Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon News

Coup d'état: Pakistan gets a new sheriff
The overthrow of Pakistan's publicly elected government may bode poorly for democracy, but who's crying?
By Alicia Montgomery and Daryl Lindsey
[10/13/99]

Pakistani purge
The coup in Pakistan seems to have wide popular support -- with the proviso that military rule should be temporary.
By Muddasir Rizvi
[10/13/99]

White men can jump
When Baltimore, which is 65 percent black, chose a white as its next mayor, it marked a watershed event in the evolution of America's racial politics.
By Debra Dickerson
[10/13/99]

The conversion of Asa Hutchinson
The "false prophet" of campaign finance offers unexpected support for a tough bipartisan reform bill.
By Jake Tapper
[10/12/99]

Mark Salter: The voice of Sen. John McCain
The war hero's chief of staff knows how to get inside his head.
By Jake Tapper
[10/12/99]

Complete archives for News

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The vote marked the first time an international arms treaty negotiated by a president has been rejected by the Senate. Once it became clear that the treaty would never get the support of the 67 senators required for ratification, Democrats did everything they could to delay a vote. In a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott earlier this week, Clinton lobbied for a delay on the vote, in what some saw as a concession of defeat.

"I firmly believe the treaty is in the national interest," Clinton wrote. "However, I recognize that there are a significant number of senators who have honest disagreements. I believe that proceeding to a vote under these circumstances would severely harm the national security of the United States, damage our relationship with our allies, and undermine our historic leadership over 40 years, through administrations Republican and Democratic, in reducing the nuclear threat. Accordingly, I request that you postpone consideration" of the treaty.

No dice.

Minority Leader Tom Daschle then offered a written pledge that Democrats wouldn't use the issue as campaign ammo if Republicans agreed to delay the vote. He, too, came up snake eyes -- another example of the erosion of trust between the two parties.

All day Wednesday, the White House and Senate Democrats eyed Lott hopefully. Reportedly Lott spent much of the day trying to gauge the commitment of deeply conservative Republican senators -- namely, Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, John Kyl of Arizona, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas -- to see if they would allow the treaty vote to be delayed. Any motion to delay a vote would have required unanimous consent.

Democrats in the White House and Senate said that most of the opposition was borne of an ugly marriage of spite and partisanship.

"Lott's been real slimy on this," said a White House staffer. "He doesn't have a statesman's bone in his body to do the right thing." The staffer said that Lott -- who was unable to "get" the president during impeachment, and anticipating a loss in the upcoming budget battle -- finally saw his chance to stick it to Clinton.

Next page | Let's all hold hands and disarm