"The White House is seething, and they want everyone to know it."

[karynnj]

16. Who are you referring to and why?

What I see is that Obama, in his second term, is changing the course of US foreign policy - something everyone on the left called for for decades. Would you prefer the neocon actions continue?

THe reason this is tough is that there are vested interests involved - especially AIPAC on Iran. Senators have been told for 3 decades that Iran is an evil country and we have had no real contact with it. That provides a background which makes them very sensitive to AIPAC and others pushing them on this issue. In addition, they have taken a sneaky approach arguing that passing this bill that ramps up sanctions if negotiations fail HELPS diplomacy. This is what Netanyahu, who is NOT in the negotiations says. Kerry, who IS in the negotiations has asked they not do it because it reduces the small amount of trust there is. Note that the hardliners in Iran are doing harmful things in parallel. Bizarrely, these Senators who could harm the negotiations and the hardliners in Iran are BOTH working against negotiations because both fear change.

I think Kerry (and Biden and Obama) need to reach some of these Democrats and peel them away from this unhelpful legislation. In the first term, similar unhelpful resolutions came up, but Kerry (sometimes with Lugar's help) was able to disarm them by writing a competing resolution that did not harm administration policy. Now, there is no one in the Senate doing that. It may be that the administration will work with Johnson, chair of the banking committee to write something that the Democrats on this bill could vote for that would not harm the negotiations.

As I have said before, I regret every dollar and every hour spent phone banking and canvasing for the mediocre, unappealing now senior senator from NJ. Oddly, I helped the first campaign (where he could have lost to Kean JR) because of emails of support from Senator Kerry. It was respect for Kerry that made me ignore how lame Menendez was and his loss would have been the loss of a seat the Democrats should have retained. (He only became Senator because he was appointed by Corzine when Corzine became governor.) Since then my respect for Kerry has only increased, while my opinion of Menendez is very low. I hope he is primaryed.