Deal!

The final tally is in: Senate Democrats support the Iran deal, 42-4.  (The four Democratic opponents to the deal joining all 54 Senate Republicans in opposing it are Charles Schumer of New York, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.)  The deal can go through, and sanctions on Iran can be lifted.  With Colin Powell behind it, how can President Obama have it all wrong?

Not only is this support enough to sustain a presidential veto, it should be enough to sustain a filibuster of the resolution rejecting the deal, thus killing the resolution before it even reaches the President's desk.  It might not be filibustered - some Democratic senators still want a vote on the resolution - but it's going through one way or the other.

Coincidentally, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada has recovered enough from his accident back in December to stop wearing sunglasses just as this news came through.  He may be permanently blind in his right eye, but he can still see a happy outcome.  And if there is a filibuster, he's going to lead it.        

To be fair, not all of the Republican presidential candidates are opposed outright to this deal.  Jeb Bush has indicated that he wouldn't try to tear it up immediately, and Donald Trump, who opposes the deal as it is and took part in a rally against it, says he would have lawyers go through the whole thing and also try to renegotiate it.  (As Martin O'Malley would say, I'll bet he would!)   But other Republican presidential hopelesses would be hard-pressed to tear up the deal if any of them became President on January 20, 2017.  Because there are other countries - Great Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - that are privy to the deal, and their leaders would be very angry and upset if a President Walker or a President Rubio tried to get out of it.  Republican intransigence is understandable.  It's not that Republicans are unaware that there are other countries involved in this deal.  It's just that Republicans are unaware that there are other countries.