Nuclear Non-Proliferation

This morning the Arizona Republic reported that Arizona’s  Democratic congressional caucus will support the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran, with one member still “undecided” (oh, you already know who). Arizona Democrats in Congress to support Iran deal:

U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who represents a Tempe swing district, is the only member of the state’s Washington, D.C., delegation who has yet to publicly disclose how she will vote on the divisive foreign policy issue. A Sinema spokeswoman did not return messages Wednesday.

Now remember, on Wednesday the House fell into chaos when the GOP House Freedom Caucus derailed the scheduled vote in the House on the resolution of disapproval of the Iran deal and forced a recess. The hair-brained scheme they came back with is three votes to set up a lawsuit to sue the President on a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that the President did not provide them the IAEA “secret side deals” with Iran, so the 60 day review period never started — because we say so! When you’ve lost in one forum, seek another forum and play on.

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The U.S. Senate just finished voting on a cloture motion to advance debate on H.J.Res.61, the Hire More Heroes Act of 2015, the legislative vehicle for the congressional disapproval of the Iran nuclear agreement.

The final vote was 58-42, with four Democrats, Sens. Schumer (NY), Menendez (NJ), Cardin (MD), and Manchin (WV) joining all the Republicans in voting for cloture.  60 votes are needed for cloture, so the motion failed.

This is a major win for the White House and U.S. negotiation partners. Senate rejects attempt to derail Iran deal in victory for Obama:

Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a Republican effort to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal, delivering a major victory to the Obama administration.

It has become clear in recent days that the White House can prevent Congress from immediately rejecting the deal, but the successful filibuster of the resolution of disapproval ensures that President Obama won’t have to rely on his veto pen to preserve a major piece of his foreign policy agenda.

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On Wednesday, Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon and the farther-far-right GOP “House Freedom Caucus” of which he is a member, Freedom is just another word for another wingnut group, forced the Tan Man, Weeper of the House John Boehner, to pull a scheduled procedural vote on the P5+1 world powers nuclear agreement with Iran because of an already debunked conspiracy theory about IAEA “secret” side deals with Iran that have been circulating in the conservative media entertainment complex for the past two months.

The House went into recess so that these wingnut conspirators could meet again at the Tortilla Coast and plot their next insane move. GOP House Freedom Caucus forces delay in vote on Iran deal.

After several nacho platters and pitchers of cerveza — and I’m guessing there had to have been several rounds of tequila shots — this is the hair-brained scheme that these wingnut conspirators came up with. House GOP changes course on Iran after conservative revolt:

House Republicans are changing course to take up a last-minute plan to oppose the Iran nuclear deal following a revolt from some of the conference’s conservative members.

Instead of a single vote to disapprove the deal, the House will now hold three separate votes on the agreement.

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