LOST: Law of the Sea Treaty Falls to Political Gamesman-and-woman-ship

Readers here know,  it's right there in the sidebar, the importance Hillary Clinton invested in ratification of the Law of the Sea Treat (LOST).  She testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 23 of this year calling ratification "urgent" if the U.S. is to have  equal footing on a level playing field in conflicts arising over jurisdictions with regard to offshore drilling and mining.  Ratification would permit us to extend our own continental shelf 200 miles - we have four of them!   But Rachel Maddow  last hour reported, as her blog explains,  that the GOP has likely killed the ratification that would have boosted our economy and strengthened our position both in the global economy and militarily on the high seas.  According to the blog post, the last two "nails in the coffin" were Senators Rob Portman and Kelly Ayotte - names in the news as possible Veep choices for Mitt Romney.   Goes to show you, the Republicans can be transparent ... it is possible.  Stunning considering the long list of Republicans who supported ratification.  Ambition, apparently knows no party loyalty - or common sense!

GOP appears to have killed Law of the Sea Treaty

By Steve Benen

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Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:37 AM EDT

Official U.S. Navy Imagery/Flickr

It's become extremely difficult -- far more difficult than any point in American history -- for Congress to pass legislation. But treaties are even harder, since they require 67 votes for passage. Even if every member of the Democratic caucus backs a treaty, it would need 14 Republicans to go along, and in this Congress, that's an implausibly high number.
This is particularly relevant this week because of the Law of the Sea Treaty, negotiated 18 years ago, and ratified by 161 countries around the globe. Here in the U.S., it's been endorsed by the Clinton administration, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, business leaders, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs, and specifically U.S. Navy leaders who, as Josh Rogin explained, see the measure as necessary "to allow the United States to fully participate in the growing multinational system that governs the open seas."
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