Marathon public hearings. Multiple, closed-door sessions with House and Senate lawmakers. Forceful statements from President Obama, Vice President Biden and others. And what does the administration have to show for its weeks-long lobbying effort for the Iran nuclear deal? Bupkis.
Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who together make up the public face of the administration’s charm offensive, attended a hearing they weren’t even supposed to attend. They saddled up alongside Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey to talk on Wednesday about the accord’s details before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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Yet the sales effort, which few expected to go smoothly given the GOP’s lack of faith in Obama and even greater distrust for Iran, has proven to be an especially thankless task. Republicans believe they haven’t been given a full accounting of the deal, in particular a look at the so-called side deals between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“When we consider these broader strategic consequences of the agreement -- the second-order effects -- what is already a bad deal only looks that much worse,” Armed Services chair John McCain (R-AZ) said at the top of Wednesday’s hearing.
His comments place him squarely in the same camp as Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Corker (TN), who set a high bar for trashing the deal when he kicked off the threesome’s inaugural Capitol Hill appearance before his panel last week.
“Not unlike a hotel guest that leaves only with a hotel bathrobe on its back, I believe you’ve been fleeced,” he said.
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Joni Ernst, the freshman senator from Iowa, asked Dempsey if he agreed with Obama and Kerry that the U.S. only had two options—either sign the deal or go to war with Iran. "No, at no time did that come up in our conversation nor did I make that comment…. I can tell you that we have a range of options. There are things between here and there."
Kerry and others, like National Security Adviser Susan Rice, have labored to counteract the Republican talking point to no avail. For Kerry in particular, hours of questioning by Republicans and skeptical Democrats has at times taken a deeply personal nature.
On Tuesday, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) questioned the Secretary of State’s devotion to the United States.
“If the ayatollah doesn’t like it and does want to negotiate it, oh, boohoo,” Perry said during an hours-long hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We’re here for America. We stand for America. You represent America.”
Kerry fired back almost immediately.
“Congressman, I don’t need any lessons from you about who I represent,” he said. “I’ve represented and fought for our country since I was out of college. So don’t give me any lessons about that, OK?”
Related: Kerry Accuses Critics of Iran Deal of Believing in 'Fantasy'
The White House has launched a campaign to educate lawmakers about the deal, sending Wendy Sherman, who led the U.S. team in the nuclear talks, to brief Democratic and Republican leaders on the accord’s minutiae.
The administration’s Sisyphean labors received a boost on Tuesday when Rep. Sandy Levin (MI), a prominent Jewish Democrat, announced he would back the nuclear deal.
“I believe that Israel, the region, and the world are far more secure if Iran does not move toward possession of a nuclear weapon,” he wrote. “I believe the agreement is the best way to achieve that.”
But on Wednesday that step forward was wiped out, symbolically when Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), a member of the Foreign Affairs panel, said she couldn’t support the agreement.
“I commend President Obama and Secretary Kerry for their efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but the deal before us now is simply too dangerous for the American people,” she said in a statement. “I have every confidence a better deal can be realized.”
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Congress is expected to vote on the Iran deal sometime in September. Should the GOP-controlled Congress approve a resolution condemning deal, the president has gone on record as saying he would veto it.
That would set up another showdown with lawmakers. The president would need to hold onto 145 Democrats in the House to sustain the veto, a task made tougher by Meng’s defection and repeated critical statements by Foreign Affairs ranking member Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY).
It’s still too early say how such a vote would play out in the Senate, where Obama needs at least 13 of his fellow Democrats to side with him.
Obama isn’t ready to declare Congress a lost cause, even as lawmakers look to the August recess.
He invited House Democrats to attend a reception in the East Room in another attempt to allay their fears about the agreement.
The event “will be a good opportunity for him to make the case for why we believe this is not only a deal that's in the best interests of the United States, but also one for the region,” White House deputy press secretary Eric Shultz said during a press briefing.
“I do think our arguments are going to prevail,” he later added.
