Senate Dems block GOP measure to kill Iran deal

Senate Democrats on Thursday successfully blocked a measure meant to kill President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, dealing a decisive defeat to Republicans’ attempts to derail the controversial agreement and ensuring its survival.

With a 58-42 vote, Democrats filibustered the disapproval resolution that Republicans and other deal opponents had tried to send to Obama's desk, where it would have been vetoed. But with more than enough support from Democrats to sustain that veto, the fight largely turned to the minutiae of Senate procedure and the suspense of whether Democrats would halt the bill from reaching the White House altogether.

Unable to move their legislation forward, frustrated Republicans instead lobbed rhetorical attacks against Democrats in the final hours of the Iran debate, knowing they couldn't ultimately stymie Obama's deal. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a long-shot candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, warned of "holy hell" after the deal ultimately goes into effect.

"Sen. [Harry] Reid has come out of nowhere to change what was the common understanding of how we would proceed," Graham said. "But no, we couldn't do that. We're more worried about protecting Barack Obama from having to veto this than you are about having a debate on the floor of the Senate."

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, remarked: "It always amazes me how compliant the [Democratic] caucus seems to be to what the leadership tells them."

"I can guarantee you as the whip on the Republican side it doesn't work on our side," Cornyn added. "We've been always more of a bottom-up caucus as opposed to top down. somehow they've gotten this far."

The fate of Obama's deal — which lifts some economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for strict controls on Tehran's nuclear ambitions — was already sealed when the White House secured 34 Democratic votes in the Senate last week. Those pledges of support meant Obama had enough support to sustain his veto of the disapproval bill.

But the White House and key allies in the Senate continued to whip up votes among undecided Democrats, winning the backing of senators such as Ron Wyden of Oregon, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Cory Booker of New Jersey — all once viewed as potential votes against Obama's deal.

On top of the Senate machinations, the disarray sparked by a conservative revolt in the House one day earlier complicated the GOP-led Congress's response on Iran even more.