Alabama’s Republican Senators Vote No

POLITICAL ANALYSIS
by Glynn Wilson

While a large bipartisan group of senators handed President Obama a third victory in the lame-duck session of Congress Wednesday when they voted to ratify a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, Alabama’s two Republican senators voted against it, which comes as no real “surprise, surprise,” as Gomer Pyle would have said.

Perhaps reflecting the somewhat racist anti-Obama sentiment of corporate leaders and conservative Republican constituents in their home state, both of Alabama’s Republican senators, Richard Shelby of Tuscaloosa and Jeff Sessions of Mobile, mouthed off about the deal.

“I don’t believe the American people overall would feel that this administration’s number one priority, although despite what they say, is the security of this country,” Shelby told a Newhouse reporter in Washington, D.C. What informed readers might wonder is this: Does he mean the security of the country? Or the financial security of Shelby and his supporters in the military-industrial complex in Alabama?

“They want to negotiate treaties,” Shelby scoffed. “And a lot of people in the negotiating, I believe, might be a little soft on security and defense.”

Right. Or, perhaps they have a different philosophy. Maybe they see that keeping track of and reducing nuclear weapons makes for a safer world, rather than continuing to spend the trillions it takes to keep the escalating arms race economy “growing.”

See the difference?

Sessions said he thinks the United States was “too eager” to make a deal, knowing full well that the Russians have already said they would not agree to negotiate another settlement. The document is ready to ratify and sign.

According to Sessions, this administration has the “cockamamie” idea that we ought to go to “zero nuclear weapons,” Sessions said, an outright lie — and he knows it.

Later, in a speech on the floor, according to the Birmingham paper, Sessions called it a “dangerous” goal. Dangerous for his friends in the military-industrial complex, he means, and to the “growth” of that economy, he forgot to say.

The Senate approved the New START Treaty by a vote of 71-26. Vice President Biden played a major role. He lobbied his colleagues hard for the bill for days, then presided over the chamber during the vote, when 13 Republican senators crossed party lines to ratify the important treaty, joining 56 Democrats and two independents to provide the necessary two-thirds vote, according to the AP wire.

Much of the early opposition to the treaty diminished as former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, six former Republican secretaries of state and much of the nation’s military and foreign policy establishment called for the treaty’s ratification. It restarts on-site weapons inspections, started during Reagan’s time in the White House, but halted last year with the expiration of a treaty from 1991.

The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, signed by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April, limit each nation’s strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, down from the current ceiling of 2,200 — more than enough to blow up and destroy much of human life on the planet.

The only reason Shelby and Sessions could possibly think we need more is for the money.

On the other hand, in a presidential press conference the president called the session, “the most productive post-election period we’ve had in decades.”

In the opening remarks of his press conference, the President lamented the fact that the DREAM Act was successfully obstructed by Republicans in the Senate, and readily acknowledged that there will be tough fights over how to cut spending where it’s not needed while maintaining the investments critical to the economy and the future — but nonetheless expressed hope in the massive slate of accomplishments from the last few weeks.

The list began with the New START Treaty on nuclear proliferation with Russia, which had just been approved by the Senate.

“First of all, I’m glad that Democrats and Republicans came together to approve my top national security priority for this session of Congress – the new START Treaty,” President Obama said. “This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades, and it will make us safer and reduce our nuclear arsenals along with Russia.”

With this treaty, he said, U.S. inspectors will be back on the ground at Russian nuclear bases.

“So we will be able to trust but verify; and to continue to advance our relationship with Russia, which is essential to making progress on a host of challenges — from enforcing strong sanctions on Iran, to preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists,” he said. “This treaty will enhance our leadership to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and seek the peace of a world without them.”

But this is only the beginning, he said.

“In the last few weeks, we also came together across party lines to pass a package of tax cuts and unemployment insurance that will spur jobs, businesses, and growth,” he continued. “This package includes a payroll tax cut that means nearly every American family will get an average tax cut next year of about $1,000 delivered in their paychecks. It will make a difference for millions of students, and parents, and workers, and people still looking for work. It’s has led economists across the political spectrum to predict that the economy will grow faster than they originally thought next year.”

In the ongoing struggle to “perfect our Union,” he said, “we also overturned a 17-year old law and a longstanding injustice by finally ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As I said earlier today, this is the right thing to do for our security. And it is the right thing to do, period.”

In addition, he said, the two sides came together across party lines to pass a food safety bill, in what he called “the biggest upgrade of America’s food safety laws since the Great Depression.”

He hopes the House will soon join the Senate in passing a 9/11 health bill that will help cover the health care costs of police officers, firefighters, rescue workers, and residents who inhaled toxic air near the World Trade Center “on that terrible morning, and the days that followed.”

© 2010, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved.