Well, that was fast (per the New York Times‘ Weisman and Baker):
President Obama will sign bipartisan compromise legislation on Iran if it emerges from committee as now formulated, the White House said, after Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee crafted an accord with overwhelming support.
While Mr. Obama is not “particularly thrilled” with the bill, said Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, he finds the new proposal put together by the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a more acceptable measure that takes into account the concerns he had raised about the original.
“What we have made clear to Democrats and Republicans in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is that the president would be willing to sign the proposed compromise that is working its way through the committee today,” Mr. Earnest told reporters.
The compromise between Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committee’s chairman, and Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, its ranking Democrat, would shorten a review period for a final Iran nuclear deal and soften language that would make the lifting of sanctions dependent on Iran’s ending support for terrorism.
I worry that Obama did not express his opposition to the legislation clearly enough before accepting it. It may be an unstated premise for most Republicans that the “compromise” would be between Members of Congress with the president being forced to go along.
