When even the esteemed Heritage Foundation is so wrong about a potentially life-and-death legislative action, my despair for the future of this nation plummets to a new depth.  This from the Daily Signal (emphasis mine):

A bipartisan, unanimous vote by a Senate panel granting Congress the right to review a nuclear deal with Iran has forced President Obama to cede some authority to lawmakers over the negotiations.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 19-0 Tuesday for once-controversial legislation that would allow Congress to prevent the removal of legislative sanctions against Iran.

Obama had originally threatened to veto a previous version of the bill, arguing that congressional action would impede ongoing negotiations with Iran over constraining its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

But after Foreign Relations Committee leaders were able to compromise on certain aspects of the legislation and it became clear there would be enough votes for a veto-proof majority, the president relented and indicated he would sign it…

…“We are the ones who imposed the sanctions; the sanctions regime is what brought them [Iran] to the table,” said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the committee’s ranking Democrat who negotiated the deal with Republican Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee.

“Only Congress can permanently change or modify the sanctions regime. This provides a way for Congress, in a thoughtful and meaningful way, to review the deal.”

Where does a sane person begin deconstructing such foolishness?

What the Senate Foreign Relations committee has actually done is turn the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section II, Clause II on its head.  The constitutional course would have required that two thirds of the Senate consent to the administration’s implementation any U. S.-Iran treaty – which the pending deal manifestly is.  Now the Senate has forced itself to produce a two-thirds majority to stop Obama’s relentless anti-constitutional binge on this issue, as on every other issue he chooses.  Mark Levin knew all this on Tuesday, but almost everybody else is apparently still stupefied.

Has the president relented on anything?  The heck!  He’s got to be grinning from ear to ear in the privacy of his megalomaniacal mind.  Stupid Republicans!  I can’t believe they’ve handed me what I want on a silver platter, again.

Has the Corker Compromise “provide[d] a way for Congress, in a thoughtful and meaningful way, to review the deal”?  Exactly the opposite: it throws a big, fatal rock at the only realistically possible way for the Senate to have provided its constitutionally mandated – but Obama-disdained – advice and consent.  No wonder Democrats leaped forward to support it.  The unanimous committee vote should have been enough in and of itself to awaken the suspicions of any thinking person.

So what legislation should the Corker committee have passed at this time?  Answer: none.  Absolutely none.  But Republicans and conscionable Democrats should be making it clear that when the Iran deal is finalized by the Kerry crew, presumably in June 2015, the Senate will vote on it as a treaty, whether or not Obama deigns to submit it as such, and will cut off any and all funding for its implementation if it’s not approved.

Paul Jacobson blogs under the nom de plume Flyoverpen.  He resides in Deepmidwest, FO.