw the Constitution and the American people, I say follow the money in this situation and then we will know the real answer to the question: Is Bob Corker an idiot or a traitor? I say traitor, many of them are, starting at the top.
Q: Is the Iranian deal a treaty or a tax? Maybe we can have John Roberts and the Supreme Court decide.
(High IQ sarcasm alert)
All your ranting that this is a Treaty is pointless. Obama called it an Executive Agreement and there was/is no way to challenge that.
Some Historical Executive Agreements
NAFTA
Lead-Lease
Yalta Agreement
I have listened to Tom Cotton, no idiot, say the Corker bill was the only option Congress had.
NAFTA was not treated as a treaty, but it was passed as a bill; thus, it had a mojority yes vote in both the House and the Senate. The Corker bill makes the requirement to reject it much more onerous to achieve.
I am not sure what your point is. As an Executive Agreement, Obama would not even have submitted the Iran deal to Congress. He would have signed it. The Press would have swooned and Republicans would have griped. The best the Republicans could have down was pass a Sense-of the-Congress bill which carries no legal weight and which Obama and the Press would have ignored.
The Corker bill, poor as it is, at least allows Congress to have a public say. The Press is talking about the vote and there is a small but not insignificant chance Obama’s veto will be overridden. If Congress turns the deal down, it will get press coverage even if its vetoed.
Also, the Corker bill puts Democrats on the record. I imagine ads like “Nancy Pelosi voted to give $150B to Mullahs who hang gays from cranes”. Of course, this won’t cost Nancy Pelosi her seat, but in more marginal seats, it could be very effective. Ads with pictures of Americans killed by Iran, questions in debates. It could be a political goldmine.
NAFTA needed Congress to be involved since it bound the US to do things after Clinton left office. It was actually an Executive-Congressional Agreement, not an Executive Agreement.
What it appears you don’t understand or don’t know is that the Constitution expressly forbids the kind of executive action that you propose Obama could have done and that the Iran deal prevents. Had Obama simply declared this deal done with an executive action it would not have been legal or carried any weight in law. As with all of his immigration executive actions, the courts would also find any actions taken with Iran without Senate approval illegal.
The Corker deal, voted on by Congress, is also probably illegal according to the Constitution, but it gives Obama the endorsement of Congress, something he wouldn’t have had otherwise. Thus, he can do more and get away with it longer.
Charles Schumer.
That is who this entire pile of very dangerous Leftist crap treaty’s existence may lie. He is laying low and has tremendous pressure being applied via Israel and the NYC Jews that empower him. Keep your eye on him.