{"id":212077,"date":"2021-03-11T14:30:13","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T19:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=212077"},"modified":"2021-03-11T14:30:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T19:30:13","slug":"nervous-pentagon-nominee-weighs-private-outreach-to-menendez-romney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nervous-pentagon-nominee-weighs-private-outreach-to-menendez-romney\/","title":{"rendered":"Nervous Pentagon Nominee Weighs Private Outreach to Menendez, Romney"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnervous-pentagon-nominee-weighs-private-outreach-to-menendez-romney%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=212077&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-139448343.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A top Pentagon nominee is on the ropes, and his team is now looking to shore up support from two senators he has lacerated on Twitter: Bob Menendez and Mitt Romney.<\/p>\n<p>Colin Kahl, President Joe Biden\u2019s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy, has been one of Menendez\u2019s most strident public adversaries, and Kahl and his team are increasingly concerned the New Jersey Democrat could oppose his nomination, sources tell the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Politics<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"list-none p-0\">\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/politics\/biden-covid-death-scandal\/\"><strong>While Biden Waited to Sign COVID Relief Bill, Nearly 1,500 Americans May Have Died From the Virus<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/politics\/lawmaker-demands-investigation-into-actblue\/\"><strong>Lawmaker Demands Investigation Into ActBlue<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/politics\/nervous-pentagon-nominee-weighs-private-outreach-to-menendez-romney\/\"><strong>Nervous Pentagon Nominee Weighs Private Outreach to Menendez, Romney<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kahl slammed Menendez\u2019s 2013 Iran sanctions bill as a &#8220;diplomatic train wreck&#8221; and promoted a conspiracy theory&nbsp;alleging the&nbsp;&#8220;Israel lobby&#8221; was using the legislation to start a war between the United States and Iran on behalf of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n<p>Kahl\u2019s nomination has had a rocky start in the Senate Armed Services Committee, where several Republicans have announced their opposition due to his inflammatory Twitter comments and his positions on Iran and Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Although Menendez is not on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he and Kahl could face off if the nomination makes it to the Senate floor. The committee is expected to vote on Kahl\u2019s nomination next week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Here\u2019s the new Senate Iran legislation. It\u2019s a diplomatic train wreck,&#8221; wrote Kahl on Dec. 19, 2013, linking to a copy of Menendez\u2019s Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act bill.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here&#8217;s the new Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Iran<\/a> legislation. It&#8217;s a diplomatic train wreck. <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/xsMpc4Vm7r\">http:\/\/t.co\/xsMpc4Vm7r<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/413749606431076352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 19, 2013<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Kahl later approvingly tweeted a link to a blog post on the website &#8220;Lobe Log&#8221; that called Menendez\u2019s bill the &#8220;Kirk-Menendez Wag the Dog Act&#8221; and claimed it was designed by the &#8220;Israel lobby&#8221; to push the United States into war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Proof that the new Iran sanctions legislation is a bad idea? Look at the Iraq war crowd supporting it,&#8221; wrote Kahl, linking to the Lobe Log post.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Proof that new <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Iran<\/a> sanctions legislation is a bad idea? Look at the Iraq war crowd supporting it: <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/cr31uVdT4N\">http:\/\/t.co\/cr31uVdT4N<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/421459735162802177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The blog post, which was headlined &#8220;Neocons Who Brought You The Iraq War Endorse AIPAC\u2019s Iran Bill,&#8221; claimed &#8220;the Israel lobby, for which AIPAC is the vanguard, are flogging as hard as they possibly can&#8221; for the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Kahl later <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">claimed<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on Twitter that the bill would<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/414127879555792896\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">create<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a &#8220;threat-threat spiral&#8221; between the United States and Iran, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/413745587721605120\">make<\/a> &#8220;war more likely.&#8221; He also called the legislation a &#8220;poison pill&#8221; for diplomacy and suggested that Congress was less enlightened than Iranian mullahs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Possible Obama will have more difficulty w\/Congress re:<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#Iran<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;than&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#Rouhani<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;will in convincing Iranian hardliners,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/384357665243009024\">wrote<\/a> Kahl, linking to another Lobe Log post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This wasn\u2019t the only Menendez legislation that Kahl lobbied against. In 2017, he criticized a bill crafted by Menendez and then-senator Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) that included targeted sanctions on Iran\u2019s terrorist activities, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n<p>Kahl said one of his concerns was that the bill was needlessly provocative to the IRGC and endangered Americans troops.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can already designate and sanction any member of the IRGC and the IRGC as an organization under existing authorities, so the bill actually does nothing beyond being a symbolic gesture to basically rub it in the nose of the IRGC, so it\u2019s gratuitous,&#8221; said Kahl during a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic &amp; International Studies on March 31, 2017.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I understand politics and the need to show that you\u2019re tough on Iran, but in this case the symbolism could have the inadvertent effect of triggering a response by the IRGC,&#8221; Kahl added. &#8220;And if that response by the IRGC is something that actually puts our troops, our men and women, in harm\u2019s way\u2014it strikes me that\u2019s a price that\u2019s not worth paying for a symbolic or political thing that won\u2019t make any difference to our ability to actually do what we can already do against the IRGC.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Aside from Menendez, Kahl has also gone after Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah). As one of Obama\u2019s top surrogates, Kahl attacked Romney\u2019s foreign policy during the 2012 presidential race. After Romney described Russia as the United States\u2019 &#8220;number one geopolitical foe,&#8221; Kahl was quoted in an Obama press release mocking the Republican candidate for his &#8220;Cold War-era talking points&#8221; and claiming this was &#8220;yet another example of Mitt Romney\u2019s willingness to say anything to get elected, no matter how reckless it may be.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Routinely deriding Romney as a supposed lightweight on foreign policy, Kahl <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/255364432014737410\">quipped<\/a> on Twitter: &#8220;My Gtown colleague Madeline [sic] Albright would give Romney\u2019s FoPo a \u2018C.\u2019 Clearly, Prof. Albright grades on a curve!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kahl also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/260564167029821440\">claimed<\/a> that Romney based his Pakistan policy on a &#8220;Wikipedia entry&#8221; and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColinKahl\/status\/260551295906238464\">scoffed<\/a> that &#8220;Romney still thinks Syria is Iran\u2019s only gateway to the sea. Dude needs a map.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Colin Kahl did not return a request for comment from the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. Sens. Menendez and Romney also did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A top Pentagon nominee is on the ropes, and his team is now looking to shore up support from two senators he has lacerated on Twitter: Bob Menendez and Mitt &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310476,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-139448343.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Nervous Pentagon Nominee Weighs Private Outreach to Menendez, Romney","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-139448343.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Nervous Pentagon Nominee Weighs Private Outreach to Menendez, Romney","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}