Senate Republicans May Sink Bush's U.N. Treaty
By Cliff Kincaid
October 25, 2007
Can the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Treaty not only be delayed but defeated outright in the Senate? That's the question that conservatives are delightfully pondering as a remarkable series of events has put the pact, supported by the Bush Administration and the liberal leadership in the Senate, in serious jeopardy. Perhaps the most significant development is the announcement by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that he will oppose the White House and vote against the treaty.
As opponents of the treaty make their case in advertisements and on cable TV and talk radio, Republican senators are increasingly hearing from their constituents that they don't want the treaty ratified because it will undermine American sovereignty and hand more power over to the United Nations.
In the same way that the people prevailed in the Senate in the matter of defeating the illegal alien amnesty bill, it is entirely possible that the U.N. power grab known officially as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) could be rejected.
The views of the American people were on the minds of the top Republican senators who participated in a dramatic news conference in the Senate Press Gallery on Wednesday, on the occasion of United Nations Day, to declare that they would actively oppose the treaty and defeat it on the Senate floor.
"If you want a U.N. on steroids, you want the Law of the Sea Treaty," Senator Trent Lott (Miss.) declared at the news conference. Lott is the Senate Republican Whip, his party's number two leadership position.
"There aren't the votes to pass it," Senator Jon Kyl (Ariz.), stated confidently. If it is brought to the Senate floor, he warned, the American people would send a "resounding" message of "no" to the chamber. Kyl is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, directs the communications operations of Senate Republicans, and is the third-ranking member of the Republican Leadership.
They were joined by Senators Jim DeMint (S.C.), John Ensign (Nev.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), and James Inhofe (Okla.). Ensign serves as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
The Numbers
Since a treaty requires 67 votes for passage, only 34 votes are required to kill it. Most, if not all, of the Senate Democrats are expected to vote for it. So the big question has been how many Republicans could be counted on to follow the White House/State Department line and vote for the treaty. Senator Richard Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been a big promoter of the pact for years. He is usually fawned over by the liberal media as a foreign policy expert.
But the treaty has been hurt by its affiliation with a world body widely known for its corrupt practices and scandals, including rapes of women and children by its "peacekeepers." In this context, another late-breaking development has been the revelation that a former top official of the treaty organization known as the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has documentary evidence of corruption by top officials of the entity and is willing to share it with the Senate. Nithi Sam-Thambiah told this columnist that he has documents proving mismanagement of the ISA and improper payments to the ISA Secretary-General and other officials.
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