Republican Senators Give Obama a Huge Victory on the START Treaty
START Treaty Ratified With Help From Republican Senators
As you may know, along with most conservatives, I opposed ratification of the START Treaty. You can see my previous article on this subject. On Tuesday, December 21, the US Senate voted 71 – 36 to ratify the START treaty with Russia with the help of 13 so-called Republican senators.
To most conservatives, this was an incredible capitulation by a large number of Republicans. This action gave Obama a huge victory, for which he and the lapdog media spent little time hailing the new “Comeback Kid” with a great political victory. After a huge election victory over Obama and the Democrats in November, Republicans decided to give much of it back with this ratification vote.
There is no point in asking why all of these senators decided to vote for a flawed treaty, that weakens the United States, and wasn’t even needed in the first place. In the end, it turned out to be a presidential plea to some Republicans to not embarrass the President and the country, by killing this Treaty. Of course, they could have avoided that embarrassment by agreeing to put off the vote until the new Congress took over in January. That would have brought much more time to scrutinize and investigate of the Treaty but that, of course, might have uncovered even more problems with this flawed Treaty.
Which Republicans specifically did vote for this Treaty? Well, here are the Republican turncoats:
Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Bob Bennett (R-UT)
Scott Brown (R-MA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
George Voinovich (R-OH)
The following non-returning Senators were absent and did not vote:
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Should Republican Senators Voting for START Ratification be Punished by The Voters?
There is little point in focusing any animosity against those Republican senators who are retiring from the Senate this year. Since they do not have to face the voters again, they certainly felt no need to reflect the wishes of their constituents. However, it is worth considering just what, if anything can be done about the remaining Republican senators who voted for the Treaty. These Senators, especially, should be made to face a primary opponent in their bid for a new Senate term in 2012:
Scott Brown (R-MA)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Of these four, I have the most empathy for Scott Brown, who has a difficult electorate to deal with in Massachusetts. However, the other three should be vigorously opposed in their states by the TEA Party and by Republican conservatives. I urge conservative Republican activists in Tennessee, Indiana and Maine to find strong opponents to run against Bob Corker, Richard Lugar and Olympia Snowe, respectively.
In particular, Richard Lugar needs to be targeted by conservatives for defeat. He has been in the Senate since 1977, currently in his sixth Senate term, and has obviously been infected with the liberal establishment’s religion of bipartisanship. He will be 80 years old in 2012 and it is time for him to go. In similar fashion, it’s time to find a real Republican in Maine who can take on Olympia Snowe and beat her in a primary. She has never been a reliable Republican vote. Bob Corker of Tennessee has been a reliable conservative on most issues, but it appears he is succumbing quickly to the inside-the- Beltway liberal disease that seems to infect so many conservatives.
It’s not too early to be thinking about 2012. Republicans will need a net gain of 4 seats to regain control of the Senate from the Democrats in 2012. But it does the Republican Party little good to regain the Senate if they are saddled with a bunch of RINO’s from the past. Republican conservatives must also plan on defeating liberal Republicans who may cast a vote at the outset for a Republican Majority Leader, and then spend the next six years working against him by siding with the Democrats. Let’s defeat Lugar, Corker and Snowe in 2012!
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