Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Senator Kaine "Is the Senate mature enough to del with national security?"

++At Talkingpointsmemo,they cover Tim Kaine's rebuke of the GOP's letter. Kaine, who has signed on to the Corker-Menendez bill, questioned the maturity of the GOP majority in matters having to do with national security. Angus King from Maine also challenged the letter as waging siege on the presidency. Debbie Strabenow called the letter "dangerous and troubling". Dick Durbin said that the GOP hasn't gotten over the fact that President Obama is the elected President of the United States. 

++To Bloomberg News, Tom Cotton insisted he was not "a traitor". When the blowback on your letter provokes such a response, you know you have lost.

++The Wall Street Journal called the Republican Senators "way out of line". And the Kansas City press said it was unprecedented.

++What both the right and the left seem to be missing is that the Iranian negotiations are conducted under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The composition of the negotiating team is constituted by the permanent members of the Security Council and any agreement must be voted on there, not in our Congress.

++Which makes me even more suspicious of the Corker-Menendez legislation which attempts to assume a role for the Senate in the agreement. And this is being backed by Kaine, King and others. Corker wants to get a Veto proof 2/3rds for this legislation but would it mean anything? 

++Clearly there are rumblings from the spooks on this. Walter Pincus at the Post detailed past multinational agreements that didn't need Congressional approval. But he followed up yesterday with a blast at Bibi in a piece of how Israel's manipulation and deception of the U.S. intelligence agencies created the Israeli nuclear weapons program. I haven't seen this openly discussed in a paper like the Washington Post before. I suggest the intelligence establishment is not happy with all these rogue campers like Cotton and Bibi and the GOP leadership.

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