Getty GOP senator breaks with McConnell strategy

Mitch McConnell should have taken Harry Reid’s deal on Iran, GOP Sen. Jeff Flake said in an interview Thursday.

The Arizonan said that it “does not make sense” to hold repeated procedural votes on Iran that are sure to fail, as the Senate is doing on Thursday with amendments that would require Iran to recognize Israel and release Americans held in Iran.


Instead, Flake said Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) and his lieutenants should have reached an agreement with Minority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) to have a final vote on a resolution disapproving of the Iran nuclear deal at a 60-vote threshold. That would have failed as well, but would not have technically been a filibuster.

“I don’t agree with my leadership on this,” Flake said as he headed to the Senate floor to make a speech criticizing the GOP’s focus on forcing President Barack Obama to veto the resolution. “It does not make sense.”

On the floor, Flake said that even if the GOP were able to get the disapproval measure on the president's desk, it would have "no value." Indeed, Obama would have vetoed it and Congress would have been unable to override. Still, many Republicans said it was important to force the issue with Obama.

After Reid made an offer to hold a final vote at the 60-vote threshold, McConnell tried to get Democrats to vote at a simple majority threshold, which Reid instantly rejected given the frequent use of the supermajority requirement over the past decade. The impasse precipitated Democrats’ use of the chamber’s filibuster threshold, preventing a final vote on the disapproval resolution and provoking a weeklong argument over byzantine parliamentary procedure and a bevy of failed procedural votes.

Flake saidthat, to him, the entire episode was not a good use of the Senate’s time.

“To not have a final vote on this? If our purpose is to put people on the record where they are on this, then you only do that with a final vote, not a cloture vote,” Flake said.