Senate Dems ‘positive’ on Iran deal

Senate Democrats are being receptive to lobbying in support of the multinational deal aiming to limit Iran’s nuclear powers, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat said on Monday.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in an interview with CNN that he and others pushing for the deal were getting a “positive response” from Senate Democrats.

{mosads}“The other side, the Republican side, so many of them came out and said they were against this agreement” from the start, he said.

“What I’ve found on the Democratic side is many of my colleagues wanted to sit down and read it,” he added.

“We’re not pushing them to make an announcement of their position. We want them to take the time and take it seriously.”

Democrats are under pressure to side with the White House in support of the Iran agreement when it comes up for a vote in September.

Senate Democrats cannot afford to lose more than 12 lawmakers to sustain a White House veto of legislation to kill the deal, assuming all Republicans vote in a bloc.

On Monday, Durbin declined to offer any specific numbers about the number of Democrats supporting the deal, or whether they would be able to marshal the 40 votes necessary to filibuster action from the outset.

He did, however, take time to scold former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), whose comments over the weekend added fuel to the partisan vitriol over the deal. Speaking to Breitbart News, Huckabee said that Obama was leading Israel to the “door of the oven.” 

“Obviously that was a hyperbolic overstatement and totally untrue,” said Durbin.

“Those of us who are aware if the suffering of the Jewish people [and] what happened in the Holocaust have to take care not to use that analogy in such a casual way.”

Durbin’s comments came after the president himself rebuked Huckabee’s metaphor, which Obama said were “part of just a general pattern that we’ve seen that would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad.”