As a general rule, I am very proud of our two senators from Tennessee--both Republicans--but this was surely not their finest hour. To put it mildly.
Both Sens. Alexander and Corker voted for START.
Whether they did this because they genuinely believed that it is a good thing, or simply in the name of pragmatism (i.e. a desire not to "weaken" President Obama by handing him a major foreign-policy defeat), I do not know.
Either way, this one stings. A lot.
The Russians' reading of the preamble suggests that we may be dissuaded, in the future, from pursuing a serious missile-defense system, lest we should irritate the Russians, and thereby provoke them into withdrawing from the treaty.
Why? Neither one of them are Conservatives.