State Departments and Democrats: Axis of Evil

Having resoundingly passed the Military Commissions Act, the House and Senate aren't going to let enhanced torture powers and scaled-back habeas corpus rights sit on the shelf collecting dust. Hence the Iran Freedom Support Act, the Jackass Number Two to the Iran Freedom Act's original Jackass.

The bill, passed by a voice vote, sanctions any entity that contributes to Iran's ability to acquire chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The president has the authority to waive those sanctions, but only when he can show that it is in the vital national interest.

If there's any humor to be mined here, Michael Ledeen found it in a classic bit of bloodlust about the fiendish Democrats doing the bidding of… Condoleezza Rice!

The Senate Democrats refuse to grant unanimous consent, and Harry Reid tried to scuttle it a few minutes ago by postponing consideration until after the elections… it is alarming to see that the Dems are in cahoots with the appeasers in the State Department. The last time this bill came up in the Senate, Secretary Rice sent a letter to…Democrat Joe Biden, asking that it not be passed, thereby demonstrating a singular lack of political acuity as well as diplomatic shortsightedness.

Ledeen thinks the administration has backed off and is ok by the the new bill, which surely will come as a surprise to everyone.