LA TIMES, 16th February, 1998:

Senate has a job to do on NATO expansion

by Gregory D. Foster

Inclusion of Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic in the alliance should not be automatic

By design, treaty making was intended to be a fully shared power in which the Senate and the president check each other and strike a harmonious balance between legislative deliberation and executive action, in which each counteracts the abuses and compensates for the weaknesses of the other. It is this latter respect that the Senate assumes a special burden of responsibility in handling the NATO enlargement question, for it is President Clinton's particular weakness that creates the need for compensatory Senate assertiveness.

Clinton's weakness is due not so much to his massive character flaws or the tenuous electoral foundation underlying his hold