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 Enough, Already on the Treaty. What's With JonBenet?
* Give me five minutes on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty then you can go back to pondering the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury.
* The reason the treaty suddenly popped up on everyone’s radar screen is because Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said he would hold up the appropriations process until there was a vote on the treaty. Bill Clinton, looking for a foreign policy issue on which Al Gore could run (which did not include the words Bosnia, Somalia, or Haiti) saw this vote as just the ticket.
* On or about September 23rd, Democratic Senators Joe Biden and Tom Daschle, met at the White House with Clinton and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to see what could be done. They agreed to attach a “sense of the Senate” resolution to each appropriations bill saying the Senate should vote on the treaty. This would embarrass the Republicans because, the Democrats thought, if they could get the treaty to the floor it would pass.
* According to press secretary John Czwartacki, they also miscalculated Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott’s resolve. Lott brought it right to the hoop by offering a unanimous consent request for a vote on the treaty. It was adopted on October 1st. Not this earlier this week. October First. In his press conference, Clinton made it seem like the treaty vote had been scheduled with sixteen minutes notice.
* Clinton’s Capt. Louis Renault imitation – feigning surprise that he was shocked, shocked to find that voting was going on back there – is just political posturing. He knew (or should have known) for at least two weeks that there would be a vote.
* Neither the White House legislative staff nor the Senate Democratic Leadership did its homework. If they had, they would have realized that the Republicans were actually studying this treaty, didn’t like what it said, didn’t like what it committed us to, and were not going to vote for it.
* The simple truth is this: If Clinton had bothered to pick up the phone and call either Jesse Helms or Trent Lott he would have known the treaty would fail and the vote wouldn’t even be close.
* Here’s something about treaties generally: Unlike a law – or even the U.S. Constitution – once a treaty is ratified it is forever. Unless there is specific language in the treaty which allows for it to be abrogated, you just don’t send it back to Treaty Central with a note saying “we don’t want to do this anymore.”
* The one person who has made this a political issue is the aforementioned Al “I-Was-Too-Busy-Campaigning-In-California-To-Help-On-This-Vote” Gore. Gore’s campaign released an ad in which he says he favors the treaty. According to campaign press secretary, Kiki Moore, the ad was written and produced immediatly following the vote. It is not a very good ad. Al Gore is no Stuart.
* At the Democratic National Convention, we can expect Gore to do readings from the script of “Silkwood.”
* There is no reason for us to conduct tests anymore. We can just ask the Chinese how our nukes are doing.
* Headline Humor from “The Hotline”: In a report on the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll which measured match-ups between Bush, Gore, and either Pat Buchanan or Donald Trump the headline read: “Trump is Best in a Three Way.” No word on whether President Clinton wanted a chance to compete for the title.
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