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October 27, 1999
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The media, Bill Clinton and Al Gore have all been having tantrums
about the defeat of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Clinton accused
Republicans of "partisan politics" and "a new isolationism," and Gore
chimed in with a chorus of calling Republicans "right-wing extremist"
and "breathtakingly irresponsible."
Now we know what those epithets mean. If Republicans acquiesce in
Clinton's policies, they are praised as "bipartisan" and "responsible,"
while if they oppose his policies they are "partisan," "isolationist,"
"irresponsible," and part of a "right-wing conspiracy."
It's Clinton, not the Republicans, who has tried to turn the Test
Ban Treaty from a national security issue into partisan politics.
Clinton substituted name-calling because he lacked rational arguments
to rebut the six former Secretaries of Defense and two former Chairmen
of the Joint Chiefs who opposed this dangerous treaty.
For days, the New York Times headlines screamed such headlines as
"The G.O.P Torpedo," "Partisanship Arrives in Foreign Affairs," "A
Nuclear Safety Valve Is Shut Off," and "New Isolationism Imperils U.S.
Security."
The media blamed Republicans for setting a trap. But the
Democratic leadership had threatened to shut down the Senate and
prevent it from transacting any other business unless Majority Leader
Trent Lott scheduled a vote; so Lott gave them their vote and the
Democrats crashed.
Contrary to the torrents of outrage pouring forth from Clinton
lackeys, the world isn't coming to an end because the Senate exercised
its constitutional "advice and consent" power to reject a bad treaty.
Nor did the world stop turning when the Senate refused to ratify Jimmy
Carter's SALT II treaty, and we would be a lot safer today if the
Senate had rejected Carter's giveaway Panama Canal treaties.
If it's true that the Senate Test Ban Treaty vote dealt a blow to
bipartisanship, that's a good thing for American security. The Test
Ban Treaty is only the latest effort of the Clinton-Talbott-Albright
interventionists to use the bipartisan slogan as a fig leaf to cover
the indecencies of flawed, foolish and unverifiable agreements that
would put U.S. sovereignty and security in the noose of foreign
control.
Our Constitution wasn't designed for Senators to "get along" or
"work together" in bipartisan happy-talk, and it's a perversion of the
system when both parties support the same policies. Our Constitution
was designed for constant conflict and controversy because that is the
way we can maintain our freedom and independence,
Self-government demands vigorous advocacy of different points of
view on foreign as well as domestic policies. After both parties make
their policy recommendations, the people can make known their decision.
Bipartisanship has betrayed the American taxpayers and our armed
services again and again. The leadership of both parties supported a
long list of crucial policies that never enjoyed majority support among
the voters.
Enormous sums of taxpayers' money were used to bail out corrupt
foreign regimes, including Mexico, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
Billions went through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Russia
where mob-style politicians pocketed our tax dollars in their secret
bank accounts.
Bipartisanship rams through big appropriations every year for all
those unaccountable international lending agencies, including the IMF,
the World Bank, and the ripoff called the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC).
Bipartisanship is paralyzing all efforts to deal with our problems
with China, probably our biggest enemy in the coming decades. Neither
party wants to talk about China's human rights violations, espionage,
cash contributions to Clinton, or its $60 billion trade surplus that is
financing its military-industrial complex.
Bipartisan folly prevents the Republican leadership from telling
the American people the truth about the humanitarian disaster and
foreign-policy failure of Clinton's wars and peacekeeping operations in
Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia and Haiti. We didn't hear a peep from
Republicans when Clinton cavalierly canceled the debt of $5 billion
that 38 foreign countries owe to the U.S. taxpayers.
A good example of foolish bipartisanship is former Republican
National Chairman Haley Barbour becoming a paid lobbyist for Ted
Turner's campaign to persuade Republicans in Congress to vote $1
billion in alleged unpaid dues to the United Nations. Barbour is even
running a full-page ad in the conservative Weekly Standard in support
of this goal.
Bipartisanship has built a fence around extravagant federal
spending programs so none is being reduced. The bipartisan leadership
couldn't even bring itself to cut the National Endowment for the Arts,
despite its current blasphemies at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Clinton's treaties are dangerous and costly for America, and
bipartisanship is a Clinton ploy to coopt Republicans into becoming a
party to his mistakes. The voters are looking for leaders who will
stand tall for American national security, and the vote against the
Test Ban Treaty is a good start.
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