MAUREEN DOWD: Nuking the White House

The New York Times ^ | November 20, 2010 | Maureen Dowd

[2ndDivisionVet]

You know you’re in trouble when you need Henry Kissinger to vouch for you.

But there was the one formerly known as “The One” sitting at a table with a bunch of old, white, Republican dudes, choosing the most abstruse issue on the agenda for his moment to Man Up.

With Republicans treating the president like a dirt sandwich and Democrats begging the president to throw a knuckle sandwich, Obama drew his line in the sand on telemetry.

The Start arms treaty used to be a chance for American presidents to stare down the Russians. Now it’s a chance for a Democratic president, albeit belatedly, to stare down the Republicans.

The administration dilly-dallied for months on New Start, which should have been a no-brainer, even after it was clear that Senator Jon Kyl was a problem and needed to be cultivated, and even after it was clear that Republicans were on track to grab some power back.

But faced with the treaty’s unraveling, with possible deleterious consequences for sanctions on Iran and supply lines for our troops in Afghanistan, Obama had no choice. Even if the treaty doesn’t much affect our strategic security, it affects the relationship with Russia and our standing in the world. And resetting the relationship with Russia, with his buddy Dmitri, is the president’s only significant foreign policy accomplishment.

Besides, a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize on layaway doesn’t want to be responsible for any loose Russian nukes ending up in the crazy ’Stans.

As Richard Wolffe notes in his new book, “Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House,” the president drove Rahm Emanuel crazy by spending his first months in office toiling on the details of Start....

[lentulusgracchus]

Rush keeps alluding to absolutely devastating inside information on what happened to the harpy that Douglas spilled to him!

Huh? Care to try that again? What are you telling us?

[lentulusgracchus]

I mean, where were all these conservatives complaining when W reduced our nuclear arsenal back in 2002?

Right here, chief. Whut up?

[tx_eggman]

When on Earth was this picture taken? It really doesn’t look like CZJ.

Good catch ... I went back looking for the pic on google and didn't find it until I did a search for CZJ rather than Catherine Zeta Jones ... turns out I grabbed a look alike by the name of Lesley Wright.

[Will88]

I don’t know the details of this and any arms reduction treaty during W’s administration. You might be right, but I agree with Bolton that it has become foolish to have arms reduction treaties with Russia only when China is building up every aspect of their military, including their nuclear capabilities.

And I also expect, like many of his big policy initiatives, that Obama is more interested is being able to say he accomplished something than he is in US security and whether a give treaty is beneficial to the US.

[bert]

If there is a new arms treaty, then Regan didn’t win the cold war......Obama did.

No Gipper achievement can be allowed to stand.

[TheThinker]

As if anything Obama can do will prevent such an occurrence if Putin wants it to happen.

So Dowd wants us to think that Obama's Nobel is on layaway for his prevention of nuclear proliferation among the 'Stans which really is something however that is something that only the Russians can control anyway.

This is just slight of hand.

So Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was a preemptive payoff for the signing of this new START treaty which only seeks to disarm America's nuclear arsenal, thereby further weakening America's defenses and leverage in the world.

[HarleyD]

Obama’s solution to getting his treaty pass is to call over to the White House a bunch of people who have nothing to do with voting for the thing. Maureen Dowd is not the only one who is clueless and expects to be taken seriously.