I have become a single issue voter. But before you look at my screenname and draw any conclusions: It isn't abortion. It's nuclear arms control. I'm a bit of Christian peacenik. I am a "birthright" Friend, but chose to be baptized Episcopal as an adult. I have decided that I will not under any circumstances vote for Senators who did not ratify the new START treaty. We don't need 5113 nukes! I personally think that the 1550 allowed under the new treaty is still too many.
Richard Lugar (R), my parent's senator is up for re election in 2012. My Senator, Bob Casey, is up for re election in 2012 and he's a Dem. I hope that Lugar doesn't lose his primary because that will mean there are no sane Republicans left except maybe the ladies from Maine. It's the crazies I want to see lose. Crazies like Barrasso of Wyoming and Ensign of Nevada.
Of the 26 Republicans who voted against the START treaty, only 6 are up for relection. Five of them are from western states. The other is Senator Wicker from Mississippi. The Five from western states are:
John Barrasso (Wyoming)
John Ensign (Nevada)
Orrin Hatch (Utah)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas)
Jon Kyl (the other guy from Arizona)
I find it hard to believe that a state as large as Texas is entirely crazy enough to vote for someone who rejects nuclear arms control treaties. If relations with Russia, or any other nuclear power, deteriorate and those missiles are launched (God and All Angels forbid!) that's the end of most life on earth. We have nuclear arms control agreements because we don't want to hand this planet over to the cockroaches. Why any sitting US Senator would vote not to ratify a perfectly good treaty is beyond me. Nuclear weapons are both genocidal and biocidal weapons. Any Senator who insists we need 5113 of them and can't reduce that number to 1550 is way to dangerous to still be in office.
Oh and one more thing; I don't ever want to hear these idiots refered to as prolife ever again. At a bare minimum, anyone calling themselves "prolife" should be voting to reduce, even eliminate nuclear weapons. Bob Casey and Dick Lugar can call themselves prolife, the other guys: NO WAY!