Today, the editors urged Republicans to unite to stop the ratification of New START during the lame duck session of the Senate. Now comes news that Senator Corker (R., Tenn.), one of three GOPers to vote to pass START out of committee, has come out against a lame-duck vote:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), one of three Republicans to vote for the treaty on Sept. 16 in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hasn’t yet committed to voting for the treaty on the floor. He now says that he doesn’t think there’s enough time in the post-election congressional session to properly debate and vote on the pact.

“As Senator [Richard] Lugar has stated, Senator Corker believes it is far more appropriate to deal with major pieces of legislation like this in settings other than a lame duck session,” Todd Womack, his chief of staff, told The Cable.

But Lugar didn’t exactly say he favored delaying the vote on New START until next year. In fact, Lugar has been calling for the Senate to act faster and would have preferred to deal with the issue before the midterm elections. But Lugar did acknowledge in Oct. 27 remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that big gains by the GOP in the election would make completing the Senate’s work on New START more difficult.

“Some, I suspect, will argue that the lame-duck session is not a good time to do that,” Lugar said. “I have no idea what the results will be of the election, but in the event that there are very substantial changes, and many of them on the Republican side, some will say this is something we really haven’t had a chance to get into, to study, and we want more time.”

More here.