Conservative radio personality
Rush Limbaugh lambasted Republicans in the Senate for refusing to insist that any agreement the administration reaches with Iran over its nuclear program be treated as a full-fledged treaty.
Under the Constitution, treaties require the votes of 67 senators.
Limbaugh singled out Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, for crafting a bill along with ranking member Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey that, he said, circumvented the ratification process.
The committee approved their
Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 by a 19-0 margin last week. It is meant to give Congress input in any Iran nuclear deal.
Corker told reporters last week that the bill prevents President Barack Obama from unilaterally lifting sanctions, according to
CNN. The White House said that Obama would sign the bill — assuming Republicans don't add
amendments that would toughen the measure when it is debated on the Senate floor next week.
"The Corker bill is worse than nothing, and it is exactly what I assumed," said Limbaugh. "Obama's out engaging in what is a treaty, but he doesn't want to call it a treaty."
He said Republicans were not really interested in opposing Obama on the domestic front or in connection with Iran's nuclear program.
"What ends up happening in the Corker bill, that 67-vote [treaty] onus is shifted to the opponents of the bill. All Obama needs is 40 votes to get his deal with Iran instead of 67, because the Corker bill requires that the opponents find 67 votes to disapprove of the deal," Limbaugh told his audience.
"The supermajority approval requirement for treaties is in the Constitution, and the reason it is, because we should not be making lasting agreements with other countries, even friends, unless there is a strong consensus the arrangement's in the national interest."
Limbaugh said that the Corker-Menendez bill gives the Senate just 30 days to act and "come up with 67 votes to say 'no.' "
He went on: "Essentially, what the Corker bill does, instead of Obama having to get 67 votes that agree, the Corker bill says the Senate has to come up with 67 votes to disagree."
Republicans had in effect agreed — in a "linguine-spined reaction" — to rubber stamp the Iranian nuclear deal, said Limbaugh.
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