RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704679204575646730061039638.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_us

By JONATHAN WEISMAN And LAURA MECKLER

President Barack Obama on Tuesday gained significant Republican support for his top foreign-policy priority, a nuclear-arms treaty with Russia that in recent days had appeared all but dead for the year in the Senate.

Separately, in their long-awaited first meeting since the election, the president and Republican leaders appointed a set of negotiators to hunt for a compromise on the future of the Bush-era tax cuts, set to expire at year’s end.

Mr. Obama wants the Senate to ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in its current lame-duck session, but Republican leaders have resisted. On Tuesday, however, two key Senate Republicans, John McCain of Arizona and George Voinovich of Ohio, expressed confidence that the agreement could be ratified before the end of the year.

Mr. Voinovich all but said he would vote for it, after saying just weeks ago that the accord posed a threat to U.S. allies in Eastern Europe. “There seems to be a lot of coming together there and a lot more comfort [with the treaty] among our friends and allies in Europe,” Mr. Voinovich said in an interview. “I think I’d be supportive.”

Only one Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations panel, has said he would vote for the treaty, though it has the support of the military and much of the Republican foreign-policy establishment.

Mr. McCain also appeared to be coming around. In mid-November, he had suggested he would take his cue from Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), who on Sunday said there was no chance the treaty would be ratified this year. But on Tuesday, Mr. McCain said on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “I believe we can move forward with the START treaty and satisfy Sen. Kyl’s concerns and mine about missile defense and others.”

“We’re making quiet, steady progress, and I want to keep it quiet for the moment,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D., Mass.). Treaty ratification requires 67 votes, which means Mr. Obama needs to attract at least nine GOP votes.

Mr. Voinovich cited a Tuesday article in The Wall Street Journal that said Russia had moved smaller, tactical nuclear weapons to its western border as recently as this spring. Mr. Voinovich said he had talked with Eastern European officials, who told him that ratification of New START, which applies to strategic nuclear weapons, was a necessary first step toward addressing tactical nuclear weapons and other regional security concerns in subsequent negotiations.

Mr. McCain said he was “a little disturbed at the news this morning that tactical nuclear weapons have been moved closer to Europe by the Russians,” saying it showed “the need to have verification.” Mr. Obama has vowed to begin negotiations on a binding, verifiable treaty covering tactical nuclear weapons and other issues as soon as New START is ratified.

Progress toward ending the tax-cut impasse was less tangible. Mr. Obama and congressional leaders of both parties, meeting at the White House, assigned their negotiators. The president said his Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, and budget director, Jacob Lew, would negotiate on his behalf.

At the meeting, both sides reiterated their long-standing positions on the tax cuts: Republicans want to renew the tax cuts for all families, while Democrats want them extended only for families earning less than $250,000 a year, which would mean a tax increase for the top 2% of earners.

Both sides also vowed to work more closely in the coming era of divided government. Mr. Obama said he should have done more to reach out to Republicans in the past two years, and members of both parties said they emerged more hopeful about the coming year.

“The American people did not vote for gridlock,” Mr. Obama said after the meeting.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said afterward that previous eras of divided government had been “quite productive.” Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.), the No. 2 House Republican, said the president “put his best foot forward…so I do think and am hopeful that we can work together.”

Negotiators on the tax issue will include several lawmakers with a history of deal-making. House Republicans will be represented by Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, who helped negotiate a landmark welfare overhaul under President Bill Clinton. Mr. Kyl will represent his caucus. Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), the Finance panel chairman who negotiated and signed off on the original Bush tax cuts, will represent Senate Democrats. Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland will represent House Democrats.

Despite the glimmers of a new cooperative tone, compromise didn’t come in time to avert the cutoff of emergency benefits for the long-term unemployed, a program that expired Tuesday. Republicans have blocked an extension on grounds the program’s cost has not been offset by spending cuts. Many Democrats are hoping the program will be resurrected and extended as part of a tax-cut deal.

With the tax issue and others unresolved, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it was possible Mr. Obama would push back the start of his vacation, now set for Dec. 18.