Gwen Ifill asked an odd (but welcome!) question about nuclear weapons in the Vice Presidential debate: “What should be the trigger, or should there be a trigger, when nuclear weapons use is ever put into play?”

The RESPONSES to Ms. Ifill's question were even more odd, and so was the next-day coverage in the Washington Post.

Gov. Sarah Palin: “Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be all, end all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period. . . .Our nuclear weaponry here in the U.S. is used as a deterrent. And that's a safe, stable way to use nuclear weaponry.” hmmmm. I won't elaborate on that.

Senator Joe Biden: “. . . with regard to arms control and weapons, nuclear weapons require a nuclear arms control regime. John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported.”

“Fact checker” Jonathan Weisman wrote in today's Washington Post: “Biden's assertion that McCain opposed the test ban–while virtually every other Republican supported it–is false. President Bill Clinton never submitted the test ban for formal ratification because it faced overwhelming Republican opposition in a GOP-controlled Senate.

Among others, both John Isaacs, Director of the Council for a Livable World and Daryl Kimball, Director of the Arms Control Association immediately fired off letters to the Washington Post.

Here's an excerpt from Kimball's LTE:

“President Clinton did transmit the CTBT to the Senate on Sept. 23, 1997 and there was a vote in the Senate on Oct. 13, 1999. McCain voted “no” but said afterwards that the Senate can and should reconsider the treaty. He repeated this in a May 27, 2008 speech. Obama and Biden have said they will pursue ratification as soon as practicable.

In 1999, most Republicans opposed the test ban treaty. Since then, there has been substantial progress on verification and maintaining the U.S. arsenal in the absence of testing, which address those earlier concerns. Consequently, former Secretaries of State Shultz and Kissinger, former Defense Secretary Perry, and a bipartisan group of other former officials are calling for the initiation of a bipartisan process to reconsider and approve the treaty.”

The Washington Post says it will run a correction in tomorrow's paper.

A little background: In 1996, after decades of work, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was completed and President Clinton was the first head of state to sign it.

On the evening of October 13, 1999 the US Senate finally voted on ratification of the CTB Treaty, 51 nays, 48 yeas, and 1 “present” Since ratification requires a 2/3 majority, it came up 19 votes short. 51 Republicans, including McCain, voted no. 4 Republicans voted yes (John Chafee, James Jeffords, Gordon Smith, and Arlen Specter). 44 Democrats voted yes, and one voted “present” (Robert Byrd) See the vote roster atwww.senate.gov.

Fortunately, the rest of the world is forging ahead to make the Comprehensive Test Ban a reality: 179 nations including the U.S. have signed the CTBT and 144 have ratified it. But the United States and eight other key nations must still ratify before the CTBT can become law. In the meantime, the CTBT Organization is building a global network of stations to monitor the planet for nuclear explosions — so far, 231 stations have been built and certified. The Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World advocates Senate ratification of the CTBT at the earliest feasible time, as a fundamental concrete step toward a nuclear weapons free world.

(Click here for the CNN transcript of the VP debate)

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