OMG. the Globe has two articles on the front page today. One about the treaty, one about Kerry

enate ratifies arms accord
Obama praises bipartisan vote, scores a victory
By Donna Cassata and Desmond Butler
Associated Press / December 23, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Senate ratified an arms control treaty with Russia yesterday that reins in the nuclear weapons that could plunge the world into doomsday, giving President Obama a major foreign policy win in Congress’ waning hours


Thirteen Republicans broke with their top two leaders and joined 56 Democrats and two independents in providing the necessary two-thirds vote to approve the treaty. The vote was 71 to 26, with Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, showing up just two days after cancer surgery.

Obama praised the strong bipartisan vote for a treaty he described as the most significant arms control pact in nearly two decades.
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“The question is whether we move the world a little out of the dark shadow of nuclear nightmare,’’ Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said to his colleagues moments before the historic tally.
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At his news conference, Obama said the bipartisan vote “sends a powerful signal to the world that Republicans and Democrats stand together on behalf of our security.’’ He praised Biden, Kerry, and Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations panel, for their effort.

Kerry kept focus sharp amid drama

WASHINGTON — Of all the political difficulties that threatened to derail yesterday’s Senate ratification of a nuclear arms pact with Russia, an unrelated bill allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military was among the least expected.


But behind the scenes, the House’s mid-December approval of a repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ policy threw Senator John F. Kerry’s efforts to win Senate approval of the New START treaty into sudden doubt.

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n one of the biggest triumphs of his 25-year Senate career, Kerry managed to keep START on track over the next 10 days despite the fury of key Republicans. He and his allies, including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, fielded an intense lobbying campaign, headquartered in a quick-response war room that hummed with staff members.

The effort was aided by a critical last-minute, classified intelligence briefing and pressure from high-ranking military officers, applied at key moments throughout more than 70 hours of floor debate over the past week. In the end, yesterday’s bipartisan 71-26 vote in favor of the treaty completed a dramatic path for an arms pact that seemed close to failure several times in the past month.

“My hat’s off to the Democratic leadership; they’re running rings around us,’’ a frustrated Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters this week as the last votes for START were falling into place. “They’re like Sherman going through Georgia here.’’

The victory helped Kerry ascend more firmly into the role of senior statesman from Massachusetts, a role he inherited after the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy last year, as he spent hour after hour, day after day, alternately wooing and debating colleagues.
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