Incoming Sen.-elect Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), ever the whip, has gathered the signatures of nine other freshmen-to-be to urge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid not to consider New START during the lame duck.

“Out of respect for our states’ voters, we believe it would be improper for the Senate to consider the New START Treaty or any other treaty in a lame duck session prior to January 3, 2011,” the 10 future GOP senators said in a letter to Reid.
. . . “Proponents of this treaty, aware that today’s Senate is likely to support the agreement in higher numbers without our participation, are urging the Senate to give its advice and consent in the coming weeks,” the newly-elected senators said to Reid. “We call on you to defer action on this arms control treaty until the Senate reconvenes in the 112th Congress and we are able to participate fully and in an informed manner in its deliberations on New START.”

Conspicuously missing from the signatories are Sens.-elect Dan Coats (Ind.), Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.). Coats, one supposes, is deferring to his senior codelegate Senator Lugar, who has urged swift passage of the treaty. Kirk has already made known his intention to join the Senate ‘Mod Squad’ at the gooey center of the Republican caucus. But Toomey, what’s the deal there?

Well, we have it from good sources that Toomey supports the substance of the Blunt letter 100 percent. We further have it that, as soon as the end of the day, Toomey will either sign the letter or submit his own.

UPDATE: Staffers for Sen.-elect Mark Kirk (Ill.) are telling FoPo that Kirk is undecided on New START, and wants a look at the full negotiating record of the treaty — a tall order for the White House to fill before January:

“The Senator-elect wants to carefully review all available information before making a decision on this matter,” Kirk spokesman Lance Trover told The Cable Thursday.
An aide to Kirk explained to The Cable that Kirk is asking for multiple pieces of information before he makes up his mind: copies of the complete negotiating record of the treaty; documents related to a parallel discussion on U.S.-Russian missile defense cooperation conducted by Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher and her Russian counterpart deputy foreign minister Sergei Rybakov; classified briefings on the reliability of America’s nuclear warheads from the directors of the Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories; U.S. Strategic Command’s written analysis prepared to support the treaty negotiations; planning documents showing the administration’ commitment to modernize the three legs of the U.S. nuclear deterrent; and formal briefings from the Departments of State, Defense, and Energy.
That’s a lot of data for the administration to pull together for Kirk before the end of the year. The administration has so far refused to provide senators with the full negotiating record or the inside details of the Tauscher-Rybakov discussions, so that could also be a stumbling block in the effort to win Kirk’s vote.