So new START is ratified 71-26. Like Daniel Larison says, we can all be happy that a group of hardcore Republican ideologues were unsuccessful in scuttling the reset with Russia and eliminating our ability to monitor their nuclear arsenal either out of misguided radicalism or for the sole purpose of inflicting an embarrassing political defeat on the president.
I agree with Max Bergmann that “The START victory shows that Democrats have nothing to lose politically, and in fact have much to gain, when debating and fighting with Republicans on foreign policy.” I think that was true before the START debate. But I also think that START was particularly non-controversial, and the difficulty with getting START ratified bodes ill for future endeavors, although Spencer Ackerman suggests otherwise.
