DATE=10/18/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=TEST BAN AFTERMATH
NUMBER=5-44537
BYLINE=DAVID SWAN
DATELINE=CAPITOL HILL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT: 


INTRO:  The U-S Senate vote against the Comprehensive 
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has left an unusually bitter 
aftermath.  The treaty's supporters complain its 
opponents politicized what should have been a 
nonpartisan issue - while those who defeated the pact 
say their reasons were sound.  V-O-A's David Swan 
reports.

TEXT: For years, there was a saying in Washington that 
politics stops at the water's edge.  In theory at 
least, this meant that whatever their differences, the 
two parties united against foreign threats.  Democrats 
say this attitude of working together for the good of 
the country is now shattered.  Senator Joseph Biden is 
one of the treaty's strongest defenders.

            /// Biden Act ///

      This is absolutely a travesty.  You know, if 
      anybody wondered about it they shouldn't wonder 
      any more.  National security is just another 
      political issue now.  This notion of it stopping 
      at the water's edge, this debate, forget it.

            /// end Act ///

Republicans say their opponents are simply angry at 
losing the vote.  They say the ban on nuclear testing 
did not deserve ratification because it could not be 
verified and could weaken the U-S nuclear arsenal.  
Majority Leader Trent Lott vigorously denies that his 
party's stance was based on narrow partisan issues or 
personality clashes. 

            /// Lott Act ///

      You should note that a majority of the Senate, 
      51 senators, voted against ratification.  Only 
      48 voted for ratification and it requires 67 to 
      ratify the treaty.  So there was not even a 
      close question about whether or not this treaty 
      would be ratified.

            /// End Act ///

While Democrats accuse their opponents of politicizing 
foreign policy, they acknowledge their own tactical 
mistakes gave Republicans an opening.  The White House 
and its allies had long pushed for a vote on the test 
ban.  But when Republicans called their bluff and 
quickly brought up the treaty, Democrats could neither 
avoid a showdown or muster enough supporters to win.  
Minority Leader Tom Daschle says the matter should 
have been handled differently.

            /// Daschle Act ///

      It was our hope that we could have hearings and 
      then have an opportunity to fully debate the 
      treaty.  That wasn't done and I regret the fact 
      that we weren't more careful.

            /// End act ///

Of course, not everything falls strictly along party 
lines.  Some prominent Republicans backed the air war 
over Kosovo.  Nor have foreign affairs ever been 
completely nonpolitical, including the times when 
Democrats controlled Congress.  There were long, 
heated debates when President Reagan sought aid for 
Nicaraguan rebels and when President Bush was 
preparing for war in the Persian Gulf.

But in recent years the arguing has grown louder and 
more caustic.  Partisanship now colors almost every 
issue, domestic or foreign - and some of the test ban 
debate was purely personal.  At one point, which left 
Democrats fuming, Republican Jesse Helms openly mocked 
the president's affair with a White House intern.  The 
senator described a mythical phone call from Mr. 
Clinton to British Prime Minister Blair.

            /// Helms Act ///

      `Cause (because) after all the president could 
      pick up the phone and say "Look, Tony I got a 
      problem over here.  I got a hat full of worries.  
      How about sending me a little old letter?"  And 
      I know Tony'd say "Oh yes, I'll do that, I'll do 
      that.  And give Monica my regards."

            /// End Act ///

Mr. Clinton denies the impeachment scandal had any 
real connection to the treaty's defeat.  But the 
sharp-toned rhetoric has raised concerns in the 
Senate, which prides itself on a genteel, businesslike 
image.  Republican Chuck Hagel, who voted against the 
treaty but wants to reexamine it, says he and his 
colleagues must not let their partisan instincts get 
out of control.

            /// Hagel act ///

      No good will come out of that if we allow 
      ourselves to get boxed into that because that 
      will polarize and then just paralyze, and that 
      will have consequences to everything up here and 
      we'll have a Congress next year and a government 
      that can't govern.

            /// End Act ///

Lawmakers often talk about making cooperation a 
priority again in the wake of partisan struggles such 
as the one over the nuclear test ban treaty.  But 
since next year is an election year, their main 
priority is likely to be re-election and fighting for 
control of the White House. (Signed)

Neb/DS/JP




18-Oct-1999 15:38 PM EDT (18-Oct-1999 1938 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.