Sen. Bennett "Leaning Yes" on New START Treaty

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today: Friday July 30, 2010:

Bennett Leaning Toward Backing Nuclear Arms Treaty - The Salt Lake Tribune [link]

• Senate Democrats need to find eight willing Republicans to ratify a new nuclear arms control agreement with Russia. They may have one in Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, who all but announced his support for the New Start treaty.
• “We are now at a point where I think this is probably a good idea,” Bennett told The Salt Lake Tribune in an interview this week. “I think it is a step in the right direction, a continuation of the thawing, if you will, of relationships between the United States and Russia that goes all the way back to Ronald Reagan.”
• The Utah senator who leaves office in January wouldn’t officially announce his support until Arizona GOP Sen. Jon Kyl, the Republican point man on the issue, finishes his review. “But he is leaning yes; I am leaning yes,” he said.

 New START: Too Modest to Merit Partisan Bickering - Robert Kagan of the Washington Post [link]

• It's hard to believe that ratification of the New START treaty is turning into a pitched battle between some Republicans and the White House…The proposed cuts in nuclear arsenals are modest…This is hardly the revolution that either side claims.
• It's equally hard for the treaty's critics to argue that these cuts represent a great leap toward zero and the end of the American nuclear deterrent. The three previous arms control treaties, all negotiated by Republican presidents, and two of which were ratified with full Republican Party support, cut deployed nuclear weapons from near 12,000 down to around 2,000 -- about 80 percent.
• If anyone deserves credit, or blame, for moving the United States in the direction of zero, the two Bushes deserve a lot more than President Obama.
• On this issue, Republicans can and should take the high ground and set a better standard. The treaty has its problems...and so did the treaties negotiated by the two Bush administrations. But New START is not so badly flawed as to warrant rejection.

START Vote Next Week Uncertain - Lara Rozen of POLITICO [link]

• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has added a Wednesday Aug. 4 business meeting to next week’s schedule to consider the START nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
• The administration is still hoping for a committee vote on the treaty next week before the Senate breaks for August recess. But some on the committee are skeptical that everything can come together by then.
• There's a full court press to try to get Republicans on board by then. Vice President Joe Biden will meet with Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) at 9:45 a.m. [on Thursday] at the White House where the issue is expected to be discussed.
• Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) held meetings with Assistant Secretary of State for Verification Rose Gottemoeller this week. Gottemoeller showed both Senators a "summary" of the negotiating record on key topics such as missile defense in a bid to satisfy Republican members requests for the complete record.
  

Nuclear Stars Align for New START - Joe Cirincione in Huffington Post [link]

• Nine of the ten former and current commanders of America's nuclear forces have now told the Senate that it is time to approve a new arms pact with Russia. Will the senators listen to our top military leaders?
• The substantive debate over the New START treaty between the United States and Russia is now over…Administration officials have thoroughly answered all the questions that skeptics posed about the treaty.
• The clincher came this week, with a statement from seven of the eight former commanders of America's nuclear forces urging quick approval of the treaty.
• The Senate should take this advice and consent to the quick approval of this vital national security instrument.

Movie review: 'Countdown to Zero' - LA Times [link]

• The documentary is both a thorough look at the many ways the world's 23,000 nuclear weapons endanger us and a desperate plea to cut that total to zero.
• Inspired in part by the success of "An Inconvenient Truth," the makers of "Countdown to Zero" are determined to mobilize public opinion to zero out the world's nuclear arsenal.
• We all should be rooting for their success, because failure would leave no one left to mourn our mistakes.