Columnist.
[Wednesday], Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski became the 34th senator to support the Iranian nuclear deal. Her support gives President Obama the votes needed to sustain his veto of a congressional resolution disapproving the deal. That means this terrible deal will likely go into effect. This is a hollow victory for Obama and the deal's supporters. A new Rasmussen poll finds that 66% of likely voters believe that the deal should not go into effect unless Congress approves it. But that isn't going to happen because most members of Congress will not vote for this bad deal. And it is a bad deal.
Top government officials get a lot of advice from a lot of people. Cabinet officials have entire cadres of career civil servants dedicated to providing information and analysis. In the case of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we know from her publicly disclosed emails that she also relied heavily on outside, non-governmental sources, especially from one person — Sidney Blumenthal. Mr. Blumenthal has been close confidant of the Clintons for decades. But the Obama White House blocked Mrs. Clinton's attempt to hire Blumenthal as a top adviser at the State Department. So the Clinton Foundation hired Blumenthal at $10,000 a month.
Advocates of the nuclear treaty with Iran, including President Obama, have repeatedly claimed that the agreement strengthens moderates and will change Iran's behavior. They are wrong. [Monday], Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, chief of Tehran's top clerical body, said that the United States remains Iran's "number one enemy" and that the nuclear treaty changes nothing.
New polling out of Iowa is sending shock waves throughout the political establishments of both parties. A Des Moines Register poll of likely caucus goers finds Bernie Sanders surging to within seven points of Hillary Clinton. Thirty percent of Iowa Democrats back the Vermont socialist compared to 37% for Clinton. Fourteen percent of Democrats back Vice President Joe Biden. Pollsters note that Hillary has lost one-third of her support and see another potential upset in the making. Among young Iowa Democrats, Sanders beats Clinton by 23 points. He leads among likely first-time caucus goers by 12 points. It was this kind of enthusiasm that Obama successfully channeled to overcome the Clinton machine in 2008.
Columnist Mark Steyn reviewed the headlines from major U.S. newspapers that reported on the shootings of two Virginia journalists. As you might expect, the headlines were totally devoid of any information that would inform readers of what really happened. In other words, they were manipulated to avoid printing the kind of information that would normally dominate headlines when it helps the left and hurts conservatives. As we reported [Thursday], both the Charleston shooting and the Roanoke shooting were done by racial bigots, one a white racist and one a black racist. Vester Flanagan, the Roanoke shooter, was also a gay rights extremist, by the way. To the American media, these facts mean the story is to be buried as quickly as possible and reported in the most vague manner possible.
Two weeks ago, Big Media and the left made a big deal over the fact that three dozen retired admirals and generals signed a joint letter supporting the president's nuclear deal with Iran. [Wednesday], more than five times that number sent a letter to Congress urging opposition to the deal. One hundred and ninety retired admirals and generals told congressional leaders that removing sanctions on Iran threatened Middle East peace. They warned that far from cutting off all pathways to a bomb, the deal "allows all the infrastructure the Iranians need for a nuclear bomb." They wrote that the agreement, with its secret side deals, was "unverifiable."
[Wednesday's] New York Times reports that the Pentagon's inspector general has launched an investigation into the possible manipulation of intelligence data from Iraq. No, this has nothing to do with Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and George Bush's decision to go to war. This investigation is attempting to determine whether "skewed intelligence assessments" are providing "a more optimistic account of progress" against ISIS. That is a shocking revelation.
At a Las Vegas conference [Monday] night, President Obama launched into another demeaning attack against his domestic political opponents. Obama told the audience that he was back from his summer vacation feeling "a little feisty" and ready to fight "the crazies" who oppose his agenda. Really? Given history, it is crazy to believe that a regime like Iran's, which is committed to a second Holocaust, will be restrained by words on a piece of paper. It is crazy to think that Cuba, Russia and other enemies can be charmed into friends. It is crazy to believe you can continue to spend trillions of dollars more than you bring in and not face economic collapse.
Remember those secret side agreements that are part of the Iran nuclear deal? Members of Congress haven't read them. In fact, Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had not read them nor, to the best of his knowledge, had anyone else in the government. The Associated Press revealed the contents of one of the secret agreements late [Wednesday] afternoon. According to the AP report, "Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate a site [Parchin] it has been accused of using to develop nuclear arms, operating under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such [inspection] work."
[Tuesday], Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced his opposition to President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. So too did Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the previous chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Weeks ago, Iran told us that it would refuse to allow U.S. personnel to serve on the international inspection teams responsible for verifying Tehran's compliance with the proposed nuclear deal. That should have been a non-starter for any American administration, but the Obama/Kerry team accepted it. Now the regime is making even more demands. [Monday], Iran's deputy foreign minister claimed that every U.N. inspector must be vetted and approved by Iran's intelligence service.
Critics of President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran have argued that the numerous concessions, including as much as $100 billion in sanctions relief, make the radical Islamic regime stronger and will be used to fund its terrorist activities. The leaders of the regime are confirming those fears. Over the weekend, Ali Akbar Velayati, a key adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran will always support the current (Resistance Front) and of course, with the nuclear agreement, it will have more power to side with its friends in the region." And by "friends in the region," Velayati is referring to Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria.
Secretary of State John Kerry is the man who negotiated the nuclear deal with the ayatollah's representatives from the Islamic Republic of Iran. It would be reassuring to know that our negotiators are sophisticated and understand the dangers confronting the free world. Critics of the deal have been deeply concerned from the beginning about the extent of the concessions Kerry made to appease the Iranians. An interview Kerry recently did with The Atlantic explains a lot.
