Senate Republicans Find New START Agreement Problematic

Weekly Standard ^ | 6/23/2010 | Fred Barnes

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Ratification of the new nuclear arms treaty with the Russians may not be as easy as the White House, Senate Democrats, and the media appear to expect. The pact, called the New START agreement, faces early trouble in the Senate – serious trouble.

Republicans, led by Senator John Kyl of Arizona, have balked at proceeding with consideration of the treaty until the Obama administration turns over the full record of negotiations with the Russians and follows through on its promise to fund modernization of the American nuclear arsenal.

Republicans also want the official reports on how the Russians are complying – or not complying -- with the 1991 START agreement and the Moscow treaty, ratified in 2003. Not a single compliance report has been sent to the Senate since 2005.

Should the Obama administration refuse to satisfy Republicans, it would take 60 votes to defeat a possible Republican filibuster. Ratification of the treaty requires 67 votes.

Six Republican senators requested the record of negotiations that led to the New START agreement in a letter to President Obama on May 6. They said they needed the record “in order to form a fully informed opinion” and to fulfill their “advise and consent” role.

Their request was sweeping. The documents Republicans are seeking “include but are not limited to drafts, memoranda, notes, statements, records of meetings, working papers, transcriptions, correspondence, letters, electronic mail, or any other form of communication” between American and Russian negotiators.

[thethirddegree]

Obama should be impeached, tried for treason and sent to Gitmo to rot with his muslim buddies.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Ping

[IrishCatholic]

Actually, they have standards.
He isn’t good enough.