In order to score cheap political points, Republicans are ignoring our military leaders and endangering our national security. As reported by Mary Beth Sheridan of the Washington Post:

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) "essential to our future security." Retired generals have been so concerned about getting it ratified that some have traveled around the country promoting it. Seven of eight former commanders of U.S. nuclear forces have urged the Senate to approve the treaty.

But Republicans are opposing it, and the right wing Heritage Foundation is lobbying against it with the Cold War-style shrill that it helps Russia.

Retired Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson, the former deputy commander of U.S. nuclear forces, said Friday that it was "quite puzzling to me why all of this support [for New START] . . . is ignored. I don't know what that says about the trust that people have and the confidence they have in our military."

Of course, Republican support of the military is but a myth, to begin with.

In September, Reagan's Secretary of State George P. Shultz and retired Republican Senator and Vietnam Veteran Chuck Hagel joined President Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and retired Democratic Senator Gary Hart to pen an op-ed in the Post:

We were part of a group of 30 former national security leaders from both political parties -- including former secretary of state Colin Powell, former defense secretary Frank Carlucci and former national security adviser Sandy Berger -- who published an open letter in support of the treaty.

And they concluded:

Given the national security stakes and the overwhelming support from the military and national security community, we hope that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will send the treaty to the floor with robust bipartisan backing and that senators will promptly ratify it with the kind of resounding margin such measures have historically enjoyed. Senate approval of New START would send a strong message to the world that the United States can overcome partisan differences and take concrete, practical action to reduce the nuclear threat and enhance our nation's security.

But Senate Republicans seem only to care about partisanship, not about what the military and other experts say. And our national security may grievously suffer for it.