Kyl Kibosh Kills Treaty Vote

More:  Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) jumped the GOP party line and chastised his colleagues for playing party politics with United States' national security. Lugar said that the leadership in his party does not want to force its members to face an up or down vote on the treaty. Of course they don't because it would be politically difficult to vote against a treaty that even the Pentagon supports. A "no" vote would be more salable in the hyper-partisan atmosphere of an almost evenly divided Senate next year. Lugar said, "I'm advising that the treaty should come on the floor so people will have to vote aye or nay. I think that when it finally comes down to it, we [supporters] have sufficient numbers or senators who do have a sense of our national security". Lugar pointed to the need for Russian cooperation on the issue of insecure nuclear materials inside Russia. Lugar told his colleagues, "There are still thousands of missiles out there. You better get that through your heads". That is a tough request, Senator Lugar, when people are willfully ignorant.  Russian officials are expressing disbelief that conservatives would actually vote against arms control.  What the Russians don't understand--or perhaps they are remembering Ronnie 'Raygun' who went to Reykjavik--is that the treaty's opponents are just as ideologically rigid and opportunist as Soviet communists used to be.  Their minds are permanently locked in the 1950's, when they stopped thinking and "learned to love the bomb".  Besides, building bombs is good for 'bidness'.

Update: {17.11.10}Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is still optimistic that a START II treaty vote can be held this year despite the negative comments from GOP lead negotiator, Jon Kyl. According to Kerry, Kyl has presented his shopping list to the White House which they are addressing. Vice President Biden confirmed that the administration is offering an additional $4.1 billion on top of the budgeted $80 billion over the next ten years for modernizing the US nuclear arsenal. Of course that perennial prima dona Ben Nelson (?-NE) has to get his two cents worth. He wants to delay the vote until next year too. Kerry insists the vote should be this year because it was this Senate that held hearings and worked on the treaty, and this Senate's membership should have the opportunity to ratify it. Kerry told reporters at the Capitol, "We're not stopping because we're negotiating. We're planning to go forward." If the American people have to endure another five decades of "duck and cover" paranoia, they will know who to thank.

{16.11.10}True to form the leading GOP authority on the START II treaty has refused to join a vote for ratification in the lame duck Congress. The announcement is merely a part of the overall GOP strategy to deny President Obama a second term by blocking any legislative accomplishments in the next two years. After Obama told Russian President Medvedev at the G-20 conference that ratifying START II was his "top priority", Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday he did not think the treaty vote could be held before the end of this Congress. Ratification will require a two-thirds super majority. The treaty has almost no chance of passage in the next Congress where there will be even more opposition to confront given the mid-term election results. Kyl's kibosh comes despite the efforts of Democrats to bribe him with $80 billion worth of nuclear weapons modernization. Obama also offered an additional $4 billion in hopes of wining his support. So what about the deficit? Two other prominent GOP members, John McCain and Lindsey Graham expressed cautious support for the treaty at a recent security conference, but Kyl has been the de facto GOP negotiator on the subject. Democrats will reluctantly push ahead for a vote without GOP support according to staff. Failure to ratify the treaty that makes significant further reductions in both sides' nuclear arsenals will endanger future Russian cooperation on mutual security issues. The White House is reportedly "shocked and angered" by Kyl's intransigence. Really?