No matter how it will make McCain, McConnell, and Graham pout, the Senate should be able to ratify the "New" START Treaty, having secured nine Republican votes.
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) told reporters Monday afternoon that he would vote to ratify the treaty and also support a motion to end debate, which the Senate will consider Tuesday.
“I believe it’s something that’s important for our country and I believe it’s a good move forward,” Brown said after emerging from a classified briefing in the Old Senate Chamber.
He was the ninth Republican senator to announce publicly that he would vote to ratify or is leaning strongly in favor of doing so. All 58 members of the Democratic conference — including two independents, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Joe Lieberman (Conn.) — support it.
The significant part of that statement from Brown is that he will vote for cloture, freeing up other Republicans to allow the bill to move forward. While it appears that there are plenty of Republicans willing to vote for final passage, getting past the cloture vote and to the final vote could still theoretically be a barrier. Brown's statement makes that less likely. The GOP Senators, in addition to Brown, who are likely to support ratification are Isakson, Gregg, Voinovich, Corker, Cochran, Bennett, Snowe, Collins, and Lugar. Various combinations of those Republicans (in addition to Alexander and Murkowski) voted with Democrats today to vote down a series of Republican amendments to the treaty, which is good news for ratification.
In other good news, Sen. Ron Wyden is recovering from successful surgery for prostate cancer, and should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. If the vote on ratification moves forward as now anticipated on Wednesday, his presence likely wouldn't be necessary--ratification requires a two-thirds majority of those Senators voting, not of the full Senate.