The depth and breadth of bipartisan commitment to the empire is best seen in the House vote (see <http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll105.xml>) on HR 282: Iran Freedom Support Act (see <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00282:>), essentially a bill to "make U.S. sanctions against Iran under ILSA permanent unless there is a change of government in Iran" (Tom Barry, "Iran Freedom and Regime Change Politics," (Silver City, NM: International Relations Center, May 19, 2006, <http://rightweb.irc-online.org/rw/3277>):
Yeas Nays PRES NV Republican 214 6 10 Democratic 182 15 4 Independent 1 TOTALS 397 21 14
The Nays were cast by Baldwin Blumenauer Boyd DeFazio Duncan Flake Hostettler Jones (NC) Kucinich Leach McDermott McGovern McKinney Oberstar Obey Olver Paul Rahall Snyder Stark Taylor (MS)
Kucinich, often ridiculed by many liberals and leftists for being a wooly-headed lover of woodsy creatures, came up with a brilliant tactic of hammering on a division among regime change supporters over what to do with MEK: some want to delist MEK from the State Department's list of terrorist organizations and use it against Iran; but others are weary of it (cf. <http://www.kucinich.us/floor_speeches/intl_iran_freedom26apr.php>).
The Senate version of the bill, S. 333 (see <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.00333:>, is sponsored by that noted advocate of worldwide gay rights Rick Santorum and cosponsored by 61:
Sen Akaka, Daniel K. [HI] - 4/24/2006 Sen Allen, George [VA] - 4/18/2005 Sen Baucus, Max [MT] - 4/7/2006 Sen Bayh, Evan [IN] - 3/15/2005 Sen Bennett, Robert F. [UT] - 4/26/2006 Sen Bond, Christopher S. [MO] - 5/8/2006 Sen Boxer, Barbara [CA] - 11/3/2005 Sen Brownback, Sam [KS] - 2/16/2006 Sen Bunning, Jim [KY] - 5/10/2005 Sen Burns, Conrad R. [MT] - 4/12/2005 Sen Burr, Richard [NC] - 5/25/2005 Sen Cantwell, Maria [WA] - 2/17/2006 Sen Chambliss, Saxby [GA] - 4/27/2006 Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] - 5/9/2005 Sen Cochran, Thad [MS] - 11/17/2005 Sen Coleman, Norm [MN] - 3/4/2005 Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME] - 4/28/2005 Sen Conrad, Kent [ND] - 12/12/2005 Sen Cornyn, John [TX] - 2/15/2005 Sen Corzine, Jon S. [NJ] - 6/23/2005 Sen Craig, Larry E. [ID] - 12/12/2005 Sen Crapo, Mike [ID] - 4/18/2005 Sen Dayton, Mark [MN] - 3/7/2006 Sen DeMint, Jim [SC] - 7/19/2005 Sen DeWine, Mike [OH] - 5/26/2005 Sen Dole, Elizabeth [NC] - 6/6/2005 Sen Dorgan, Byron L. [ND] - 11/14/2005 Sen Durbin, Richard [IL] - 11/14/2005 Sen Ensign, John [NV] - 3/3/2005 Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA] - 11/17/2005 Sen Gregg, Judd [NH] - 3/15/2006 Sen Harkin, Tom [IA] - 5/24/2006 Sen Hutchison, Kay Bailey [TX] - 4/24/2006 Sen Inhofe, James M. [OK] - 2/14/2005 Sen Isakson, Johnny [GA] - 3/7/2005 Sen Johnson, Tim [SD] - 5/24/2005 Sen Kohl, Herb [WI] - 3/2/2006 Sen Kyl, Jon [AZ] - 3/10/2005 Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA] - 4/5/2005 Sen Levin, Carl [MI] - 7/18/2005 Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT] - 3/7/2006 Sen Lincoln, Blanche L. [AR] - 4/3/2006 Sen Lott, Trent [MS] - 5/26/2005 Sen Martinez, Mel [FL] - 4/5/2005 Sen McCain, John [AZ] - 2/28/2005 Sen Mikulski, Barbara A. [MD] - 5/23/2005 Sen Nelson, Bill [FL] - 12/12/2005 Sen Nelson, E. Benjamin [NE] - 4/6/2005 Sen Reid, Harry [NV] - 5/8/2006 Sen Roberts, Pat [KS] - 4/24/2006 Sen Sessions, Jeff [AL] - 11/18/2005 Sen Smith, Gordon H. [OR] - 3/1/2006 Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [ME] - 12/12/2005 Sen Stabenow, Debbie [MI] - 4/4/2005 Sen Stevens, Ted [AK] - 4/26/2006 Sen Sununu, John E. [NH] - 11/14/2005 Sen Talent, Jim [MO] - 5/24/2005 Sen Thomas, Craig [WY] - 12/14/2005 Sen Thune, John [SD] - 7/21/2005 Sen Vitter, David [LA] - 4/4/2005 Sen Voinovich, George V. [OH] - 3/28/2006
There hasn't been much action on this in the Senate, though: ALL ACTIONS: 2/9/2005: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. 3/2/2006: Introductory remarks on measure. (CR S1596-1597)
As Kucinich correctly noted, passing this bill now sends a message to Moscow and Beijing that Washington is committed to regime change in Iran NO MATTER WHAT and will make it even more difficult than now to manufacture multinational ruling-class consensus on Iran, and that's why it's stuck in the Committee, for the time being. We'll see what will happen after mid-August, when Tehran replies to Washington.
To get back to the affairs of the empire, the question of Iran demonstrates that we can't change national policy on the most important questions that have the gravest implications for world economy -- as Iran is far more significant to world economy than Iraq is -- through electoral politics. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>