Growing signs Schumer will oppose Iran deal

More than 10,000 phone calls have flooded his office linethe past two weeks, organized by a group looking to kill the deal. Anothergroup has dropped seven figures on TV in New York City to pressure Schumer andother lawmakers to vote against the plan.
And Dov Hikind, a state assemblyman from Brooklyn, was arrested for disorderly conduct while protesting the deal outside Schumer’s office.
People who have spoken with the senior New York senator believe the pressure campaign is having an effect: They say there is a growing sense inside and outside the Capitol that Schumer will vote against the deal when the Senate considers it in September. The bigger question many have now is this: How hard will he push against it?
Schumer is one of about 15 Democratic senators who will decide the fate of President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal in Congress. The president can afford to lose no more than a dozen Democrats on the Senate floor, and as the next Democratic leader, Schumer may be the most critical of them all.
In an interview with POLITICO, Schumer insisted he’s still weighing his vote. He said he would decide based on the merits of the deal, not lobbying from either side.
“I haven’t made up my mind,” said Schumer, who is in line to be the first Jewish Senate leader next Congress. “There are expectations all over the lot. I’m doing what I’m always doing when I have a very difficult decision: Learning it carefully and giving it my best shot, doing what I think is right. I’m not going to let pressure or politics or party get in the way of that.”
He wouldn’t say if he would forcefully advocate his position once he makes his stance clear.
“I’ve got to first decide how I’m voting,” Schumer said.
Opponents have been much louder than supporters. If that trend continues over the break at town hall meetings, it will only amplify pressure on swing Democrats to vote against the deal.

Sen. Chris Coons, who was personally lobbied by President Barack Obama and national security adviser Susan Rice to back the deal during a trip to Africa in July, said the view of the accord was about evenly split in his home state of Delaware in the first few days after the announcement. But the Democrat now says telephone calls against the deal outnumber those in favor by 10-to-1 in his state, an avalanche of opposition he has no choice but to listen to.
“I am a Democrat, and I would like to be able to support this agreement,” Coons said. “But I have serious reservations about it.”
Schumer does as well. As the next Democratic leader after Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) retires in January 2017, Schumer is seen as a bellwether among the handful of fence-sitting Democrats who may buck the White House and try to kill the sweeping accord. That leaves Schumer stuck between pro-Israel forces who have long been a key base of support and who are trying to kill the deal — and the White House and its progressive allies who are eager to secure a centerpiece of Obama’s foreign policy legacy and stave off a potential war.
Schumer will be criticized no matter what he does. If he tries to lobby members against the deal, he’ll be lashed by the left for undermining both President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and precipitating another conflict in the Middle East. If he quietly opposes the deal, he’ll be criticized by his hawkish Israel supporters for not doing enough to scuttle the agreement.
And if he supports it, he’s bound to get slammed by powerful Jewish donors and constituents who have long been among his staunchest supporters.

“Boy, I’m glad I’m not Chuck Schumer, I’ll tell ya,” said a smirking John McCain (R-Ariz.), a friend of the New York Democrat. “He’s got the toughest vote of his career coming.”
Congress has 60 days to consider the Iran nuclear agreement, which was reached between the United States, five world powers and Iran, meaning decisive votes will occur no later than September 17th. The agreement seeks to pare back Iran’s nuclear program, opening its facilities to inspections and monitoring, in exchange for lifting sanctions.
Congress vote is on whether to lift legislative sanctions, which have been key to bringing Iran to the negotiating table and would provide major economic relief if Congress lets the deal go through. Republicans will need a veto-proof, two-thirds majority to scuttle the deal, a high bar that will require a sizable bloc of Democratic opposition.
Skeptics in both parties fear the plan will make Iran richer but do little to curtail the country’s nuclear ambitions. Nowhere is that feeling more prevalent than in New York, with one of the most politically active Jewish populations. 

