President Barack Obama needs the support of only 4 of the 14 senators who are undecided on the Iran nuclear deal in order to veto efforts to maintain sanctions on the rogue regime.
That’s the latest head count of senators by retired U.S. Army Col. Patrick Murray, CEO of Third Wave Communications and author of “Government is the Enemy.” Opposing the agreement, according to Murray, are all 54 Republican senators and two Democrats — likely Minority Leader-to-be Chuck Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, ranking minority member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Murray’s count also showed that 30 Democrats are publicly committed to supporting the deal. That leaves 14 senators, all of them Democrats, in the undecided column.
“And there will be no veto override,” Murray flatly told me. “As it currently stands, Obama only needs 4 of the 14 undecided Democrats to swing his way and, just like the Obamacare vote in 2010, the president will slather on as much pork as necessary to buy the requisite votes.”
Murray underscored his view that the agreement with Tehran should have been considered a treaty, which would have required a two-thirds vote of the Senate for ratification and thus put the burden of securing the greater number of votes.
For this situation, the former Republican U.S. House candidate and author of the book, “Government Is the Enemy,” places the blame squarely on the shoulders of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R.-Tenn.
“When the Corker bill [laying out the rules for the Senate debate and vote on the agreement] passed 98-to-1, senators abrogated their constitutional responsibility for advice and consent of treaties. That is why the two-thirds override vote onus is the responsibility of Senate opponents and not the administration, as it would have been if the agreement were considered a treaty,” Murray told me.
He singled out “my fellow Army veteran [Arkansas Republican] Tom Cotton is the one senator exempted because of his principled no vote against the Corker bill.”
According to Murray’s headcount, the 14 senators undecided on the Iran deal are Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct.; Booker, D-N.J.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Bob Casey, D-Pa.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Barabara Mikulski, D-Md.; Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.
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