Posted on 07/07/2009 6:07:59 PM PDT by jazusamo
Senate Republicans see a new agreement forged between President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as an opportunity to force Democrats’ hand on a major security issue: missile defense.
Sixty-seven senators, or two-thirds of those present, must agree to ratify any deal seeking to reduce nuclear weapons between the two nations, giving Senate Republicans, who only control 40 seats, rare leverage.
The high bar for ratifying treaties will put pressure on Obama to finish construction of a missile shield in Eastern Europe. At the very least, it will make it very difficult for the president to limit that shield in exchange for Russian concessions on the size of its nuclear stockpile.
Republicans are already demanding that Obama press Russia into allowing a missile defense system in Eastern Europe in return for the U.S. agreeing to reduce its nuclear arsenal to between 1,500 and 1,675 warheads.
“I don’t want the Russians to get something and we get nothing. I don’t know what we’re getting out of this,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an influential member of the Armed Services Committee.
“I think the administration is going to make a mistake if they don’t recognize the missile-defense components of this debate have to be addressed.”
Bipartisan support for missile defense systems and a reluctance among many Republicans to reduce the American nuclear stockpile could make it difficult for Obama to pass the new arms treaty with Russia through the Senate.
“I think it would be a high hill to climb,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who called Obama’s tentative agreement with Medvedev a “positive step.”
Liberal Democrats have long been skeptical of missile defense programs, questioning their cost and effectiveness.
Democrats would like to ratify a nuclear arms control treaty by December, when the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia is scheduled to expire.
Some Democrats, however, argue that a new treaty would not need to be in place by the end of the year because Obama could promise that the administration would follow it in anticipation of formal ratification.
Obama is now reviewing whether to go forward with a controversial missile defense system that former President George W. Bush pushed for aggressively despite strong objections from Russia. Russian leaders view an American-built missile shield in former Warsaw Pact countries as a breach of its traditional sphere of influence.
Obama has advocated over the years for a reduction in nuclear arsenals, going back to his days as an undergraduate student at Columbia University. He wrote about his vision for a nuclear-free world and has pursued that vision as president.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), an Independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, often sides with Republicans on foreign policy and national security issues, and he’s likely to do it again on this topic.
Lieberman said that he would oppose any effort to cut missile-defense systems in exchange for Russia reducing its number of warheads.
“It’s important that we not give up the commitment that we’ve made to both Poland and the Czech Republic, but also to build a system that is more effective than any of the other alternatives to protect both Europe and the United States from a long-range missile attack,” said Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Senate Republican supporters of missile defense programs include Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), the top-ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, who told The Hill: “This is a foundation on which to have other conversations, such as missile defense.”
Lugar believes missile defense systems do not pose any threat to Russia.
Baker Spring, a national security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, predicted that “potentially it can be very difficult” to get the Senate to agree to a nuclear treaty with Russia.
Spring noted that last month the House adopted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting the use of funds for implementing an agreement with Russia to reduce nuclear forces unless Obama certifies that it does not limit missile defense systems, space capabilities or advanced conventional weapons.
The tentative agreement between Obama and Medvedev already appears to violate that provision by calling for a limit on delivery vehicles, such as submarine-based missiles and bombers, which can be used to deliver conventional payloads.
While he has yet to make a final decision on completing the missile defense program in Poland and the Czech Republic, Obama defended the project from Russian criticism during a news conference Monday. Obama said the system is intended to protect against missiles from Iran and could not counter the “mighty Russian arsenal.”
Some Democrats and liberals are disappointed that Obama did not reach a more ambitious agreement with Medvedev, calling the proposal to reduce by a third the arsenals in the U.S. and Russia “modest.”
“I personally called for going down to a thousand [warheads] earlier in the year,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “Many people have suggested 1,200, 1,300, 1,400. Most of the war-fighting scenarios that I’ve seen are well-taken-care-of at those lower levels.”
Kerry called the level Obama agreed to with Medvedev — about 1,600 — a “first step.”
Kerry said that some Democratic colleagues would find the agreement with Russia too modest but nevertheless predicted that most Senate Democrats would vote for a cautious treaty.
“I’ll take this — it’s an important step,” he said. “We’ll go right back to the board next year.”
The operative clause for DemoCRAP Chicanery. They call a late night after hours session and only call DEMS to vote on the Treaty.
That wouldn’t surprise me at all, it’d be SOP for Dingy Harry.
GOP must climb in the sewer where the RATs live and fight them using their tactics.
This guy is such a complete disaster that even some of the sheeple are starting to notice.
I posed the question some time ago; how hard will it be for the SRM to continue to cover for him? Pretty hard, I think.
GOP must climb in the sewer where the RATs live and fight them using their tactics.
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If the conservative force in this country is to succeed in removing the communists from our government, they must get down in the gutter and fight these traitors and cowards at their own level.
They had better with Zer0 traipsing around the world putting our security and others at risk.
WOW, like we can trust the Russians.... LOL.... Obama is a fool it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Russia was helping the Iranians kill our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It also wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the Russians were selling Missile technology to the Iranians and were helping them develop a Nuclear bomb.
It also wouldn’t surprise me to learn that there were some Top Secret Russian plans to destroy the USA using the Muslims and the Chinese to do the dirty work.
Obama is an amatuer the real shame is that it won’t only be his enabling liberal buddies that wind up getting killed in the end it will be all of us.
SRM???
Since when did Odinga ever give a rats ass for the law?He’ll just appoint another czar to oversee nuclear treaties.A nuclear czar-yeah,thats the ticket.
State Run Media.
LOL, great headline. Reminds me an old one...
Military Budget Cuts: Air Force may drop some weapons
They must have been really steamed at Congress.
Mark Belling said the same thing today on Rush’s show. I’ve been posting that Conservatives have to fight fire with fire for over two years on FR.
Take the gloves off and fight for our survival just like our troops have to do in Iraq and Afganistan. Our battle is less critical.
We may have to act like them to defeat them, but we do not need to permanently become them.
Beware of trickiness. A lot of things which should be treaties have been passed as “agreements” which (I have never seen the Constitutional citation for this) require half of each house of Congress. NAFTA is one example which could never have gotten 2/3 in the Senate.
Good point and one that could very well take place with this president and the two running Congress.
Even lib voters should wake up if Obama is weak on missle defense when N. Korea threatens to send a missle to Hawaii.
Since when does oscumbo worry about small details like thos found in the former Constitution?
The red jihadists of our new Emperor must be defeated; if not defeated, stymied..
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