Reply #7: Laura Rozen Politico article says Kerry has been on the Senate floor for about 70 hours on START

[karynnj]

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) patiently presided Wednesday as his Senate colleagues made their final remarks before voting 71 to 26 to ratify the new START treaty.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Kerry had been on the Senate floor for about 70 hours since START debate began last Wednesday, aides calculated.

In shepherding the U.S.-Russian arms control pact through the Senate, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations panel held over twenty meetings and had over thirty phone calls with figures integral to the process, including Vice President Joe Biden, key Republican Senate negotiators Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Bob Corker (R-Tenn), in the past week.

Until recent days, however, the only Republican Senator who had openly declared that he would support the U.S.-Russian arms control pact was Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the ranking Republican on the foreign relations panel and a long-time leader on U.S.-Russian arms control who in 2004 took then Sen. Barack Obama on his first Codel trip to see Russian nuclear sites.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen/1210/The_Chairmen_John_Kerrys_and_Richard_Lugars_START_victory_.html?showall