Five Democrats Who Could Block Iran Bill

Would Spare Obama the Need to Veto the Resolution

Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about the upcoming Congressional votes on the Iran deal and wondering if they could get the two-thirds majority needed to be veto-proof, blocking US involvement in the P5+1 pact and overriding a promised White House veto.

Now, the number of “undecided” Democrat senators is dwindling, but with so many coming out in favor of the deal the question now is whether or not the resolution can even get past a filibuster and necessitate a veto, with a very real possibility the thing never gets out of Congress to begin with.

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D – CT) continued to express confidence with getting 60 senators, enough to stop the filibuster, to vote against the deal, but still needs to come up with four more Democrats against the deal to actually pull that much off. There are 14 formally undecided Democrats still, but many are seen leaning toward supporting the deal.

That would win them the battle but still lose them the war, since they couldn’t override the veto without getting 11 of those 14 on board, which seems more or less impossible at this point. The other members of the P5+1, and Iran, are already in the process of implementing the deal, with the US Congress the only one expected to vote on it at all. Despite tens of millions of dollars in lobbying going on against the deal, it seems to be pretty much bulletproof now. Still, the battle goes on, and will center around five Democrats seen as most likely to join the anti-deal side.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.