http://www.politico.com/ 09/01/15
L’Enigma di Cardin: Il Democratico di rango si tormenta sull'affare Iran di Burgess Everett
Martedì, il membro del Comitato Relazioni Estere del Senato sembrava discutere con se stesso.
Baltimora - Per 40 minuti, il senatore Ben Cardin, ha parlato tranquillamente come un democratico del Maryland e influente parlamentare, ancora indeciso sull’accordo nucleare iraniano, rispondendo alle domande degli studenti riguardo l'accordo.
Poi venne il turno di Liam Haviv junior. Repubblicano di origine ebraico israeliana, ha denunciato il "precedente spaventoso" quando Cardin, nella Commissione Esteri del Senato, guidò attraverso il Congresso una legge che avrebbe assicurato al presidente Barack Obama la sopravvivenza. Il Cardin tipicamente accigliato mostrava una rara emozione, ricordando appassionatamente il suo voto contrario alla guerra in Iraq di una decina di anni fa e il suo successivo sostegno ai militari. Cardin, 71 anni, promise di seguire Obama a prescindere da come si votasse. "Quando tutto questo sarà finito, dovremo sostenere il presidente", ha detto Cardin al Forum nel campus della Johns Hopkins University.
http://www.politico.com/ 09/01/15
Cardin's conundrum: Top Democrat agonizes over Iran deal By Burgess Everett
At an event Tuesday, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee seemed to be arguing with himself.
BALTIMORE — For 40 minutes it was tranquil sailing for Sen. Ben Cardin as the Maryland Democrat — and most influential lawmaker still undecided on the Iran nuclear deal — fielded questions from students about the accord. Then came junior Liam Haviv’s turn.
The Israeli-born Jewish Republican denounced the “scary precedent” Cardin set as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he shepherded through Congress a law that all but ensured President Barack Obama’s deal would survive. The typically even-keeled Cardin flashed rare emotion, passionately recalling his vote against the Iraq War a decade ago and his subsequent support for the military. Cardin, 71, vowed to rally behind Obama regardless of how he votes this time. “When this is over, we’ve got to support the president,” Cardin said at the forum Tuesday on the campus of Johns Hopkins University.
The exchange underscored Cardin’s quandary as Congress prepares to vote this month. A genial Jewish lawmaker from Baltimore, Cardin represents a mostly liberal state — but one that also includes a sizable Jewish population. He feels the push of a Senate caucus that overwhelmingly backs the Iran agreement — on Tuesday, two more Democratic senators, Chris Coons of Delaware and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, came out in favor of it — and the pull of pro-Israel groups imploring him to reject it. Only one more senator is needed to dash the GOP’s hopes of blocking the accord. But after the meeting, Cardin refused to say whether he’d be the decisive 34th vote to ensure that a resolution to kill the Iran deal would withstand a veto. “This is not a clear decision,” said the second-term senator, who became the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member this spring after Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a staunch critic of the pact, was indicted. “For those that say it’s a clear decision, I would take exception.” In Maryland, like many East Coast states, critics of the Iran agreement have been much louder than supporters. Opponents have spent $650,000 on ads that have aired mostly in Baltimore, and Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran is putting down more than $80,000 this week in the Washington, D.C., market. On Tuesday evening, AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr was to drive up I-95 to rally against the Iran deal in Pikesville, an influential Jewish population center outside Cardin’s hometown of Baltimore. But voting against the deal would relegate Cardin to a small minority within his caucus: Menendez and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer are the only Democratic senators so far to say they'll oppose the White House. Cardin is under more scrutiny than other Democrats because of his role, along with Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), in crafting the law that allowed Congress to review the pact. The big question now is whether a resolution of disapproval would even make it to Obama's desk, since Democrats plan to filibuster it. Opponents say Cardin should vote at least to force Obama to veto the measure — and confront the fact that a majority of Congress disapproves of the deal. “His name is on the bill. That legislation was set up specifically to give members a vote,” said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which opposes the deal. “If Cardin and others are not going to permit the vote on this deal and there’s going to be a Democratic filibuster … that defeats the intent of the legislation.” It’s not clear if Cardin is moved by that argument; he refused to answer questions Tuesday about how he'll come down on the filibuster. Democrats need 41 votes to block the disapproval measure; they currently have 33. But on nearly every other topic Cardin was expansive, and, in some cases, defended the administration. Cardin left Washington in August frustrated that he could not see an agreement detailing an inspection deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Now he says it’s “understandable” that he hasn’t seen it and said the August briefing from IAEA general director Yukiya Amano was a sufficient stand-in. “I know exactly what is in the agreement,” Cardin said. “Nothing unusual.” Cardin also said that agreement's inspections language could be stronger, then noted that the IAEA is satisfied with the inspections regime. At times, he appeared to be arguing with himself on Tuesday, evidence of his internal struggle ahead of the vote. “What I resent is people who say if you reject the agreement we’re going to war. Or if you don’t reject the agreement you’re going to war,” Cardin said. Cardin has stayed in close contact with Obama over the past month, though there’s no evidence yet that the president is trying to sway him with private letters like those he wrote to Coons and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). He has also engaged with the “intense” opposition movement but has not spoken recently to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a forceful opponent of the deal. Still, Cardin's staff took great care not to have any disruptive demonstrators at the event on Tuesday, and despite rumblings of a peace protest, none materialized. And Cardin dismissed the pressure that’s building on him from within the Democratic Caucus to support the deal, simply by the math: 33 Democrats for, two against. The rank and file on Foreign Relations, he insisted, want him to do what’s “in the best interest for the country.” “I’m taking the time,” Cardin said of his tortoise-like approach. “I don’t think either way is going to be a popular vote here.” In a long one-on-one talk before the event with Johns Hopkins professor Steven David, Cardin explained the difficulty of rebuilding an international sanctions regime if Congress were to reject the agreement. Cardin said those opposing the agreement did not acknowledge that factor enough, but David, who supports the “flawed” agreement, came away with little clarity on how Cardin might proceed. “He’s under enormous pressure,” David said. “He was playing his cards very close to the vest. There’s nothing he said to me that would suggest he would vote one way or another.” If his position isn’t clear, it's very apparent how steeped in the particulars of the deal Cardin is. He and Corker devoted July to delving into the policies of the deal, speaking privately with Iran experts like Dubowitz, holding open hearings and getting classified briefings from the IAEA and administration officials. That depth of knowledge was on display here on this bucolic campus, where Cardin at one point took four questions in a row on issues like "snapback" sanctions and whether Iran can ever be an ally. He rattled off answers seamlessly. But for all the talk, Cardin seemed less clear on what he might decide than ever. The discussion with the students, he said, “confused me [about how he'll vote] as much as anything else.”
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