President Obama has a knack for forcing people to choose between his policies and their convictions.
It’s not just the contraceptive mandate he’s forcing on religious institutions. It’s also the views he’s forcing on his own side with respect to Iran.
Take Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who heads the Democratic National Committee. She is now caught between her support for the president and her support for Israel. The issue is a pro-Israel Senate sanctions bill the president opposes.
Thus far, Wasserman Schultz has come down squarely on both sides.
This month, when asked by a Washington correspondent for The Daily Beast about rumors she was working behind the scenes to kill the sanctions legislation, her spokeswoman said the congresswoman favors “holding off on new sanctions until the diplomacy pays off.”
Around the same time, the very same spokeswoman told the Miami Herald the congresswoman “has been a strong supporter of sanctions against Iran and will continue to be.” In response, the Emergency Committee for Israel has been running ads highlighting her double-talk.
Maybe she’s taking her cue from the president. In Tuesday’s State of the Union, Obama said he’d “be the first to call for more sanctions” if Iran does not live up to its word. Of course, that’s exactly what the sanctions bill would do. But the White House calls that a “march to war.”
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for Debbie to answer the question: Does she support legislation that would impose new sanctions if the regime in Tehran fails to make good on its promises?