Obama locks up GOP votes for nuclear treaty

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama locked up enough Republican votes Tuesday to ratify a new arms control treaty with Russia that would cap nuclear warheads for both former Cold War foes and restart on-site weapons inspections.

Eleven Senate Republicans joined Democrats in a 67-28 proxy vote to wind up the debate and hold a final tally on Wednesday. They broke ranks with the Senate's top two Republicans and were poised to give Obama a victory on his top foreign policy priority.

"We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons," Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, said after the vote.

Ratification requires two-thirds of those voting in the Senate and Democrats needed at least nine Republicans to overcome the opposition of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl, the party's point man on the pact.

The Obama administration has made arms control negotiations the centerpiece of resetting its relationship with Russia, and the treaty was critical to any rapprochement.

Momentum for the treaty accelerated earlier in the day Tuesday, the seventh day of debate, when Lamar Alexander, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, endorsed the accord.

The treaty will leave the United States "with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to kingdom come," Alexander said on the Senate floor, adding, "I'm convinced that Americans are safer and more secure with the New START treaty than without it." Four other Republican senators said they would back the pact.

"START" stands for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Five other Republican senators -- Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Robert Bennett of Utah and Thad Cochran of Mississippi -- said they would back the pact.

"We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons," Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said after the vote.

Obama has insisted the treaty is a national security imperative that will improve co-operation with Russia, an argument loudly echoed by the nation's military and foreign policy leaders, former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and six Republican secretaries of state.

"We know when we've been beaten," Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch told reporters hours before the vote.

Obama has insisted the treaty is a national security imperative that will improve co-operation with Russia, an argument loudly echoed by the nation's military and foreign policy leaders, former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and six Republican secretaries of state.

In a fresh appeal for ratification, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that the treaty would "strengthen our leadership role in stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and provide the necessary flexibility to structure our strategic nuclear forces to best meet national security interests."

Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a rare visit to the Capitol to win over lawmakers.

Later in the day, Democrats turned back Republican efforts to change the treaty, rejecting an amendment to add mention of rail-based launchers on a 63-32 vote and another to delay the treaty until U.S. military equipment confiscated during Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia was returned. That measure failed, 61-32.

Any changes to the treaty effectively would kill the pact and send it back to negotiators.

Conservative foes of the accord -- among them possible Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty -- argue the treaty would restrict U.S. options on a missile defence system to protect America and its allies and lacks sufficient procedures to verify Russia's adherence.

"The administration did not negotiate a good treaty. They went into the negotiations it seems to me with the attitude with the Russians just like the guy who goes into the car dealership and says, 'I'm not leaving here until I buy a car,"' Kyl said.

That opposition withered in the face of forceful statements from the military establishment, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen who said Monday that the treaty "enhances our ability to do that which we in the military have been charged to do: protect and defend the citizens of the United States."

Obama, who postponed his holiday vacation, lobbied hard for the Senate to complete the treaty before January when Republicans increase their numbers by five and the accord's outlook would be bleak.

Weeks after Republicans routed Democrats at the polls -- seizing control of the House and strengthening their numbers in the Senate -- Obama has prevailed in securing overwhelming bipartisan approval of a tax deal with Republicans and getting repeal of the 17-year-old ban on openly gay military members, a crucial issue with the party's liberal base.

The White House had made steady progress in its efforts to persuade Republican lawmakers despite McConnell and Kyl's opposition.

In announcing his support, Alexander said he was reassured by a letter from Obama, in which the president reiterated his commitment to modernizing the remaining nuclear arsenal with projected spending of $85 billion over 10 years.