Rand Paul roils the Senate with NATO blockade

[jct74]

Rand Paul roils the Senate with NATO blockade

BY ELLEN MITCHELL
03/22/17

Sen. Rand Paul is drawing the ire of his colleagues by being the lone holdout on a treaty allowing Montenegro to have membership in NATO.

The Kentucky Republican says it is in the United States’ best interest to keep the small Eastern European country out of the alliance, but some of his colleagues think he is playing a leverage game with Senate leadership.

...

One Republican senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Paul blocked the treaty because he wants a floor vote on the 2016 authorization for use of military force (AUMF) that former President Obama used to launch the ongoing military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Paul has spoken out at length about the need to review, reform or repeal the AUMF, which allows the president to decide how and when to go to war with another nation with little congressional input or involvement.

“He’s always been isolationist against anything the United States has ever done,” the senator said. “There’s a certain element in the Republican Party that is very isolationist, I’m sure he’s representing that.”

...

read more:
http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/d...-nato-blockade

[jct74]

Rand Paul's latest lonely fight incenses fellow senators

By BURGESS EVERETT and ANDREW HANNA
03/21/17

Rand Paul is at it again.

It’s not enough for the Kentucky Republican to try to tank House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare repeal bill. He’s also driving his Senate colleagues crazy by holding up the one thing the Senate could do to quickly rebuke Russian President Vladimir Putin: pass a popular treaty ratifying Montenegro’s membership in NATO.

The dispute exploded on the Senate floor this month as Paul blocked Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) from bringing up the treaty. McCain said Paul is “working for” Putin; Paul responded that McCain is “past his prime.” But the anger toward Paul goes much deeper than just McCain — nearly the entire Senate wants to pass the treaty immediately.

“It’s a minority position, yeah,” Paul conceded with a smile.

That’s an understatement.

Senators and aides said the treaty could be passed easily if Paul would release his hold, sending a swift message to Russia that the United States isn’t stepping away from Eastern Europe, even with a NATO skeptic like Donald Trump as president. While Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is demanding a roll-call vote rather than passing the treaty with a quick request to do so unanimously, Paul is far more implacable and doesn’t want it to move forward at all.

“Montenegro doesn’t add a great deal to the national security of the United States,” Paul said in an interview. “For people who want Montenegro [in NATO], many of them want Ukraine and Georgia in there. And I think if you do that you have to be prepared to go to war with Russia.”

...

read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-russia-236272

[TruthBTold]

Go Rand!

[milgram]

Damn it sounds like he can't stop it forever

[Brian4Liberty]

How can one Senator block it?

[CPUd]

How can one Senator block it?

probably Standing Rule XXX. If they are trying to amend an existing treaty, they need unanimous consent.
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/SMAN-1...N-112-pg56.htm

[Valli6]

One Republican senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Paul blocked the treaty because he wants a floor vote on the 2016 authorization for use of military force (AUMF) that former President Obama used to launch the ongoing military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Paul has spoken out at length about the need to review, reform or repeal the AUMF, which allows the president to decide how and when to go to war with another nation with little congressional input or involvement.

Speaking of the AUMF:

Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday threw his support behind a new war authorization specific to the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“I would take no issue with the Congress stepping forward" with an authorization for the use of military force, Mattis told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee. “I think it'd be a statement of the American people's resolve [] if you did so. I thought the same thing for the last several years, I might add, and have not understood why the Congress hasn't come forward with this, at least the debate.”
.................... (edit) ....................................
Asked later in Wednesday’s hearing whether a new AUMF should have time limits, Mattis flatly said no.

He also said geographic constraints would “only work to help the enemy.”

Mattis said, however, that Congress should decide on what means to allow. For example, Congress has fought over whether to allow ground troops.

“I think it would be best if Congress would say what they want us to accomplish ... I have no reservations about sharing in closed session with you how we would carry that out,” he said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, who was testifying alongside Mattis, also expressed support for a new AUMF.

“I think not only would it be a sign of the American people's resolve,” Dunford said, “but truly I think our men and women would benefit from an authorization for the use of military force that would let them know that the American people, in the form of their Congress, were fully supportive of what they're doing out there every day as they put their lives in harm's way.”
https://origin-nyi.thehill.com/polic...nse-chief-says

At first I thought this was a good sign - but now that I've read through it a few times, it sounds awfully open-ended and would probably only allow Congress to suggest if they should use ground troops, drones or both. Not a good sign.

[Occam's Banana]

“He’s always been isolationist against anything the United States has ever done,” the senator said. “There’s a certain element in the Republican Party that is very isolationist, I’m sure he’s representing that.”

[specsaregood]

yeah, he's totally not his father's son.

[jllundqu]

The Honey Badger of the Senate..... Rand Paul.

[CPUd]

https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/846471452694138884

[CPUd]

Full speech from today: