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Even for a man known for his arrogance, Barack Obama’s treatment of the Senate in connection with the New START Treaty is astounding. His demand that Senators approve this defective accord during the few days remaining in the lame-duck session amounts to contempt of Congress. It must not be tolerated, let alone rewarded. To be sure, Mr. Obama is not the first chief executive to hold the legislative branch in low esteem. Still, his highhandedness when it comes to the constitutional responsibility of the Senate to play a real role in treaty-making seems particularly contemptuous, and contemptible.

President Obama has claimed that the Start nuclear disarmament treaty that he negotiated with the Russians is a solid treaty in the best interest of the United States. I would have to question the validity of this claim as the White House is pushing the lame duck Senate to quickly ratify the Start Treaty without the usual in depth studies usually given treaties with such deep and far reaching consequences. Sometime these consequences will not be realized for years, possibly decades, well after the time that changes or precautions could have better prepared and addressed the affects on our national...

... HH: Can you give us the status on what the Republican position is, you’re the whip, you’re the number two guy in the Republican caucus, vis-a-vis the Bush tax rates, and vis-a-vis START? ... HH: Senator Kyl, the Democrats are trying to throw some smoke in the air on this by saying let’s let the tax hikes go through for people making more than a million a year. Is that on the table in the eyes of anyone in the Republican caucus, that so-called compromise? JK: No. HH: All right. In terms of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal,...

Republican presidents have long led the crucial fight to protect the United States against nuclear dangers. That is why Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush negotiated the SALT I, START I and START II agreements. It is why President George W. Bush negotiated the Moscow Treaty. All four recognized that reducing the number of nuclear arms in an open, verifiable manner would reduce the risk of nuclear catastrophe and increase the stability of America's relationship with the Soviet Union and, later, the Russian Federation. The world is safer today because of the decades-long effort to reduce its...

The call by Democratic senators Chuck Schumer and Carl Levin for AIPAC to back passage of the stalled START treaty with Russia speaks volumes about the growing desperation of both the White House and its Senate allies. The administration is reportedly going all-out to push Jewish groups to lobby for the treaty, but it is unlikely that AIPAC will succumb to the pressure. The group has been scrupulous about sticking to its agenda of working only on behalf of Israel-related issues, a policy that keeps it strictly neutral on arms control measures like START.

President Obama will meet Wednesday afternoon with one of his closest Republican allies, Colin Powell, to discuss the stalled nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Vice President Joe Biden — the White House's point man on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) — will join Obama and Powell in the Oval Office, after which the president will speak to the press. Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, served as President George W. Bush's first Secretary of State before leaving the administration in 2005. He endorsed Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 presidential election....

...New START doesn’t need to be overwhelmingly popular, because it is worth ratifying on the merits. As it happens, it is also overwhelmingly popular according to the relevant polling. However, as we all understand, strong popular support doesn’t necessarily mean anything when it comes to foreign policy and national security matters, because such decisions are not outpourings of the will of the people. Senate Republicans will either embrace specious complaints about limits on missile defense and other distractions, or they won’t, but it will have nothing to do with the election. What the midterms have done is to increase the...

[L]et me get this straight; Russia is mad that we developed a defense to a nuclear war because our defense would nullify their defense, which is really offensive. Now, in our part of this bargain we get to protect Russia from a rogue country that RUSSIA sold nuclear technology to....In addition, we're going to make Russia a "partner" in the deployment of defensive technology in their country -- defensive technology that they can't figure out how to implement OR get their missiles through. And to boot, Russia will be mad if they're treated like the red headed stepchild in the...

President Barack Obama, capping a far-flung Asian trip of mixed results, assured Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday that getting the Senate to ratify the START nuclear weapons treaty is a "top priority" of his administration. "I reiterated my commitment to getting the START treaty done during the lame-duck session," Obama said, noting that Congress returns next week for its postelection session. In talks with Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Obama also reiterated his support for bringing Russia into the World Trade Organization, calling Russia "an excellent partner." His bilateral talks with...

