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TONIGHT on THE ANDREA SHEA KING SHOW–9 PM ET
Dropping by at the top of the show will be Dr. Kate, who’ll give us a report on the LTC Terry Lakin trial being held at Ft. Meade, MD. Dr. Kate has been inside the courtroom during the trial and has first-hand knowledge of the proceedings.
Then Capitol Hill insider Elizabeth Letchworth of GradeGov.com will join us with updates on the federal fiscal fireball that’s about to enter the atmosphere via your congress. You won’t want to miss her insights on this catastrophe.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth reports the following:
Debate on the START treaty began in the U.S. Senate as of mid-Wednesday. Dec. 15, 2010. The motion to proceed to Executive session is not debatable and therefore can not be blocked by any Senator. The vote to go into Exec. session garnered 66 votes. 67 votes are needed to ratify a treaty in the Senate. The House of representatives does not consider treaties.
Dates of interest
–Old START treaty w/USSR expired Dec. 2009
–Treaty signed in Prague on April 8, 2010
–WH transmitted the treaty to the Senate on May 13, 2010.
–The Foreign Relations committee and Armed Services committee held hearings, meetings, mark-ups and other routine committee processes in the months of June and July
–Oct 1 the treaty was reported to the Executive Calendar.
–Any time after Oct. 1 is when the Majority Leader could have called the treaty up for Senate consideration.
Talking points
Since the original START treaty has been expired for almost a year, and the world didn’t come to an end like many predicted, why believe these same people when they say this needs to be done NOW!
Sen. Reid did not ask for the Senate to consider this Treaty in Oct. because he wanted to protect his members from having to vote on any politically tough issues before their elections in November.–How important could it really be other than a good PR win for POTUS if the Senate Leader didn’t bother to bring it up in Oct or before now?
The Treaty can’t be THAT vital if the Maj. Leader felt it was OK to punt on Senate consideration
Since the House doesn’t consider Treaties, why do it now? It could be done after Christmas once Congress has finished its other work that requires bi-camerial action. The Leader is trying to use the “clock” and push this through before moving other items that need both House and Senate concurrence. In other words, he is creating a log-jam so that pressure from DREAM Act, DADT, Tax cuts and/ or the approps process might help him garner the needed 67 votes
Process
The reading of the treaty could have been requested by Sen. DeMint. It would have meant all night tonight and the Senate would be where it will end up tomorrow AM when they resume the treaty. Sen. DeMint doesn’t want to “use up” the reading idea since he wants to implement it for the Omnibus approps bill. He felt the public might “tire” of his antics if he were seen as a constant roadblock
Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) is helping Sen. DeMint and will offer amdts and declarations, conditions and understandings, all in an effort to slow down the action on the treaty.
Sen. Reid will start raising the rhetoric and urgency by late tomorrow. — the log jam he has created will begin to build the pressure he is hoping will result in getting a couple more votes
Prediction
The pressure that the Leader is creating by calling the treaty up now will back fire on him. I believe and Sen. DeMint and Kyl concur that if the Government shuts down, the American people will back the shut down unlike the outrage orchestrated by the Clinton Admin. back in 1995. (Non essential government employees didn’t report to work from Nov. 14-Nov. 19 and Dec. 16-Jan. 6)
IMPORTANT!
When you contact your member of Congress, please use GradeGov.com. Your Grade and letter goes to personal, inside email accounts for all 535 MOC.
If you resort to using the Senate/House email system, your letters will simply get dumped into a computer reporting system….no one ever sees your letters.
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