Interesting day in the Senate

There was an interesting fight in the Senate between Brownback and Kerry. Brownback/Bayh had a resolution calling on the SoS to redesignate NK as a terrorist state - even though there is no new information that that is the case. Kerry pointed out that it would be wrong to do this without proof and mentioned that it would harm efforts to negotiate the release of the two women. Kerry/Lugar had their own bill requiring a report on the situation within 30 days.

Kerry's passed, Brownback's failed. The odd think was that the evidence cited by Brownback was so old it was on a report that, President Bush claimed was in error when he agreed to take NK off the list. (Rather strange seeing Kerry ask Brownback if he believed the President. ) McCain was his usual unctuous self in a series of "questions" to Brownback.

Kerry's amendment got all the democrats who voted plus some of the SFRC Republicans (Lugar, Corker and Murkowski) and the Maine Senators. Lieberman also voted for the Brownback bill.
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77539&hors=s#

(I had gone to CSPAN to see if there was a speech with this - which there wasn't.


Kerry introduced a Nanotechnology Bill
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090722006227&newsLang=en

about how tough they are ?

and to think that Bayh would have been VP if hillary won the nomination. Lieberman continually shows he needs to be replaced by a real Democrat and hopefully his endorsement and support of Mccain over Obama results in him not winning no matter which party he runs as in the future.

Kerry's bill was good in that the report it asks for is a good idea, but I assume it was also designed to give protection to Senators who could be hurt by voting down Brownback's bills. Brownback's bill, even though it had no real teeth, would clearly have harmed the negotiation efforts.

Was when Brownback said he was "partially somewhat familiar with the six-party talks"!

Senator Kerry, who was completely familiar with the 6 party and the bilateral talks, to agree with him because because because - oh, well North Korea is evil. Obama is lucky to have someone as good at these debates as Kerry to stop these counterproductive resolutions and amendments on foreign policy. (I don't think they have won one yet.)

Good to see Brownback smacked down too.

Please, let's have no more baseless attempts at unjustifiable "regime change."

I had seen the headline and kind of thought, "now what", but this is excellent news. The last thing I wanted to hear is saber rattling at N Korea too. I'm glad Kerry's level head won the day and once again, am so glad he's there instead of Biden. Hope he knows how much he's appreciated.

Clinton Trades Jibes With North Korea http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/asia/24diplo.html

Not very diplomatic

They would not have written in this detail of things like this in the past. (The NYT did not cover when the NY Senator made a joke that spoke Ghandi and gas station attendants.) Still, imagine the media had Biden made these comments.

In fairness, there are many - Kerry included - who have listed as one reason for NK's actions that they wan the US to pay attention to them. That though is a world of difference from calling them rebellious teenagers or children - and saying that she will not give them attention.

A South Korea sources makes it sound closer to the Brownback amendment than it was. It distorts the Kerry amendment by missing that it was designed to stop the Brownback one and that it does NOT ask the SoS to redesignate NK as a terrorist nation. They ignore that Kerry argued nothing in the current NIE supports doing that. If the report is like the NIE, it will not lead to a redesignation.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2009/07/23/78/0301000000AEN20090723000600315F.HTML

More interesting is a one Korea advocacy blog - that is clearly conservative and biased against Kerry in the diary, but the comments are interesting as they push back or provide insight. The diary is pretty incompetent, because it thought the Brownback amendment passed, when it merely was allowed to be voted on - and defeated. ( The way they changed the title is pretty odd - I was initially very confused because the partial title said Kerry failed to stop it- and that was not what I saw on CSPAN or roll call.) His comments on Kerry are ridiculous and frame the Senate record excepts. (They noticeably cut out other Kerry comments where he speaks of how "we" led in getting new tough UN sanctions in place because it doesn't fit his view of the world.) I am putting in the link because there is some talk at the end of a Congressional aide named as helping Kerry on this and they bring up the possibility of Kerry helping on this - as Wisteria's article suggested.
http://bx.businessweek.com/north-korean-economy/john-kerry-tries-fails-to-stop-amendment-calling-for-n-korea-to-be/16103246179696679873-8021a3c5de73c1bc5f6c45c21846be72/