THE GOP FIGHTS THE DEAL – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:   Legislation to give Congress a role in the Iran nuclear deal is moving forward, although it faces a presidential veto.  The fight to override that veto may be the political story of the year.  From Fox: 

Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker said Sunday that he’s moving ahead with his bill to give Congress a mandatory review of the recent Iran nuclear agreement but that the legislation is still several votes short of veto-proof passage.

Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that the GOP-controlled chamber is two or three votes shy of the 67 needed to override a vowed White House veto. Corker said he talked over the weekend to Democratic holdouts to get their votes and reach the veto-proof majority.

He also made clear that he is open to a deal that would curtail Iran’s ability to create a nuclear weapon but said that “Congress needs to be playing a role.”

The United States and five other world powers reached the tentative agreement Thursday with Iran to limit that country’s nuclear enrichment program toward a final, June 30 deal.

The Republican-led Congress has insisted that members have a final say on the deal to ensure Americans that the Obama administration is not accepting a bad deal.

“The American people want to know somebody is teasing out the information” about the deal, Corker said Sunday. “Congress has to be involved in this way.”

To be sure, within hours of the framework deal being announced, Iran and the United States released significantly different details -- including those on inspections, when roughly $130 billion in economic sanctions on Tehran would be lifted, the number of centrifuges that will remain and what will happen to the country’s nuclear stockpile.

The Senate committee is set to vote April 14 on the bipartisan bill, which has 13 Democratic cosponsors.

COMMENT:  Good for Bob Corker.  However, I'm not at all sure he'll get the votes to override the president's veto.  This president plays Chicago politics.  Those Democrats who, out of conscience, want to override will be threatened, even accused of racism.  That's the way the game is played.  Their careers might well be destroyed if they go against Obama. 

The Congressional Black Caucus is already out there insisting that Congress show respect for "the first black president."  This will get very ugly.  The fact that the Iran issue involves the lives of millions of people will fade into the background.  Political self-preservation may, in the end, give Obama a victory in the veto fight.

April 5, 2015