An unusual tribute to Jon Kyl

Is Arizona Senator Jon Kyl an indispensable man in the United States Senate? Reading inside the hard copy of today’s Wall Street Journal, one discovers an unusual tribute to the role played by Senator Kyl in successfully opposing the passage of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty during the Clinton administration. Journal reporter Peter Spiegel quotes an internal postmortem prepared at the time for the Clinton administration:

“Sen. Kyl’s two staffers could turn out first-rate product in two hours,” said the report, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “With ten times the staff taking one hundred times as long, State’s products were worth one thousandth as much on a good day going downhill with a strong tailwind.”

This as an unusual tribute to Senator Kyl. It is also an unusual critique of the State Department.
Spiegel reports that the internal Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty postmortem is now making the rounds inside the Obama administration as it assesses how to secure passage of the treaty it just negotiated with Russia. I take it from the Journal Senator Kyl will have something to say about that.

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