The White House says that the House resolution on Iran is "very consistent" with the message coming from the president this week. But, nobody really believes that. The White House worked to tone down the House resolution and turn it into something that would not embarrass the White House by demonstrating how out of touch the president is on this issue relative to Congress. And then Ron Paul, the only person to vote against the House resolution, explained that he did so because he "admired President Obama's cautious approach to the situation in Iran and I would have preferred that we in the House had acted similarly."
And now the Senate has passed a similar resolution prompting this statement from Senators McCain and Lieberman:
The time has come for the United States Congress to speak out unequivocally in support of the fundamental right of the Iranian people to determine their future for themselves in freedom," said Senators McCain and Lieberman. "With this resolution, the Senate joined with our colleagues in the House of Representatives to affirm our shared commitment to the universal values of democracy, human rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law, and to condemn the unacceptable violence against the peaceful demonstrators taking place in Iran. By acting now, Congress sent an unmistakable message of support to the courageous Iranian people at a critical moment in their history."
Either McCain, Lieberman, Ron Paul, and the entire Democratic caucus in the House are confused about what this resolution says or the White House is. Read the resolution and decide for yourself, and note the presence of the word "condemn," which the president and his spokesmen have so far refused to utter, and the absence of the word "debate."
