US-Russia nuclear pact could face US Senate fight

AFP ^ | 4/8/2010 | AFP

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Top Democratic allies of President Barack Obama called Thursday for quick Senate ratification of a US-Russia treaty committing the former Cold War foes to major nuclear arms cuts.

"This is too important to delay," said Democratic Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tasked with taking up the pact before a full vote by the entire chamber.

Kerry said he would work with the panel's top Republican, Richard Lugar, after the Obama administration submits the full treaty "in early May" to hold hearings and "see that this historic treaty is ratified this year."

Obama has called on the Senate to meet that timetable, but Democrats and their two independent allies hold only 59 of the 67 votes needed to approve the treaty, meaning they will need to rally eight Republicans.

With November mid-term elections on the horizon and a bitterly partisan climate in Washington, prospects for doing so were unclear, and Republicans have signaled strong concerns over the new accord.

"You could probably quibble over renaming a post office on any given day in the United States Senate. That's not to say at the end of the day there isn't enough space and time to do this this year," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said in Prague, where Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the deal.

The White House and its allies have underlined that most past arms control deals have easily cleared the US Senate, which is charged by the US Constitution with voting to bring such agreements into force.

[VeniVidiVici]

"This is too important to delay," said Democratic Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Of course. Kerry's used to surrendering.

[Redbob]

"The White House and its allies have underlined that most past arms control deals have easily cleared the US Senate..."

But the Kyoto Treaty was never ratified, and the Dims can't muster the votes to pass it to this day.

I wonder how Joe Liberalman will vote...

[montag813]

Well let's see. They need 8. they will have at least

Almost certainly "Yea" (4): Snowe, Collins, Lugar, Voinovich

Likely "Yea" (2): Bennett (UT), LeMieux (FL)

Coin-flips (2): McCain, Graham (SC)

That's 8. Did I miss anyone? Scott Brown is a concern, of course.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

They passed easily because there was not a fight. This time there will be a fight. This is a horrible treaty that emasculates our nuclear deterrent and our ability to deliver a second strike against Russia and Ching.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The goal is turn those “Yes” in “No” votes.If we tell them if they vote "no" means that it will jeopardize their seats in November.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The goal is turn those “Yes” in “No” votes.If we tell them if they vote "Yes" means that it will jeopardize their seats in November. Sorry for the mistake.

[hellbender]

More than surrendering. Kerry has been guilty of treason before, but he got away with it, so he's free to do it again. Just like Billie Ayers.

A major theme of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in 1971 involved sending representatives to Paris and to Hanoi to meet with communist leaders. John Kerry has admitted to meeting in 1970 in Paris with Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, the Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, the "waiting-in-the-wings government" ready to take over South Vietnam once the Communists won. Kerry was still in the Navy at that time.

[piasa]

bump