If Schumer wanted to persuade members to side with him, “Chuck would have let his intentions known a long time ago, and everybody would have known,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Winning over members now, Manchin added, “would be much more difficult.”
The Iran vote could reverberate for Democratic senators facing tough reelection races in the coming years, especially if they back the accord and it fails to rein in Iran. Only one of them, Colorado’s Michael Bennet, is up in 2016; several others will be on the ballot in 2018.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a moderate who faces voters in three years, said she’s still carefully weighing the agreement.
In the Senate, the other members of the leadership team, including Reid, Schumer and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), are playing coy.
 

Asked why he hadn’t made a decision yet, Reid replied: “Have you made a decision?” Informed that reporters don’t cast votes on bills, he responded, “Yeah, well” and then walked into the Senate chamber....more

Time to get rid of the terrorist regime of Iran

Rep. Ed Royce

 As the Obama Administration  pushes for a final agreement with  Iran, reports indicate that the deal could bring as much as $50 billion to the terrorist regime in Tehran in immediate relief, and another $100 billion could come over the next year. And U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued in his statement as U.S. negotiators work toward a final Iran nuclear agreement which would provide Tehran with tens of billions in sanctions relief.  Earlier this week, a senior U.S. official said that Iran would not use billions in sanctions to back its nefarious activities. "It is our assessment that they are not going to spend the vast majority of the money on guns, most of it will go to butter," said the U.S. official.

Chairman Royce said: “Obama Administration officials have talked themselves into the delusion that the regime in Tehran will use a sanctions relief jackpot to help its people.  But Iran’s Supreme Leader isn’t looking to cut this deal because he cares about ordinary Iranians.  He’s making it so that he can consolidate power at home, dominate the region and gain acceptance of Iran’s nuclear program, paving the path to a nuclear weapon.  Helping Iranians doesn’t even make the list.  The ObamaAdministration’s fundamental misread of the Iranian regime is part of what makes this potential agreement so dangerous to our national security.”

At the same time Hillary Clinton the 2016 presidential candidates who in known for her historical appeasements with the Iranian Mullahs was asked about the Obama administration’s involvement in ongoing nuclear talks with Iran, she said: “I’m hoping it’s a strong, verifiable deal that will put the lid on Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Even if we are successful, however, Iran’s aggressiveness will not end.”

“Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing” on a range of foreign policy issues، particularly in the Middle East، Sen. Lindsey O.Graham (R-S.C.)، said of the president in a New York radio interview Sunday morning.

“These nuclear negotiations with Iran scare the heck out of me،” Graham said. “We’d be nuts to give the Iranians more money until they change their behavior. . . . At the end of the day، a nuclear deal with Iran has to be airtight because they lie and cheat،” he said، according to an account in The Hill.

Diplomats here enter the final hours of more than 18 months of negotiations that will either establish a new relationship between Iran and global powers، or collapse amid recriminations and threats to world peace.

All sides say they are very close to finalizing a comprehensive agreement that would place limits on Iran’s nuclear activities and prevent it from producing a nuclear weapon، in exchange for lifting international economic sanctions.

Differences have narrowed in recent days in both of the main areas of negotiations — the level of inspections and verification that Iran keeps its side of the bargain، and the pace and scope of sanctions relief Iran will get in exchange.

Separate from the negotiations، U.S. officials are working on how an accord would be rolled out to the public and to a skeptical Congress. Officials have said there will likely be no signing ceremony; instead، agreement on a   mutually agreed later date.

For the United States and its partners، lifting of a wide range of sanctions requires regulatory and political action in Europe، the United Nations and Washington — some of which is under the control of Congress.

 The United States and other countries believe Tehran once was working to develop an atomic weapon،, but any way, the world needs not to trust the Iranian Mullahs because they just want to get rid of the suffocating sanctions in order to earn billions to postpone the evident regime-collapse in Tehran. It's time to get rid of the terrorist regime in Iran instead of providing facilities for them to get rid of the  world sanctions.