Of all the lows they've hit these last two years, the Republicans have never gone this low. No, seriously. Blocking a nuclear arms treaty that would have the US and Russia working more closely together to control loose nukes and that is supported by people across the spectrum to deny Obama a political win is as low as it gets.

And the potential consequences are hideous. Matt Duss, from the Wonk Room:

Dismantling the arguments against the START treaty on the NewsHour last night, Richard Burt, the Reagan administration's chief U.S. negotiator for the original START treaty, noted that "there are only two governments in the world that wouldn't like to see this treaty ratified, the government in Tehran and the government in North Korea." Burt also warned that, if the treaty fails, not only would "we miss the opportunity to improve relations with the Russians, who have supported us on Iran and U.N. sanctions and increasingly in Afghanistan," but the U.S. would also "lose all credibility on the problem of stopping nuclear proliferation.".. ...But as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already — repeatedly — admitted, the GOP's main goal is making sure that President Obama is "a one term president." Severely handicapping the President's ability to credibly conduct American foreign policy — regardless of the actual consequences — is just one tactic in that larger effort.

Jon Kyl objects because the modernization issues aren't resolved to his satisfaction? Really? Please. He's been moving the goalposts on these issues all year, as the administration has thrown more money into modernization to address his concerns. NYT:

The administration has committed to spending $80 billion program to do that over the next 10 years, but Mr. Kyl has sought more money and greater assurance that the money would come through in future years. In recent days, the administration dangled an additional $4 billion in hopes of winning his support, but Mr. Kyl held out. The administration has also promised to spend more than $100 billion over 10 years upgrading the triad of nuclear weapons: submarines, bombers and missiles.

Ask yourself if you honestly think that Kyl would still be saying no to a Republican administration that put a five-fold increase in spending on the table ($800 million to $4 billion).

James Baker was there with the president today. And Henry Kissinger. And Brent Scowcroft. Also current Senator Dick Lugar. Republicans all. Does it matter? Does anything matter? Defeat Obama. That's all that matters. It's bad enough when it's about benefits for jobless Americans. This is about nuclear nonproliferation. It's about Iran.

Obama and all Democrats better step up their game on this. In the old days of politics, for a Democratic president to have Kissinger at his side was enough. The Republicans would assent. That's not the case now, obviously.

This provides us a good real-life case study in political strategy. There will be some issues on which Obama will have to compromise with the GOP. But there will be some things on which he has to come out swinging. This is one of the latter. And not just Obama. Every Democrat who remotely matters on foreign policy. Can they coordinate like this? Can they demonize Kyl? Do they have the nerve?

Democrats, you face a truly demented opposition that knows only political warfare. Do something about it.

