Dems Prepare Votes on START Treaty

Politico reports:

Senate Democrats appear to have enough votes to overcome a Republican filibuster on the new START arms-control treaty, though it’s unclear if they will have the 67 votes needed for ratification.

At least four Republicans have committed to supporting the U.S.-Russia treaty or are leaning that way, including two who say they will vote for cloture. If Democrats can hold their 58-member caucus together, that would likely put them at or over the 60-vote threshold required to end debate on the treaty and move forward.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid?(D-Nev.) filed a cloture motion Sunday night that would set up a cloture vote Tuesday and a final vote for ratification Wednesday.

“As we move ahead, I look forward to continuing to debate amendments. But soon this will come down to a simple choice: you either want to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, or you don’t,” Reid said.

Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has been urging START ratification in the lame-duck session, is expected to vote for cloture. So will Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

“I’ve said that I’ve supported START and a vote for cloture to proceed to the consideration of it, because I do think it is critical to always engage in reducing our respective arsenals,” Snowe told reporters Sunday at the Capitol. “Wherever we can engage in that with Russia, it is absolutely essential that we do so.”

But she said it’s crucial that her GOP colleagues have the ability to offer amendments. “If we work this process through, we may come to an ultimate conclusion,” Snowe said.

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Manchin Skipped Senate Votes For Christmas Party

Talking Points Memo reports:

After the Senate broke a GOP filibuster on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell earlier today, Sen. Joe Manchinreleased a statement saying he had concerns about the “timing” and “implementation” of a repeal.

But it seems he took even more issue with the timing of the vote itself, seeing as he skipped the vote altogether to attend a Christmas party.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) told reporters at a press conference that Manchin said he had an out-of-town “family thing” and wouldn’t make the votes, according to the?Washington Post.

Manchin spokesman Sara Payne Scarbro elaborated to the Charleston Gazette in an email, saying that he and his wife “planned a holiday gathering over a year ago with all their children and grandchildren as they will not all be together on Christmas Day.”

“While he regrets missing the votes, it was a family obligation that he just could not break,” Scarbro said. “However, he has been clear on where he stands on the issues.”

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