Gridlocked Senate Considers Worldwide Disability Rights Pact

Despite the overwhelming wish among Americans for an end to partisan standoffs in Washington, the fate of a treaty to promote international rights for people who are blind, crippled by disease or war, or otherwise disabled indicates that the Senate continues on a divided path.
The treaty’s troubled fortunes provide a twist on the usual tale of congressional gridlock, however, because Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and other supporters of the pact enjoy considerable bipartisan support as well as broad backing from the business community and veterans groups.
Two prominent Republicans, Arizona Senator John McCain and former attorney general Richard Thornburgh, joined Kerry at the Capitol on Monday to demand passage. The proposal is backed by former Kansas senator Bob Dole, the GOP presidential nominee in 1996, and former president George H.W. Bush.