I wasn’t sure that New START actually would have died when Sen. Kyl argued today against voting on it during the lame-duck. But this statement from Vice President Biden makes me think it’s lights-out.

Failure to pass the New START Treaty this year would endanger our national security. Without ratification of this Treaty, we will have no Americans on the ground to inspect Russia’s nuclear activities, no verification regime to track Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal, less cooperation between the two nations that account for 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, and no verified nuclear reductions. The New START treaty is a fundamental part of our relationship with Russia, which has been critical to our ability to supply our troops in Afghanistan and to impose and enforce strong sanctions on the Iranian government.

Janet Yellen and Sarah Bloom Raskin finally got confirmed by the Senate as members of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. Peter Diamond, another nominee, will have to wait until the lame duck session. The confirmations were part of a large deal, where some nominees got to move through the Senate in exchange for Democrats holding pro forma sessions so President Obama could not make any recess appointments.

Ever since the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the U.S.-Russia New START nuclear-reductions accord this afternoon, I’ve received statements from President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretaries Gates and Clinton and Senator Kerry. All of them are cheering the vote, in order to get the press to write about the Big Victory they recorded today. And indeed: it’s a step forward for a treaty that any sensible person would have to conclude deserves ratification.

The trouble is that none of these statements actually explain, hint at or otherwise indicate how to get 67 votes in the Senate for the treaty.

What planet is Lugar on? Currently, Republicans would rather lose Russian nuclear base inspections than ratify this treaty, and they’re using it to gain leverage for pork-barrel spending on nuclear weapons “modernization,” which has basically nothing to do with this treaty. If it wasn’t that, they’d hold it hostage for maintaining Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, or more sanctions on Iran, or giving the “state of Jesus” statehood, or any of a thousand other ideas.

I have trouble counting to 8 – the number of Republicans who would be needed for passage. And that’s assuming that hawkish types like Joe Lieberman and Jim Webb don’t bolt.