Senator Chuck Schumer is “working the phones on Iran,” according to a headline in Politico today. Except . . . he seems to be working the phones to tell fellow legislators they don’t have to agree with him:

After news of his decision to vote “no” on the Iran agreement first leaked Thursday night, Schumer (D-N.Y.) has spoken to 20 to 30 fellow Democrats about why he will vote with the GOP leadership against the deal, sources said. Schumer had been planning to make these calls on Friday, before his position on Iran became public, but was not able to do so because it had leaked the night before.
In these conversations, Schumer has been walking through his position on the Iran agreement, the product of lengthy negotiations between the leading world powers and the Iranian government.
Schumer, though, is not lobbying his colleagues to vote against the agreement when the Senate takes up a “resolution of disapproval” next month, several undecided senators said during interviews. The disapproval resolution is expected to win the 60 votes needed to overcome any Democratic filibuster.

As NR’s editors pointed out last week, after Schumer came out against the deal, this is nonsense: Saying he feels like he has to leave this deal to individual members makes no sense, if he truly thinks it’s a dangerous bargain. The stakes are so high that lobbying should be obligatory, not shunned. But hey, it’s hard to find time for earnest advocacy on national security when you’re busying worrying about breakfast-cereal prices.