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Tuesday's global agenda: Bye-bye, Lugar — and Senate collegiality?
Your morning global affairs speed-read: The Senate's ability to get much done on foreign-affairs issues could take a heavy blow today if the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gets the ax, as seems likely.
Six-term Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) is widely expected to lose his primary to State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, handing the anti-establishment Tea Party its first big win of 2012. Lugar's defeat could actually be good news for Democrats – Rep. Joe Donnelly has a chance to win over independents – but he'll be missed on the Foreign Affairs panel, which he's chaired twice in his 36-year Senate career.
By now, Lugar is well known as an elder Republican statesman that panel Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) could work with on a host of issues. Lugar, for example, championed passage of the new START treaty to cut down the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, and was one of only 13 Republican senators to vote for it two years ago.
Next in line among panel Republicans is Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who was first elected in 2006. Corker voted for New START but also has an isolationist streak that's popular with many Tea Party Republicans who are growing wary of U.S. interventionism around the world.
Last month, for example, he tried to remove language in a Senate resolution on Syria that calls on President Bashar al-Assad to “step aside.”
“I think it's odd to state as a national policy that we want to see Assad gone,” Corker said.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are also slated to attend.
Pacific rim: The 12th round of negotiations for the nine-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) begins today in Dallas. The Wall Street Journal has a good preview of the arguments that will bandied about for the next 10 days here.
Greece: Talks to create a coalition government collapsed, sparking renewed fears about the future of the Euro.
Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the chairman of the opposition Kadima Party agreed to form a unity government.
China: Human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng said there's been “no progress” on the deal to allow him to study in the United States because Obama administration officials left Beijing on Friday.
France: François Hollande's election to the presidency is bad news for NATO, says the American Enterprise Institute.
What you might have missed on Global Affairs:
New French president to formally announce Afghanistan withdrawal
US ambassador to Pakistan stepping down, report says
Russian envoy: US should stop blaming Moscow for problems
Administration official says Syrian election 'borders on ludicrous'
House appropriator touts almost $1 billion for Israel in defense spending bill
Europe trade chief sees boom in trade and export jobs, thanks to customs deal with US
