Social Worker Barbara Mikulski Seizes the Moment

Last week Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski pledged to be the 34^th and deciding vote for approval of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement that will provide a check on the nuclear capabilities of Iran over the next fifteen years.  This means that should Senate Republicans peel off enough Democrats to vote down the deal, President Barack Obama now has enough votes to sustain a veto of the legislation which pretty much makes events in the House irrelevant and ends the debate.  Congressional Democrats have been tap dancing around this hot political issue for weeks divided by their loyalty to the White House and the Democratic Party and obligations to represent the interests of their heavily Jewish constituencies.  Many were wary about being the legislator casting the deciding vote.

It may have been easier for Senator Mikulski to cast the deciding vote since has decided not to run for re-election but it still takes a modicum of courage to be the one who seals the deal.  She still will have a life beyond the Senate and will be considered a pariah by the most zealous supporters of Israel.  After her decisive vote, the dominos began to drop as others announced their decisions on the legislation.  Maryland’s other senator, Ben Cardin, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced he would vote to block the JCPA.  Like other Jewish members of Congress, he said he was torn between his commitment to Israel’s security and his loyalty to the President and his party.  This was true of many non-Jewish members of Congress as well.

What disturbed me about Senator Cardin’s announcement was that it was made late afternoon on Friday before the Labor Day holiday.  Typically, this the time bad news is released to ensure that it receives minimal coverage.  It suggests the Senator’s office was not particularly proud of their stance on this very crucial issue.  In announcing his opposition to the agreement, Senator Cardin stated that it was a matter of conscience.  But who’s conscience?  Cardin is the elected representative of the state of Maryland, so he voted not only for himself but for the wishes of the majority of Maryland residents, most of whom are Democrats.  In Maryland, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by more than two to one.  In a recent CNN poll, 70 percent of Democrats supported the JCPA.

It is not much of a stretch to conclude there is no deal that President Obama could have reached with Iran that would be palatable to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Republicans in Congress.  That the JCPA is an agreement between Iran and six countries seems to be lost on members of the Grand Old Party.  They allowed the process to become highly partisan by inviting Netanyahu to address Congress without the courtesy of informing the White House before sending the invite.  Then there was the letter from Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton—signed by 46 other Republican Senators—to Iran’s ayatollahs, informing them that any agreement reached with President Obama was nonbinding and would be rescinded by the next Republican president.  That Republicans rejected the deal before it was finalized confirms this was more about denying President Obama an accomplishment than reasonably addressing the real threat of nuclear proliferation.

Reasonable people can disagree with the JCPA—that it does not guarantee Iran will not cheat and will continue pursuing acquisition of nuclear arms.  Many reasonable people—including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, three dozen retired generals and admirals, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft who advised several Republican presidents—believe the JCPA, though not perfect, provides the best chance of regulating Iran’s nuclear development.  Several prominent Democrats, have come out against the deal, including Senate Democratic leader-in-waiting Charles Schumer of New York, but at this writing, the White House is within reach of the next magic number—41—which is the number of senators needed to filibuster the bill and keep it from reaching the Senate floor for a vote.

Written By Charles E. Lewis Jr., Ph.D

Social Worker Barbara Mikulski Seizes the Moment was originally published @ Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy » Charles Lewis and has been syndicated with permission.

Photo by Karen Smith Murphy