Way Out of Nuke Vote Sought
By TOM RAUM
02:07 AM ET 10/06/99
WASHINGTON (AP) - With both sides agreeing the votes aren't there to ratify a
global ban on nuclear testing, the Clinton administration and Republican Senate leaders
were searching for a graceful exit strategy from a scheduled vote next week. Neither side
appeared to want to proceed with the vote. But neither side wanted the blame for calling
it off either.
Both Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Minority Leader Tom
Daschle, D-S.D., urged their respective Senate troops to remain calm late Tuesday as
speculation swirled that the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was doomed and would soon be
pulled from the Senate calendar.
A top Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, told a group of reporters he had
informed the president chances were bleak for achieving the 67 votes next Tuesday or
Wednesday needed to ratify a treaty.
Few Republicans, not even moderates who generally support the president on
international issues, appeared willing to support the pact, Biden suggested.
Lott, who had forced the issue by scheduling a quick vote on the treaty after
Republicans had blocked it for two years, said he would consider calling off the vote -
but only if President Clinton and Senate Democrats would acknowledge they had initiated
the delay.
Furthermore, Lott said he would not agree to any plan under which the treaty
could be called up during next year's presidential race.
``If we're going to vote on this issue in this Congress, it's going to be next
Tuesday or Wednesday,'' Lott told reporters Tuesday night.
Negotiations continued.
``All we can do is continue to discuss the matter,'' Daschle said.
The administration continued to proceed as if the planned vote would occur.
Defense Secretary William Cohen, the only Republican in the Clinton Cabinet and
an opponent of a blanket test ban while he was in the Senate, was the leadoff witness
today as the Senate Armed Services Committee continued hearings into the treaty. ``I think
it's going to be a very uphill struggle but there are serious consequences in the event
this treaty is voted upon and rejected,'' Cohen said Tuesday night on the PBS program,
``The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.''
Clinton invited a bipartisan group of senators to a three-hour dinner to lobby
for the pact. Some supported the treaty and others expressed reservations. The president
``spoke quite passionately about the treaty ... and the consequences of defeat to U.S.
leadership, the national interest and the nonproliferation agenda,'' National Security
Council spokesman David Leavy said. GOP aides afterwards said Clinton did not appear to
pick up any GOP converts as a result of the dinner.
Sandy Berger, the president's national security adviser, said plans were going
forward on the assumption that a vote still would occur next week.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has been signed by 154 nations but
ratified by only two of the seven acknowledged nuclear powers, Britain and France.
Biden, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it looked
as if the treaty battle was degenerating into an almost straight party-line vote. Assuming
all 45 Senate Democrats voted for the treaty, the president still would need 22
Republicans to gain the necessary 67 votes for ratification, and GOP support was
disappearing.
``Republicans have vanished into the ether,'' Biden said. A defeat of the treaty
would be a humiliating loss for Clinton, who had argued that it was vital for America's
national security interests and a deterrent to the spread of nuclear weapons. ``It would
send a terrible message,'' the president said at the White House.
Many prominent Republicans - including GOP presidential hopeful George W. Bush
and Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner of Virginia - say the treaty is not
verifiable and would not stop the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. Further, they
argue it would harm efforts to maintain the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear
arsenal.
Daryl Kimball, director of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a treaty
advocacy group, said the organization still wanted to see a vote.
``It's clear that the fight for the 67 votes is difficult and there has been no
movement since Friday,'' Kimball said. ``The consequences of delay would be tremendous,
but the responsibility for that would lie at the feet of those who vote against it.''
Related Links:
Clinton on Verge of
Losing Treaty
Votes Scarce for Nuke Test
Ban
