US-Russian Arms Negotiators "Under the Gun," Might Temporarily Bypass Senate Ratification For Treaty

US-Russian Arms Negotiators "Under the Gun," Might Temporarily Bypass Senate Ratification For Treaty

From ABC News:

MOSCOW -- With the clock running out on a new US-Russian arms treaty before the previous Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires on December 5, a senior White House official said Sunday said that the difficulty of the task might mean temporarily bypassing the Senate’s constitutional role in ratifying treaties by enforcing certain aspects of a new deal on an executive levels and a “provisional basis” until the Senate ratifies the treaty.

"The most ideal situation would be to finish it in time that it could be submitted to the Senate so that it can be ratified," said White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control Gary Samore. "If we're not able to do that, we'll have to look at arrangements to continue some of the inspection provisions, keep them enforced in a provisional basis, while the Senate considers the treaty."

Read more .... http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/us-russian-arms-negotiators-under-the-gun-might-temporarily-bypass-senate-ratification-for-treaty.html

Kudos to Jack Tapper for exposing the problems that both sides are having in coming to a new agreement. The Russians see anti-missile defense as a deal breaker .... the Americans do not.

My bet is that the Americans are going to bend on missile defense .... but the fall out is going to be disastrous with our Eastern European allies who were promised by the U.S. that such a system would be installed in Poland with the radar system in the Czech republic.

There is also going to be fallout back home. Most Americans do not share the Administrations views towards missile defense, and see it as a positive program that should be continued. The political price that the Democrats are going to pay will be steep .... starting with the Senate who will probably not feel comfortable in ratifying such an agreement.