“Kiss of Death” is a 1947 film noir starring Victor Mature as a reformed criminal and Richard Widmark as the killer who gets revenge on him in a particularly hideous way. He pushes the man’s crippled mother down the stairs in a wheelchair, laughing maniacally the whole time. That is what Senate Republicans did on Tuesday (12/4), minus the entertainment value. They blocked ratification of a U.N. Treaty that would protect the rights of disabled people around the world. Particularly children - in wheelchairs. How could they behave in such a Grinch-y fashion? Envy. The envy of people without spines towards people with broken ones.
Conservatives hate the United Nations and anything connected to it.According to Jennifer Steinhauer in the New York Times (12/5) “A majority of Republicans who voted against the treaty . . . said they feared it would infringe on American sovereignty. Among their fears about the disability convention were that United Nations bureaucrats would be empowered to make decisions about the needs of disabled children - and that it could trump state laws concerning people with disabilities.” In other words, supporting the treaty would make us the U.N.’s bitch. Thus, any Republican who voted in favor would forfeit his conservative credentials and, very likely, re-election.
It would be easier to understand their reluctance if the treaty concerned global warming, chemical weapons or, god forbid, economic policy. It doesn’t. The U.S. was asked to join 126 other countries in banning discrimination against people with disabilities. What’s more, the treaty is based on the Americans with Disabilities Act. So, instead of threatening our world leadership, the U.N. is enshrining it.
To be fair, not every Republican senators voted against ratification. Six supported it. Among them, Scott Brown (R-MA), a lame duck, Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who’s retiring and John McCain (R-AZ) who’s lame and should have retired a long time ago.
The chief speaker in favor of the treaty was John Kerry (D-MA) and I can understand Senate Republicans resisting his appeal, but what about Bob Dole? Aging and very ill, the former Senate Majority Leader and Presidential candidate was wheeled onto the floor of Congress to personalize the issue and rally bi-partisan support. Surely, his colleagues, old and young, and the party he devoted his life to had to be influenced? Not so. They subjected him to a humiliation so public and so complete, it was almost ritual in nature.
Ultimately, it’s not their craven grubbing for re-election, irrational fear of world organizations or even treating Bob Dole like a leaking bag of garbage that bothers me about Senate Republicans. It’s their hypocrisy. Given the chance to push a real crippled child down the stairs, I’m sure a good seventy per cent would refuse.
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