WASHINGTON -- Democrats are pledging to make Senate rejection of a historic nuclear test ban treaty a political issue for 2000. Republican opponents of the pact call it fatally flawed and dispute that the vote will command much campaign attention.
On a largely party line vote, the Senate defeated the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty late Wednesday, 51-48. Only four Senate Republicans voted for the treaty. The United States thus became the first nuclear power to specifically reject the 154-nation agreement on ending nuclear weapons testing."I assure you the fight is far from over," Clinton said after the vote. He said he still would encourage other countries to ratify the treaty and predicted eventual U.S. support. The 1996 treaty cannot take effect without U.S. ratification.
But few on either side of the political aisle expected to see another vote on the treaty anytime soon in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Utah's two senators -- Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett -- joined a majority of fellow Republicans in refusing to ratify the treaty.
"I am in favor of a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty, but not this treaty," Bennett said.
"For the past 40 years we have sought a test-ban treaty that was verifiable, of limited duration and allowed for very low-yield testing. This treaty is the opposite: It is is not verifiable, it is permanent and it does not permit the very low technical tests needed to keep our nuclear deterrent safe and reliable," he added.
Hatch also said he opposed it because it would "lower confidence in our strategic deterrent while creating an international regime that does not guarantee an increase in this country's security."
He added, "Does it make sound strategic sense for the defense of our country that the United States, in effect, unilaterally disarms our technological superiority by freezing our ability to modernize and test?"
It didn't take long for Democrats to promise to try to convert their embarrassing defeat -- the test ban treaty had been a top Clinton administration foreign policy priority -- into a political attack on Republicans both in the presidential and congressional races.
They said polls show most Americans favor such a ban -- first proposed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 and endorsed, in various forms, by every president since.
"We expect that this should be and will be a national issue next year in the presidential elections," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Other Democrats said campaign ads already were being envisioned to use against GOP incumbents.
And, campaigning in Seattle, Vice President Al Gore called the Senate vote "an act of almost breathtaking irresponsibility."
"This is not the last word on this subject from the American people because I intend to make in this an issue in my campaign for president and my first act as president will be to resubmit this."
Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has condemned the treaty, as have Elizabeth Dole and the three Senate Republicans who are presidential hopefuls: John McCain, R-Ariz.; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; and Bob Smith, Ind-N.H.
Smith, one of a small band of conservatives who managed to block efforts by more moderate Republicans to put off a vote, said after Wednesday night's vote that he wasn't surprised Democrats would seek to make the rejection a big campaign issue.
"Unfortunately, that's the way it is in politics," he said. He said the vote was the right course. "It's better to be definitive than to delay," he said.
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the Senate majority leader, said he doubted that Democrats could turn the Senate rejection into a winning campaign issue because "this one is not a close call."
He portrayed the treaty as badly flawed and said, "The American people are smarter than they (Democrats) give them credit for."
Opponents argued the treaty was not verifiable and would not stop the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. Further, they argued it would harm efforts to maintain the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
After the vote, Clinton, who became the first leader to sign the treaty in 1996, said: "Never before has a serious treaty involving nuclear weapons been handled in such a reckless and ultimately partisan way. This was a political deal, and I hope it will get the treatment from the American people it richly deserves."
It was the first time the Senate has ever rejected an arms control treaty and the first time any treaty had been rejected since an unpopular agreement dealing with airline overflight rights and exposure to international lawsuits had been rejected in 1983.
The debate had been closely watched around the world by other nuclear powers.
"With this vote tonight, the world becomes a more dangerous place," declared Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Levin suggested the reaction would not only make it easier for other nations to resume or initiate testing, but that it could make it less likely that Russia would ratify an existing arms control treaty -- START II -- presently before its parliament.
But GOP leaders blamed the Clinton administration and Senate Democrats for complaining about lack of Senate action on the pact so much that they had no choice but to call their bluff and schedule a vote.