When more important matters die down, I will have more to say about Senator Bob Corker’s rant on Fox News last week, accusing me of making “purposeful misstatements” about his legislation that enabled President Obama to get his Iran Deal through Congress. The Senator was provoked when Fox’s Bret Baier read from a column I wrote last year.
The column grappled with the question of why Republicans would do something so pernicious as reverse the Constitution’s treaty ratification procedures in a way that guaranteed Obama would prevail and thus be able to pour over $100 billion into the coffers of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism while leaving that jihadist regime with an industrial-strength civilian nuclear program that they could weaponize at the flip of a switch. The Constitution’s treaty procedures would have required Obama to win the approval of two-thirds of the Senate, which would have been impossible. The Corker legislation flipped this, allowing Obama to prevail unless there was two-thirds’ opposition in both houses of Congress – meaning blocking Obama would be impossible.
I suggested one reason: top GOP donors like Boeing stood to cash in big-time if the Iran deal was consummated. Boeing had ingratiated itself with Tehran when Obama granted some sanctions relief for Iran’s crippled aviation sector in order to keep the mullahs at the negotiation table. Boeing leapt in to provide Iran Air, the regime’s national carrier, with all manner of assistance – notwithstanding that Iran Air, basically an arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, was best known for providing material support to Hezbollah and the Assad regime. Indeed, in 2011, the Treasury Department designated Iran Air as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction. By helping Iran at a key point in the negotiations, I pointed out, Boeing stood to win huge Iranian contracts once the Iran deal was approved and sanctions were lifted.
Well I know you’ll be shocked to hear this, but Iran has just announced a huge deal to buy aircraft from Boeing! (Thanks to Anne Bayefsky for the heads-up.)
I’m sure Senator Corker and other top Republicans will be duly appalled.