Editorial: Partisan venom on treaty vote

Friday, Oct. 15, 1999 | 8:43 a.m.

In the end, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., called the bluff of President Clinton and Senate Democrats, who had long been clamoring for hearings and a vote on the Test Ban Treaty. Last week Lott realized there weren't enough votes to pass the treaty, which would have placed an international ban on all nuclear test explosions, so he hastily scheduled hearings and a vote for this week to politically punish the president.

The administration and Senate Democrats abruptly changed course and tried to head off a vote, arguing that a rejection would not only damage the United States' standing in the international community but that it also could set off a dangerous arms race, especially by politically unstable nations, including neighbors and rivals such as Pakistan and India. A number of responsible Republicans believed it was in this nation's best interest to postpone a vote on the treaty, including Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner. But the bipartisan effort to delay the vote was rejected Wednesday, with the treaty supporters losing handily, 51-48.

Many of those who opposed the treaty did so on principled grounds, arguing that there weren't sufficient verification safeguards and that rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran, wouldn't be deterred from satisfying their nuclear appetites. Unfortunately, though, too many Republicans wanted to humiliate Clinton. But there was no need to hold a vote and add more instability to the world stage, especially in light of a military coup this week in Pakistan. And here at home it appears likely that Democrats will make the Test Ban Treaty a partisan issue in the 2000 elections.

In comparison to the House, the Senate historically has been viewed as the more mature legislative body, taking seriously its constitutional roles, including the ratification of treaties. But in the past decade the Senate has lost its luster, injecting partisan politics repeatedly into a wide range of its responsibilities, including confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices and Cabinet-level appointments. At one time it was believed that in the realm of foreign policy, politics stopped at the water's edge. The Republican-controlled Senate demonstrated Wednesday that era may be long gone.