I’m an optimist in general but a pessimist when it comes to nations’ shifting pursuit of their interests. Humans, not states, have consciences. President Barack Obama’s commitment in his 2009 Prague speech “to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” was a fine sentiment but a political mistake. Visions are nice — Marx had one of classless societies. They can also be dangerous. Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, famously remarked that people who have them should see a doctor. The danger was that Obama, very early in his presidency, would be perceived as weak or...

Reporting from Washington — Three days after the midterm elections, senior Obama aides suggested to a gathering of liberal groups at the White House that they might need to scale back their expectations. In the wake of the big Republican win, there would be no new major legislative pushes from President Obama in 2011. The mood, according to some participants at the meeting, was dour. Although the White House advisors said job creation would be a central goal, they did not lay out a concrete plan for putting more people to work. "There was an undercurrent of, 'Hey, folks. We're...

My rant: "This is not an airplane, You can tell from the plume. In 40 years I never saw a jet fighter create that kind of plume" says the retired three star Lieutenant General Tom McInerney. And I agree with him. "I am absolutely certain that that is not an aircraft."

YOKOHAMA, Japan -- President Barack Obama, capping a far-flung Asian trip of mixed results, assured Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday that getting the Senate to ratify the START nuclear weapons treaty is a "top priority" of his administration. "I reiterated my commitment to getting the START treaty done during the lame-duck session," Obama said, noting that Congress returns next week for its postelection session. In talks with Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Obama also reiterated his support for bringing Russia into the World Trade Organization, calling Russia "an excellent partner." ..."

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is offering to add billions of dollars in funding for the U.S. nuclear stockpile in a deal that it hopes will win enough Republican support for approval of a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. White House officials outlined the proposal to Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who is seen as the key to winning enough support to ratify the New START treaty, according to a congressional aide briefed on the proposal Friday. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

WASHINGTON – In a bid to win approval of a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia before newly energized Republicans increase their clout in the Senate, the Obama administration is offering to add billions of dollars in funding for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

The Obama administration is urging the Senate to ratify the US-Russia Strate gic Arms Reduction Treaty -- but it won't release the negotiating record for "New START" to senators who've asked for it. Denying the Senate's requests raises all sorts of suspicions about the treaty, which would reduce the US strategic nuclear arsenal by about 30 percent and cut our missile silos, bombers and submarines by nearly 20 percent. Is there is something in the blow-by-blow transcript of the talks with the Russians that the White House doesn't want senators to see? Some fear the administration did some winking and...

Missile Defense News On Tuesday, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) clashed head on with Obama administration officials in the first hearing over a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a proposed nuclear arms control treaty that the White House has submitted to the Senate for ratification. Senator DeMint hammered home the point that the treaty would limit how future presidents could pursue missile defenses. Secretary Gates brushed off the concerns as did the Committee Chair Senator John Kerry (D-MA) dismissing the notion that the White House has come up with anything but the perfect missile defense plan. But others argue the...

Arms Deal: President Obama signs away U.S. nuclear security and gives the Russians a veto over whether we can defend ourselves. Our nuclear umbrella is in tatters as another piece of paper proclaims peace in our time. Completing a process of disarmament and appeasement that manifested itself in the dismantling and defunding of U.S. military power that began with his inauguration, President Obama signed a new strategic arms limitation treaty with a grinning and very happy Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday in the Czech capital. How fitting this document was signed in Prague, which isn't far from Munich where...

US-Russian nuclear arms reduction negotiators seem close to concluding a follow up strategic arms reduction treaty (START). The Russian press reports that Washington has agreed to serious concessions and that the new START treaty will be signed soon. The new verification measures will be less intrusive and “based on trust.” The US military control mission will be permanently removed from the Votkinsk missile factory in Udmurtia in the Urals. The US is reported to have agreed to allow Russia in the future to cipher telemetric data of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test launches. Both sides will be allowed 700 to...

WASHINGTON — Negotiations with Russia to replace an expired Cold War-era arms control treaty have bogged down and now appear unlikely to be concluded by the end of the year as the White House had hoped. As the two sides seek a breakthrough, President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, plan to discuss the nuclear negotiations in a meeting Friday on the sidelines of United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark. The two leaders are not expected to seal a deal. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, say negotiations with...