Bibi Netanyahu for RNC Chair, let’s get this campaign started

As diplomatic gobsmackers go, I actually think that John Boehner’s decision to invite Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress without so much as a head’s up to the White House or the Democrats on the Hill is actually less outrageous than Lindsey Graham’s declaration a few weeks ago that he and “Congress” would “follow [Netanyahu’s] lead” when it comes to Iran policy. I mean, there’s committing a diplomatic faux pas while trying to insult the president, and then there’s essentially declaring allegiance to a foreign leader for all to see. The latter still strikes me as more shocking.

(Yes, I realize that the old “dual loyalties” smear can be and too-often is used as an anti-Semitic slur, but I feel like I’m on solid ground here because, for one thing, Graham isn’t Jewish, and for another, those are the words that came out of his mouth.)

Anyway, Boehner is bringing Bibi to speak to Congress to rebut Barack Obama’s characterization of the Iran negotiations and hopefully to drum up enough Congressional support to pass a new sanctions package that may very well end the negotiations and force Obama to undo his outreach to Tehran. Getting enough Democratic support to override an expected veto of such a package may be a little more challenging today than it was yesterday, now that overwhelmingly presumptive 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has, somewhat surprisingly, come down fully against the idea of imposing new sanctions (or conditional sanctions) on Iran right now. Even more amazingly, there is a report (from Eli Lake and Josh Rogin, so take it with every grain of salt you can find, and also it’s being denied by the Israelis) that Mossad officials are going behind Netanyahu’s back to lobby U.S. lawmakers not to support a new sanctions package at this time.

Unfortunately, that same report also says that everybody seems comfortable with a bill proposed by Bob Corker (R-TN) that doesn’t levy any new sanctions but does require that Congress sign off on any final deal. Since Congress is overwhelmingly likely to refuse to sign off on whatever deal might be reached, this is again a poison pill. The Iranians aren’t going to agree to a deal if it looks like the Americans can’t hold up their end of it, and Corker’s bill would make sure that they can’t.

As for Bibi’s big visit, whenever it happens (Boehner wants it ASAP to derail the talks, Netanyahu wants to time it so his visit coincides with an AIPAC meeting in early March), it won’t involve any meetings with Obama or John Kerry. They’re citing the fact that Israeli elections are due to take place in mid-March and “long-standing practice and principle” that the U.S. government doesn’t meddle in democratic foreign elections, which makes you wonder how Israeli election law will treat what is essentially an in-kind contribution to the Likud Party by the Republicans. I’m sure the fact that Obama and Netanyahu hate each other’s guts, to the point where Bibi is happily participating in Boehner’s scheme to embarrass Obama, doesn’t play into the snub at all. But given that Republicans are all pledging to follow Bibi’s commands anyway, it seems reasonable that if he doesn’t get to continue on as PM after these next elections, he ought to take obvious anagram Reince Priebus’s job instead.