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AND HERE HE IS one final time. It is September 23, the same day as the hearing on corruption in Russia, and while no news story mentioned it, September 23 was also the day that Clinton had chosen for the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
But Helms had blocked that. He had told the White House that he would not send the treaty to the floor of the Senate until Clinton kept his promise to send the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to the committee first.
"He won't send up the ABM Treaty because he knows I want to give it a decent burial," Helms said. "He wants to leave it in place. But it leaves my country, our country, undefended, and I'm not going to let that happen. I'll fight him on that."
And that, of course, was the essential Jesse.