During his first 24 months in office, President Obama has rammed two major pieces of legislation through the Congress without providing sufficient time for review and reasoned debate.
Obama argued that the urgent need for the Stimulus Bill and ObamaCare outweighed the need for prudence and oversight. In both instances, the legislation was fatally flawed with grave consequences for the deficit, the economy, unemployment, and the best health care system in the world.
Once again, Obama is crying wolf as it were, this time bleating about the urgency of ratifying the START treaty during the final days of the lame-duck Congress.
Much to the chagrin of the president, prospects for ratifying the treaty before January 4 received two severe jolts on Sunday when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he would vote against the bill.
The other jolt came from Senator Jon Kyl who said the following, in part:
"I don't know whether it was because of a lack of direction from the commander-in-chief or poor negotiation, but one way or another we got snookered, We got snookered on missile defense. ... We got snookered on tactical nuclear weapons. We got snookered on verification."
Kyl is generally regarded as an expert on the subject and one whom Republicans look to for leadership on this issue.
The burning question that the Senate must resolve is this: Is Obama’s desperate need for a foreign policy victory sufficient reason to ratify a treaty that “snookers” American interests?
