WhatFinger

Strange bedfellows

In a unanimous vote, Senate Democrats and Republicans line up behind ...Ted Cruz

By Robert Laurie ——--April 8, 2014

American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

If you don't know the name "Hamid Aboutalebi," don't worry. You're probably better off that way. Aboutalebi was one of the Muslim students who held 52 American hostages for 444 days following the 1979 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. He is also Iran's pick to be their country's newest United Nations delegate. That means he was going to be headed straight for New York City.
However, Ted Cruz vowed not to let that happen without a fight. He sponsored a bill which seeks to give the State Department more latitude with which to bar Aboutalebi's entry into the U.S. due to his terrorist past. Currently, under the rules of an agreement signed in 1947, the United States is obligated to grant entry visas to delegates from UN member states. “Under the existing statute, if the Taliban in Afghanistan had nominated Osama bin Laden to be its ambassador to the U.N.,” Cruz said yesterday, “we’d have to let him in, give him a visa and let him move to Manhattan. Now that’s obviously absurd.” Last night, Cruz's bill passed with unanimous support.
From Bloomberg:
The U.S. Senate passed legislation to bar Iran's newly selected delegate to the United Nations from entering the U.S. because he belonged to the group that took over the American embassy in 1979. The Senate passed the measure, sponsored by Texas Republican Ted Cruz, by voice vote late yesterday after it earlier won the backing in private talks of Charles Schumer of New York, according to a Senate Democratic aide, who asked for anonymity. Cruz said in a speech yesterday on the Senate floor that his proposal would send a message to Iran “that the United States Senate is not just going to ignore this latest insult.”
Basically, Schumer lined up Democrats and made sure they voted in lock stop for the measure.
Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor, said it was “totally inappropriate” that Iran chose Hamid Aboutalebi as its UN envoy and that it would rightly inflame the outrage of the former hostages and their families if he had been allowed to enter the U.S. “We ought to close the door on him, and others like him, before he even comes to the United States, and that’s exactly what this bill will do,” Schumer said.
Now, here's the rub. The whole thing is largely symbolic. The State Department issues diplomatic visas and the legislature has no real authority over the process. It's handled wholly within the Executive branch. The win here is mostly political. Having passed the Senate, the measure will surely breeze through the House. The fact that Ted Cruz managed to assemble a unanimous vote will mean that the administration would be all alone on the ice flow should it allow Aboutalebi entry. If the President vetoes the bill, or if the State Department issues the visa in spite of it, the question facing the administration will be "why?" If there's one rule to life in Washington, it's that you never want to be standing alone when making an unpopular decision. Here's Senator Cruz, discussing his bill yesterday with Jake Tapper.

Support Canada Free Press

Donate
Subscribe

View Comments
Robert Laurie——

Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com

Be sure to “like” Robert Laurie over on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. You’ll be glad you did.

VIEW Comments

Sponsored