Nuclear Treason Part 5: Dick Lugar and the Council for a Livable World

Nuclear Treason Part 4 here

Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

The New START Disarmament Treaty with Moscow passed the Senate in late December 2010, 71 votes to 26.

Several Republicans voted with the Democrats and Independents, despite strong pressure from the GOP grassroots to vote against it.

There is no question that Richard Lugar, as co-leader, with leftist Democrat John Kerry of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was the leading Republican in favor of the treaty, and must ultimately take responsibility for its ratification.

Leftist journalist and member of the infamous JournoList, Spencer Ackerman wrote in The Washington Independent,

In the spirit of self-criticism, something that I see my New START coverage has taken for granted is the support of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the leading arms-control baron on the Republican side in the Senate...

Lugar is firmly behind the Obama administration’s new treaty to reduce the U.S.-Russian nuclear stockpile and the deployed systems that can deliver those deadly payloads. So if you assume every Democratic senator will vote for the treaty when it comes up for ratification, Lugar’s vote brings the count to 60. The question is whether Lugar’s vote can bring along seven other Republicans.

In the end Lugar convinced more than enough Republicans to vote for a treaty that was enthusiastically backed by the Democrats, the Russians, the Socialist International and the Communist Party USA.

How is it that a GOP Senator from Republican stronghold Indiana could be such a life-long proponent of disarmament treaties?

The answer may lie in Lugar's long time connection to the Council for a Livable World.

Council for a Livable World endorsements 2010

Founded in 1962 by Manhattan Project nuclear scientist, leftist and reported  Soviet agent Leo Szilard, and led by leftists such as Jerome Grossman and more lately David Bonior, C.L.W.is the U.S.'s leading pro-disarmament lobby group/PAC.

The C.L.W. has funded hundreds of U.S. Senators and Congressmen in its history, almost all Democrats. In recent years Lugar has been the only Republican to receive C.L.W. largess.

Jerome Grossman

C.L.W.'s long time CEO Jerome Grossman claims that by funding Senators at the beginning of their careers, the C.L.W. was able to influence them later when needed.

Now Council for a Livable World is playing the money game... We try to find obscure people who would make good Senators or Representatives and early on try to give them the initial funding. Now we can’t compete with the big money. We only raise a million and a half each election cycle. But that’s a million and a half that has no cost to them. Because we get in early, and because it’s tied to issues, seems to have some kind of an effect. Then if we elect somebody they’re eternally grateful. Then we go and we are able to get a hearing.

While a token amount, Jerome Grossman (on behalf of C.L.W.) did donate to Lugar's campaign in the 1999/2000 election cycle. (click on the below image to enlarge)

I do not know how much money Lugar has received from C.L.W. over the years, but as he has been in the U.S. Senate since 1976, it could be a considerable amount. How much influence did this money buy?

Why would a leftist like Jerome Grossman ever fund a Republican Senator - what would he hope to gain for his cause?

Grossman penned an article for the opinion page of the Atlantic Community.org, January 22, 2010 in which he called for Republicans to be brought to the nuclear disarmament cause - by invoking the farcical line that giving up U.S. nuclear superiority would strengthen "U.S. hegemony".

A world without nuclear weapons would do much in terms of security, but more so, it would enhance and protect the superpower status of the United States. Giving up nuclear weapons and accepting US hegemony may be the price humanity must pay to avert the threat of total annihilation.
 
President Barack Obama has called for a major change in world policy on nuclear weapons, leading to eventual elimination. His initiative is supported by a powerful group of conservative and military allies led by former Republican Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz and Democrats former Secretary of Defense William Perry and Sam Nunn, longtime Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
 
These leaders recognize that nuclear weapons are the most inhumane and dangerous ever conceived, that kill and maim without discrimination, the only weapons ever invented that could destroy all life on planet Earth. That must not happen. Disarmament is the only answer: If any country has nuclear weapons, others will want them. Then, some day they will be used by accident, mistake, or design - the ultimate catastrophe.

These conservative leaders agree with the Democrats in the US Senate. Both argue for dramatic reforms in the US and world nuclear policy. The problem is political, how to persuade the Republican Senators to adopt these reforms. It won’t happen unless Kissinger et al do some serious lobbying. Obama can not do it alone and GOP support is essential...

So to a man like Jerome Grossman, who has dedicated his life to leftist causes and U.S. disarmament, financing a key Republican like Dick Lugar would make perfect sense.

According to C.L.W.'s own website "notable achievements to which the Council-supported candidates who were elected have contributed" include:

• Ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, Conventional Forces in Europe, and Strategic Arms Reduction (START) treaty
• Establishing a U.S. nuclear testing moratorium in 1992
• Limiting the deployment of the MX missile and B-2 bomber
• Blocking deployment of National Missile Defense by the Clinton administration
• Eliminating funding for the nuclear "Bunker Buster" and "Reliable Replacement Warhead"

C.L.W. has clearly had influence. The organization has funded hundreds of pro-disarmament democrats, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.

However Republican support would always be needed to get treaties ratified in the U.S. Senate.

There is no doubt that Dick Lugar has been Barack Obama's chief Republican ally on this issue.

How deep are Dick Lugar's ties to the Council for a Livable World? Would New START have been ratified without C.L.W. influence?

Given C.L.W.'s far left and even pro-Moscow  connections, should the GOP ask some serious questions of its Senior Senator from Indiana?