Friday Night Owls: Influential congressional Democrats unite to support Iran nuclear deal

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40 DAYS UNTIL JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE

Trita Parsi at Responsible Statecraft writes: House Dems unite to support the Iran nuclear deal:

Democratic congressional leaders are marshaling a message to President-elect Joe Biden “strongly endorsing” his promise to return to the Iran nuclear deal without preconditions, Gregory Meeks, (D-N.Y.), the incoming chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee told the Quincy Institute this week.  

“We are sending a signal to our allies that America is getting back to the table!”

The letter, first reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, was organized by the members of the whip team that secured support for the JCPOA in 2015 — Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rep. Jan Schakowski (D-Ill.), Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) and Rep. Meeks, in addition to Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.). It decries the Trump administration’s exit from the agreement and argues that a return to the deal will not only prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb, but also lay the “foundation for progress on other critical issues.”  

“My colleagues and I — including all three contenders for the chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — decided it was important to send a strong and unified message from Congress to President-elect Biden that we support diplomacy, including taking early steps to return both Iran and the United States to JCPOA compliance,” Rep. David Price explained to QI.  

Contrary to common perceptions that Congress is hostile territory for diplomacy with Iran, the swift organizing of the letter and the backing of both the Democratic leadership and the three contenders for the chairmanship of HFAC suggest remarkable support of the deal among Democrats. In fact, Rep. Sherman was a vocal opponent of the deal in 2015 but has since become supportive. [...]

THREE OTHER ARTICLES WORTH READING

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TOP COMMENTS • RESCUED DIARIES 

QUOTATION

“I thought yesterday was the first day of the rest of my life but it turns out today is.” ~ Steve Martin 

TWEET OF THE DAY

When the 126 Republicans who backed the TX lawsuit to overturn the election results *themselves* refuse to be seated, considering their claim that the election was rigged, then I'll believe they're serious. Until then, it's nothing more than pathetic, seditious political theater.

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) December 11, 2020

BLAST FROM THE PAST

At Daily Kos on this date in 2012: Mitch McConnell demands Democrats negotiate with themselves:

With some increase in taxes on the wealthy clearly inevitable, Republicans are pretty much left with nothing to do but try to distract public attention away from the fact they're still holding middle class tax cuts hostage, and continue to make unreasonable demands. There's no one better at that than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

With talks to avert a series of spending cuts and tax increases continuing between President Obama and congressional leaders, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned Tuesday that no deal will be reached until Democrats step forward with specific proposals to cut federal spending.

“For all the president’s talk about the need for a balanced approach, the truth is he and his Democratic allies have simply refused to be pinned down on any spending cuts,” McConnell said.

And, of course, Republicans have come up with essentially nothing beyond demands that the poor and the old get hurt really, really bad. But in totally not-Republican suggested ways that Democrats will have to come up with so that Republicans can blame it all on them in the next election.

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Source: Daily Kos