President Obama appears to be building momentum for Senate approval of a new arms control treaty with Russia by the end of the year, but it may have to come at the expense of other legislative priorities with far greater support among his liberal base.
With more Republicans signaling a willingness to vote for the so-called New Start treaty, Mr. Obama faces the challenge of finessing relationships with supporters who want him to focus more energy in the short lame-duck session on issues like immigration and gay rights while giving enough members of the opposition reason to vote for the pact.
The White House and Senate Democrats have grown increasingly optimistic that they can gather the two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, required for Senate consent despite resistance by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the lead Republican negotiator. Senate Republican officials said that they were hoping to find a way to make it possible for Mr. Kyl to support the treaty and that if he does, a number of his party colleagues are ready to endorse it.
But having the votes will make no difference if there is no time on the Senate calendar to debate the treaty.
The tradeoff could be other Democratic initiatives, like repealing the ban on gay members of the military serving openly and creating a path to legal residency for some illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children. While the White House said all of these matters could still be addressed, some Democratic officials said they realized something might have to be sacrificed.
Senate Republicans said Wednesday that they would block consideration of any other issue until the Senate extended the Bush-era tax cuts that expire at the end of the month and financed continuing government operations. Mr. Kyl, who is also the top Senate Republican negotiator on the tax cuts, said that issue would have to be resolved by Monday to have enough time to also address the treaty.
Mr. Kyl has sought additional assurances of Mr. Obama’s support for modernizing the nuclear weapons complex but has never ruled out a vote this year. Other Republicans have told the White House that if the president shows he is responding to every question posed by Mr. Kyl, it may make it harder for Republicans to oppose the treaty.
In that vein, Senate treaty supporters secured a letter Wednesday from the directors of the three nuclear laboratories declaring themselves “very pleased” with the administration’s plan to spend $85 billion over the next 10 years to upgrade their facilities.
The plan provides “a workable funding level for a balanced program that sustains the science, technology and engineering base,” said the letter, signed by George Miller of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Michael R. Anastasio of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Paul Hommert of the Sandia National Laboratories.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the letter was “the nonpartisan gold standard” on the issue and showed that “the administration is making good on every promise that President Obama has made on this critical issue.” Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Kyl and other Republican senators on Tuesday.
Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Mr. Kerry’s Republican counterpart and his party’s most vocal advocate of the treaty, said the word of the laboratory directors should decide the modernization issue. “I do not believe we should question their judgment,” Mr. Lugar said.
The White House brought another high-profile Republican, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, to the Oval Office on Wednesday to join Mr. Obama in lobbying the Senate. “This treaty is in the best interest of the United States of America, best interest of the world and frankly the best interest of the Russian Federation,” said Mr. Powell, a retired four-star general.
He also signed a Washington Post opinion article, posted on its Web site Wednesday, along with four other former Republican secretaries of state, Henry A. Kissinger, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III and Lawrence S. Eagleburger.
The full-bore press demonstrated that Mr. Obama has made the treaty his top legislative priority for the rest of the year, other than a tax-cut deal. By contrast, while he has spoken in favor of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” restrictions in the military and passing the Dream Act on immigration, he has not staged the same sort of sustained public campaign, which some took as a sign that he might sacrifice one or the other to get the treaty approved.
But that represents a complex political calculation. Gay and Hispanic Democrats make up important parts of the president’s base, while there is no domestic constituency for an arms control treaty. Moreover, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, is strongly committed to passing the Dream Act after making promises to Hispanic constituents in his hard-fought re-election battle.
How Mr. Obama will navigate those crosscurrents remains unclear. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, insisted that all these issues could be addressed in the next four weeks. “There is plenty of time to get plenty of work done,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the White House had made progress on the treaty. “Last week, we were ready to pronounce Start — or two weeks ago — ready to pronounce Start dead,” he said. Now, after positive statements from some Republican senators, he said, “there’s an understanding that it’s something that’s tremendously important to do.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/us/politics/02start.html?src=twrhp
With more Republicans signaling a willingness to vote for the so-called New Start treaty, Mr. Obama faces the challenge of finessing relationships with supporters who want him to focus more energy in the short lame-duck session on issues like immigration and gay rights while giving enough members of the opposition reason to vote for the pact.
