Posted by
Always To The Right on Sunday, July 05, 2009 3:33:19 PM
Uh, pardon me, but how many seats in the Senate does Obama’s party
hold? Isn’t it 60? If Obama is simply moving forward with a
straightforward, supportable treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear
stockpiles in an effective verification system, why couldn’t he get a
quick ratification? The GOP gave George H. W. Bush enough support in
1991 to pass the original START treaty, so it’s not as if ratification
would be impossibly complicated.
Well, that is, if the deal actually does put in place an effective verification system and doesn’t amount to a de facto unilateral disarmament. With exactly five months
to win Senate approval, the effort by the Obama White House in floating
this idea now makes it sound like Obama wants to give away the store in
order to score some points with his 1980s no-nukes agenda. And as much
as the Democrats howled over the supposed devotion of George Bush to a
“unitary executive,” Obama seems to have no trouble bypassing the check
on executive power for treaty negotiation written explicitly into the Constitution, in Article II, Section 2:
He shall have Power, by and with
the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two
thirds of the Senators present concur;