Kathianne
02-02-2015, 12:58 PM
especially on Ukraine and Iran, BTW, even Durbin signed off on no confidence report regarding Ukraine:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-obamas-fight-with-his-own-party-over-foreign-policy/2015/02/01/10ece938-a7e4-11e4-a2b2-776095f393b2_story.html
For more than two years, a breach has been opening between President Obama and the foreign policy establishment of the Democratic Party. Last week, as Russia pressed a new offensive in Ukraine (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/russias-new-offensive-in-ukraine-should-prompt-stern-sanctions-from-the-west/2015/01/26/8d9c7994-a582-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html) and the Senate debated sanctions on Iran, it cracked open a little wider.
First came the introduction in the Senate, and lopsided passage by the Banking Committee (http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/congress/2015/01/29/iran-sanctions-nuclear-weapons-obama/22524903/), of a bill that would place new sanctions on Iran if no agreement limits its nuclear program by June. Though fiercely opposed by Obama, the measure, co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, had won the express support of 13 other Democratic senators by the end of the week. A letter (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/iran-nuclear-deal-sanctions-bob-menendez-114632.html)signed by Menendez plus nine of them pledged to delay a final floor vote until March 24, the deadline set by the administration for finalizing the framework of a *bargain.
While that postponement avoided an immediate confrontation with Obama, the larger message of the senators was clear: They are “deeply skeptical,” (http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/senate-democrats-write-president-obama-on-iran-negotiations) said the letter, that Obama will obtain adequate concessions from Tehran — despite what has been an increasingly single-minded diplomatic push.
At week’s end came another de facto vote of no confidence: a report (http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2015/02/ukraine-independence-russian-aggression) by eight foreign policy luminaries, due to be formally released Monday, saying the president should “immediately change” his policy of refusing to supply Ukraine with weapons to defend its besieged eastern provinces. “Washington,” it said bluntly, has “not devoted sufficient attention to the threat posed by Russia and its implications for Western security. This must change.”
This rebuke was signed by Michèle Flournoy (http://www.cnas.org/flournoymichele), the deputy defense secretary in Obama’s first term; Ivo Daalder (http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/expert/ivo-h-daalder), his first-term NATO ambassador; andStrobe Talbott (http://www.brookings.edu/experts/talbotts), a former deputy secretary of state who is president of the deep-blue Brookings Institution. It expanded on legislation calling for arms sales to Ukraine that passed Congress last month with sponsors that included Menendez and seven other Senate Democrats, (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s2828) including Carl Levin (Mich.), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, and Richard Durbin (Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democrat.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-obamas-fight-with-his-own-party-over-foreign-policy/2015/02/01/10ece938-a7e4-11e4-a2b2-776095f393b2_story.html
For more than two years, a breach has been opening between President Obama and the foreign policy establishment of the Democratic Party. Last week, as Russia pressed a new offensive in Ukraine (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/russias-new-offensive-in-ukraine-should-prompt-stern-sanctions-from-the-west/2015/01/26/8d9c7994-a582-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html) and the Senate debated sanctions on Iran, it cracked open a little wider.
First came the introduction in the Senate, and lopsided passage by the Banking Committee (http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/congress/2015/01/29/iran-sanctions-nuclear-weapons-obama/22524903/), of a bill that would place new sanctions on Iran if no agreement limits its nuclear program by June. Though fiercely opposed by Obama, the measure, co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, had won the express support of 13 other Democratic senators by the end of the week. A letter (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/iran-nuclear-deal-sanctions-bob-menendez-114632.html)signed by Menendez plus nine of them pledged to delay a final floor vote until March 24, the deadline set by the administration for finalizing the framework of a *bargain.
While that postponement avoided an immediate confrontation with Obama, the larger message of the senators was clear: They are “deeply skeptical,” (http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/senate-democrats-write-president-obama-on-iran-negotiations) said the letter, that Obama will obtain adequate concessions from Tehran — despite what has been an increasingly single-minded diplomatic push.
At week’s end came another de facto vote of no confidence: a report (http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2015/02/ukraine-independence-russian-aggression) by eight foreign policy luminaries, due to be formally released Monday, saying the president should “immediately change” his policy of refusing to supply Ukraine with weapons to defend its besieged eastern provinces. “Washington,” it said bluntly, has “not devoted sufficient attention to the threat posed by Russia and its implications for Western security. This must change.”
This rebuke was signed by Michèle Flournoy (http://www.cnas.org/flournoymichele), the deputy defense secretary in Obama’s first term; Ivo Daalder (http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/expert/ivo-h-daalder), his first-term NATO ambassador; andStrobe Talbott (http://www.brookings.edu/experts/talbotts), a former deputy secretary of state who is president of the deep-blue Brookings Institution. It expanded on legislation calling for arms sales to Ukraine that passed Congress last month with sponsors that included Menendez and seven other Senate Democrats, (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s2828) including Carl Levin (Mich.), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, and Richard Durbin (Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democrat.
...