ON DEADLINE – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Today is the theoretical deadline for reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran.  It will not be met.  Talks are being extended, if only for a few days.  That is not in itself worrying.  What is worrying is the agreement that appears to be taking shape.   It is shocking to many in Washington who watch this issue.  Our worst nightmares may be coming true.  From The Politico: 

Days away from a potential nuclear deal with Iran, senior Republican senators are plotting a strategy to undermine the multilateral accord just as the Obama administration tries to sell it to a skeptical Congress.

For weeks, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Republicans on his Foreign Relations Committee have gleaned fresh intelligence from classified briefings with senior administration officials and policy experts — information they intend to use against the White House when it pitches the plan to lawmakers.

Corker has told President Barack Obama it’s “breathtaking” that his administration has allegedly backed off its insistence on aggressive inspections of Iran’s nuclear plants, a key outstanding issue in the talks. Along with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Corker has ratcheted up demands for disclosure of a classified document articulating the long-term future of Iran’s nuclear development program.

In a private conversation this spring, Corker told Secretary of State John Kerry he can define his legacy by walking away from a “bad deal.” And Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina are calling on Kerry and the Obama administration to suspend the talks in light of the stated insistence by Iranian leaders that sanctions be lifted immediately after an agreement is reached and that inspectors be barred from military sites.

If and when a deal is inked, GOP leaders are weighing a legislative strategy that would force Congress to vote on a motion of approval, a move that would be designed to show that only a minority of lawmakers back the nuclear plan. That could embarrass the president, even if he persuades 34 Senate Democrats to help him sustain a veto and keep the accord alive.

For Obama, the activity points to a treacherous road ahead in Congress if his administration manages to strike an accord in the coming days. Republicans are attacking the potential agreement as dangerous to national security, and GOP presidential candidates are vowing to abandon it if they win.

COMMENT:  This could be the Republican hour, the hour when the Republican Party asserts itself as the instrument of national defense and national strength.  If Obama were smart, and he is not, he would do a Reagan and walk away from the talks himself, saying to the Iranians, "When you're serious, we'll meet again."  He'd come out a national hero.

But Obama doesn't want to be a national hero.  He wants to be a hero of the international left, and a hero to Islam.  And it is becoming obvious that he is serious about his goals.

June 30, 2015