New START Treaty voted out of committee

[Mass]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_09/025697.php

NEW START ADVANCES FROM COMMITTEE.... Going into today, only one Senate Republican -- ranking Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Dick Lugar -- had publicly endorsed the New START treaty President Obama successfully negotiated with Russia. It will need 67 for ratification -- not 60, not 51 -- which means Lugar would have to be joined by at least seven other Republican senators.

Today was the first key test, with a committee vote on whether to send the treaty to the floor. The results, fortunately, were encouraging.

A Senate panel approved a new strategic nuclear arms control treaty with Russia on Thursday, advancing one of President Barack Obama's main foreign policy priorities to an uncertain future in the full Senate.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 14-4 to approve the new START treaty. The full Senate must consent to the agreement before it can go into effect, but it is unclear when the treaty will get a vote on the Senate floor.
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This said, it was not an easy vote. It was nearly derailed when Webb stood with DeMint on an amendment who would have made a commitment for missile defense. :wtf:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/16/kerry_and_demint_spar_over_missile_defense

Kerry and DeMint spar over missile defense
Posted By Josh Rogin Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 12:01 PM Share
At today's Senate Foreign Relations committee business meeting on New START, chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and Republican Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) got into an open argument about whether the United States should build a giant missile defense system to protect every American citizen around the world.

That's the idea put forth by DeMint in an amendment to the resolution of ratification that the committee is considering, in advance of a full senate debate and vote on the nuclear reductions treaty after the November elections. DeMint said at the meeting that if the United States is going to draw down its nuclear arsenal, it should commit to building missile defense such that every U.S. citizen and all U.S. troops abroad are protected.
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But then, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) also came out in support of DeMint's amendment, which meant that it might pass, forcing Kerry to take it seriously. When the committee broke for a short break, Kerry huddled with Assistant Secretary Rose Gottemeoller, who was waiting in an adjoining room. He then scrambled to meet with DeMint and Corker, presumably to work out a compromise.

The Democrats definitely see DeMint's amendment as a political stunt.

"If you really want this to be something other than a political message, perhaps we can take a couple of days and work on it," said Webb, who promised to vote for the DeMint amendment either way because agreed with the basic thrust of it.
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[Mass]

1. John Kerry: It's About Time We Got START

It's About Time We Got START

BY JOHN KERRY

Bipartisanship has been in short supply in America these days, to put it mildly. Over the past year, health care reform, financial regulatory reform, and energy legislation have all met fierce resistance on Capitol Hill, where the mood has too often been one of distrust, reflexive opposition, and frustration. Fortunately, this spring the Senate was handed an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to work together on at least one issue of critical importance -- arms control -- in the form of New START, the United States' latest nuclear reductions treaty with Russia. And in an important first step Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee demonstrated that bipartisanship is not dead yet.


Traditionally, such treaties have garnered overwhelming Senate support, even in uncertain and polarized times. On Thursday the committee, by a bipartisan vote of 14 to 4, approved a resolution of ratification providing our advice and consent to New START. Three of those 14 votes came from Republicans.

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...In trying to understand the opposition, then, we are left with two options.

The first is that ideology is trumping reason. Although the history of Republican support for arms control is deep -- each of the treaties I mentioned above was negotiated by a Republican president -- the history of right-wing opposition to arms control is deep as well. Some conservatives believe that the United States should never bind itself through international agreements, even though in a nuclear world our security is dependent on cooperation. (How, for example, can we prevent terrorists from acquiring Russian fissile material without Russian help?) During the Cold War, this ideological conviction led some to fight the ban on atmospheric nuclear testing, to oppose negotiation of the NPT, and to compare Ronald Reagan to Neville Chamberlain when he signed the INF Treaty. It is an approach to foreign policy that has done little for our national security.

The second option is even more disturbing: that opposition to the treaty is political. Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has actually touted his opposition to START in a letter to raise money for his 2012 presidential campaign -- a cynical ploy that seeks to exploit public fear of nuclear weapons. And there are some politicians -- whether they are running for reelection or whether they oppose other parts of Obama's agenda -- who would welcome the chance to deny a Democratic president a victory.

But this treaty is not about Barack Obama -- it is about the safety of the American people. That is what every senator has sworn to protect regardless of party affiliation. The Foreign Relations Committee has always worked best when it has left politics at the water's edge. Now it is time for the full Senate to adopt the same bipartisanship demonstrated by the committee and approve New START without delay.