The Early Word: New Start Treaty Signed

The Early Word: New Start Treaty Signed
By JANIE LORBER

President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia signed a new arms reduction treaty this morning that will significantly reduce the countries’ nuclear arsenals, a key step in achieving Mr. Obama’s ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.

Under the agreement, which will be posted online later today, the two countries must cut back to no more than 800 total launchers and slash their weapons stores by 30 percent — though they can still deploy 1,550 warheads each, on top of thousands of others not covered by the pact.

That leaves the two nations — which together hold more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons — a lot of muscle, but it is still a significant reduction from 1991 when they held more than 19,000 strategic warheads combined, notes The Times’s Peter Baker.

At the signing ceremony this morning, along side Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gen. James L. Jones, the national security adviser, Mr. Obama said the treaty was not only an important step toward disarmament, but also a milestone in “resetting” the relationship between the U.S. and Russia.

“Our relationship had started to drift, making it difficult to cooperate on issues of common interest to our people,” he said. “Together, we have stopped the drift, and proven the benefits of cooperation. Today is an important milestone for nuclear security and non-proliferation, and for U.S.-Russia relations.”

Mr. Obama added that the two nations would continue to work to address nuclear proliferation in other nations in advance of the United Nations nuclear security summit in Washington next week. For one, the efforts to sanction Iran would likely be a topic in today’s bilateral meeting, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, told reporters this morning.

Now the public relations challenge begins as Mr. Obama tries to win over those who think the treaty does not go far enough and, at the same time, the hawks who think it leaves the U.S. looking weak to potential enemies. Getting the 67 votes necessary for ratification could be tough moving into the polarizing election season.

Officials will begin briefing senators on the particulars of the agreement and Brian McKeon, who works with the National Security Council in the vice president’s office and is running the administration’s ratification effort, will post a description of his initial steps on the White House blog today, Mr. Gibbs said.

Tonight, Mr. Obama will host a dinner for Central and Eastern European heads of state from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence.

Assessing the Meltdown: The panel charged by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis begins its second of three days of hearings on the problems at Citigroup, Fannie Mae and the subprime mortgage market. Former Citigroup chief executive officer, Charles Prince, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, then chairman of Citigroup’s executive committee, are scheduled to testify today before the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

A review of the Federal Reserve’s oversight of the company released Wednesday, painted a troubling picture both before and after its former chairman, Alan Greenspan left the Fed and again after Citigroup received three taxpayer-financed bailouts, The Times’s Sewell Chan reports.

Lights Up, Plane’s Down: A Qatari diplomat is being held after attempting to light a cigarette in a commercial airline lavatory. He claimed diplomatic immunity, which marshals took as a threat, so the plane was grounded in Denver Wednesday night. Officials said the incident is not comparable to the Christmas Day underwear bomber scare, The Times’s Matt Wald and Charlie Savage report.

Health Care Threats: A man arrested in connection with threats against Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her role in the overhaul of the health care system will be arraigned in San Francisco today, reports The Times’s David Herszenhorn.

Stupak Could Go: Fierce criticism over Representative Bart Stupak’s crucial compromise on the health care bill is fueling questions over whether he will run for a 10th term. But, Mr. Stupak, the Michigan Democrat who voted for the bill after negotiating tougher language restricting federal funding of abortion, told the Detroit Free Press that he is not ready to quit.

Six States for Abortion Block: Lawmakers in at least six states are pushing legislation that would block abortion coverage in plans offered through their state-run exchanges.That would likely affect most individual and small-group plans in a state, starting when the exchanges launch in 2014, reports The Wall Street Journal.

A Boston Report Card: As Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts prepares for a surprisingly tough reelection contest this fall, Boston’s mayor, Thomas Menino is hardly giving him rave reviews. Mayor Menino told State House News that Governor Patrick “carried a grade of “C” for the first three years of his term before stepping his game up to a “B+” level the last four months.” Mayor Menino also said that State Representative Michael Capuano, the Democrat who lost the special election primary race to Attorney General Martha Coakley, would be most likely to face Senator Scott Brown in 2012.

Tax Day, For Half: Nearly half of U.S. households will not have to pay income tax come April 15 because their incomes are either too low or because credits and other deductions leave them with no liability, Yahoo News reports.

Hello Bayh: Senator Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat who announced his retirement in February, is likely to make a re-run for governor, reports Talking Points Memo. It’s a familiar post. In 1988 he became the nation’s youngest ever governor.

Specter Forgets: Senator Arlen Specter momentarily forgot what party he’s courting while speaking at Pennsylvania State University Wednesday. He thanked the school’s College Republicans for their endorsement. Perhaps a line from the 2004 speech?

Jobless Claims Rise: The number of workers filing jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week increasing by 18,000 to 460,000, reports the Wall Street Journal.

SCOTUS Talks: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will participate in a panel discussion about women on the high court at Georgetown Law School at 3:30 p.m. today.

Executive Pay Talks: Ken Feinberg, who oversees executive compensation at companies that received bailout money, will speak at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business at 4 p.m.