It would seem like a relatively modest request. How about making the world somewhat safer for Christmas? Well, reasonable anywhere but in the partisan agenda-driven Congress.
To date, Sen. Richard Lugar appears to be the only Republican willing to support the new START treaty. That’s the nuclear-weapon pact that would marginally reduce strategic warheads between the U.S. and Russia. Conceivably, that can’t be bad. Even more importantly, it improves our critical relationship with Russia, which is a leverage player in dealing with, among others, Iran. The implications should be obvious.
In effect, the treaty, characterized by President Obama as a “national security imperative,” is being held up by Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz, the Senate Minority Whip. He’s the guy tasked with maintaining Republican party discipline.
The issue with START, it would appear, is not so much the treaty, per se, although Kyl says he wants assurances that the U.S. will upgrade its weaponry. No, Kyl says there are “higher priority items” in the lame-duck session. Actually, it’s a blatantly disingenuous ploy that represents the party-first, country last perception that this is “Obama’s treaty,” and he mustn’t be allowed to succeed. This is part of the political fallout from the zero-sum November elections.
Only problem is that the world just became a little less safe for Republicans too.