The White House and Senate Democrats have grown increasingly optimistic that they can gather the two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, required for Senate consent despite resistance by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the lead Republican negotiator. Senate Republican officials said that they were hoping to find a way to make it possible for Mr. Kyl to support the treaty and that if he does, a number of his party colleagues are ready to endorse it.
But having the votes will make no difference if there is no time on the Senate calendar to debate the treaty.
The tradeoff could be other Democratic initiatives, like repealing the ban on gay members of the military serving openly and creating a path to legal residency for some illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children. While the White House said all of these matters could still be addressed, some Democratic officials said they realized something might have to be sacrificed.
Senate Republicans said Wednesday that they would block consideration of any other issue until the Senate extended the Bush-era tax cuts that expire at the end of the month and financed continuing government operations. Mr. Kyl, who is also the top Senate Republican negotiator on the tax cuts, said that issue would have to be resolved by Monday to have enough time to also address the treaty.
Mr. Kyl has sought additional assurances of Mr. Obama’s support for modernizing the nuclear weapons complex but has never ruled out a vote this year. Other Republicans have told the White House that if the president shows he is responding to every question posed by Mr. Kyl, it may make it harder for Republicans to oppose the treaty.
In that vein, Senate treaty supporters secured a letter Wednesday from the directors of the three nuclear laboratories declaring themselves “very pleased” with the administration’s plan to spend $85 billion over the next 10 years to upgrade their facilities.
The plan provides “a workable funding level for a balanced program that sustains the science, technology and engineering base,” said the letter, signed by George Miller of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Michael R. Anastasio of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Paul Hommert of the Sandia National Laboratories.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the letter was “the nonpartisan gold standard” on the issue and showed that “the administration is making good on every promise that President Obama has made on this critical issue.” Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Kyl and other Republican senators on Tuesday.
Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Mr. Kerry’s Republican counterpart and his party’s most vocal advocate of the treaty, said the word of the laboratory directors should decide the modernization issue. “I do not believe we should question their judgment,” Mr. Lugar said.
The White House brought another high-profile Republican, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, to the Oval Office on Wednesday to join Mr. Obama in lobbying the Senate. “This treaty is in the best interest of the United States of America, best interest of the world and frankly the best interest of the Russian Federation,” said Mr. Powell, a retired four-star general.
He also signed a Washington Post opinion article, posted on its Web site Wednesday, along with four other former Republican secretaries of state, Henry A. Kissinger, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III and Lawrence S. Eagleburger.
The full-bore press demonstrated that Mr. Obama has made the treaty his top legislative priority for the rest of the year, other than a tax-cut deal. By contrast, while he has spoken in favor of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” restrictions in the military and passing the Dream Act on immigration, he has not staged the same sort of sustained public campaign, which some took as a sign that he might sacrifice one or the other to get the treaty approved.
But that represents a complex political calculation. Gay and Hispanic Democrats make up important parts of the president’s base, while there is no domestic constituency for an arms control treaty. Moreover, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, is strongly committed to passing the Dream Act after making promises to Hispanic constituents in his hard-fought re-election battle.
How Mr. Obama will navigate those crosscurrents remains unclear. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, insisted that all these issues could be addressed in the next four weeks. “There is plenty of time to get plenty of work done,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the White House had made progress on the treaty. “Last week, we were ready to pronounce Start — or two weeks ago — ready to pronounce Start dead,” he said. Now, after positive statements from some Republican senators, he said, “there’s an understanding that it’s something that’s tremendously important to do.”
Read More
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/us/politics/02start.html?src=twrhp
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