http://www.nationalreview.com/node/423925/print Democrats Cash GOP’s Check, Ending Iran Sanctions
By Andrew C. McCarthy — September 12, 2015
I have been wearing readers and my keyboard out for five months over the Republican strategy that abets President Obama’s aiding and comforting of Iran, rather than fighting it with every tool in the constitutional chest. These critiques of the Corker bill (enacted in May as the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015) have seemed unduly harsh to some GOP leaders and right-of-center pundits.
There is a purpose, however, behind my Cassandra-like lament: I have been trying to minimize the damage by persuading Congress to avoid giving the president’s atrocious deal — in particular, its erasure of the sanctions regime that had been squeezing the Iranian regime — the status of formal law.
Without congressional imprimatur — by either approval of a treaty or an authorizing statute — Obama’s deal would be a mere executive agreement. While harmful for the next 16 months, an executive agreement could be fully renounced when the next president takes office in 2017. In the meantime, Congress could enact resolutions stressing that the sanctions remain on the books and should be enforced. On notice that they could face crippling penalties once Obama is gone, individuals, corporations, and countries would be discouraged from commerce with Iran. Iran might even reject the deal.
By contrast, formal law binds our country. Laws must be faithfully executed by presidents — at least presidents not named Barack Obama.
It was clear to me that the Corker law, an authorizing statute, was Obama’s path to making the Iran deal binding law. That is why I could not agree that the Corker bill was “better than nothing.” That is why I remain baffled by GOP-sympathetic commentators who rationalize that Obama’s playing hardball left Republican leaders with no realistic alternatives. That is tantamount to saying our Constitution is not as strong as Obama and his international-law hocus-pocus. It is a claim made with a straight face only by one who either has not read or does not understand the Corker legislation.
Alas, what I warned against is coming to pass. The Left has wasted no time cashing the GOP’s Corker check.
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