It’s a constitutional requirement that two-thirds of the Senate vote to ratify any treaties that the U.S. government signs. The New START Treaty has the votes to pass in this Congress but probably does not in the next, which will have six more Republicans. That’s why it is important to ratify the treaty in the current lame-duck session of Congress. This isn’t really a controversial treaty. It’s supported by the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar (R-IN), as well as former Republican Secretaries of State Condoleeza Rice and Henry Kissinger. It has the support of the Joints Chief of Staff, and Bush-appointed Defense Secretary Robert Gates. In other words, regardless of party, those in the Establishment responsible for our diplomacy and national security are fully supportive of the president’s efforts to enter into this arms-reduction treaty with Russia.
Yet, the Republican leadership in the Senate has decided to scuttle the treaty. Matt Cooper reports in the National Journal that Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona has betrayed the White House.
On Tuesday, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., declined to support a vote in the lame-duck Congress on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START. Because Republicans had designated Kyl as their lead negotiator with the administration on the treaty, his opposition makes the measure all but impossible to pass in the newly elected, more Republican Congress that takes office in January…
…Kyl’s opposition caught the White House by surprise. They believed that they had secured his support through promises to enhance the country’s nuclear arsenal. The flatfooted reaction doesn’t bode well for the upcoming session, in which the administration will need keen intelligence on who stands where.
The New York Times has more detail on the betrayal:
…the White House strategy had hinged entirely on winning over Mr. Kyl, and Democrats, who began scrambling for a backup plan, said they considered the chances of success slim…
Both parties had considered Mr. Kyl the make-or-break voice on the pact, with Senate Republicans essentially deputizing him to work out a deal that would secure tens of billions of dollars to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex in exchange for approval of the treaty.
Over many months of negotiations, the administration committed to spending $80 billion to do that over the next 10 years, and on Friday offered to chip in $4.1 billion more over the next five years. As a gesture of commitment, the White House had made sure extra money for modernization was included in the stopgap spending resolution now keeping the government operating, even though almost no other program received an increase in money.
All told, White House officials counted 29 meetings, phone calls, briefings or letters involving Mr. Kyl or his staff. They said they thought they had given him everything he wanted, and were optimistic about completing a deal this week, only to learn about his decision on Tuesday from reporters.
This is a continuation of the Party of No Strategy and completely redolent of Chuck Grassley’s antics that I wrote about yesterday. It is further proof that the Republicans think they can destroy the president by denying him any accomplishments and making him look impotent. But, in this case, there is a cost to the country.
The Kremlin did not respond to the development, but Russian officials have expressed fear that Republican victories in this month’s midterm elections would damage relations. “We don’t have confidence that the document will secure enough votes,” Konstantin I. Kosachev, chairman of a parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said earlier in the day, according to the Russian news media. “The problem is not that the document is bad. We are confronting the fact that Republicans refuse to ratify the treaty.”
Mr. Obama had assured President Dmitri A. Medvedev during a meeting just two days earlier that winning approval of the treaty was his “top priority” in foreign affairs for the lame-duck session. If he cannot, it may embolden hard-liners in Moscow who have been skeptical of the so-called effort to “reset” the relationship with Russia.
If there is a silver lining to this carwreck it is that it is (in poker terms) an unmistakable tell. The GOP is not cooperating on anything, even on the most obvious and ripe measures for bipartisan support. They are in full annihilation mode. It’s good for the White House to get that message now, before they make any more miscalculations based on an underestimation of the Republicans’ willingness to act in bad faith.
