Former Senator Bob Dole, 89 years old and in a wheelchair, went onto to the floor of the Senate today to urge his former colleagues to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. Mr. Dole, a disabled veteran, has been one of the leading voices urging ratification of the treaty, which seeks to bring the world closer to the high standard set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark civil-rights law enacted under President George H.W. Bush. 
 
 One by one, according to Roll Call, the senators approached Mr. Dole to pat his shoulder or clasp his hand, making gestures of respect for the man who was for many years the Republican majority leader. 
 
 Then he was wheeled away, and all but a handful of the Republicans bailed out on him. The treaty failed. It needed a two-thirds vote to pass, or 67 votes, and fell six short. 
 
 
 
 So much for America’s support of a global agreement “to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities.” 
 
 The vote was a triumph for Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum and others on the hard-right loon fringe, who have been feverishly denouncing the treaty as a United Nations world-government conspiracy to kill disabled children (you can look it up). 
 
 Only eight Republicans voted yes: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona. 
 
 Several Republicans who might have made a difference but voted “no,” as Roll Call pointed out, are up for re-election in 2014 and are facing possible primary challenges from the right: Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who changed his “yes” to a “no” after it was obvious the treaty would fail. 
 
 Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement after the vote: “This is one of the saddest days I’ve seen in almost 28 years in the Senate, and it needs to be a wake-up call about a broken institution that’s letting down the American people.” 
 
 He added: “Today the dysfunction hurt veterans and the disabled, and that’s unacceptable. This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won’t give up on this and the Disabilities Treaty will pass because it’s the right thing to do, but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country.” ||||| — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, his 89-year old body now weakened by age, illness and war injuries, sat quietly in a wheelchair on the Senate floor Tuesday, watching the debate over a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled. 
 
 He may have recalled an earlier time. 
 
 More than 43 years ago, Dole delivered his first speech on the very same floor  on disability rights. Later, as one of the most powerful members of the Senate, he pushed through the Americans with Disabilities Act, a measure designed to protect citizens grappling with accidents and disease. 
 
 Now he had come the Senate floor, perhaps for the last time, to persuade lawmakers to adopt a treaty supporters said would extend disability protections around the world. 
 
 Dont let Senator Bob Dole down, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said, raising his voice, pointing at his former colleague. Most importantly, dont let the Senate and the country down. Approve this treaty. 
 
 It wasnt enough. 
 
 Only 61 senators voted for the treaty, officially known as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Sixty-six votes were needed for passage. 
 
 Among the 38 members voting against the measure: The two senators from Kansas, Republicans Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts. Both have known Dole for years. 
 
 Some Republicans had mounted an intense campaign against the treaty, arguing it surrendered American sovereignty to the U.N. 
 
 I do not support the cumbersome regulations and potentially overzealous international organizations with anti-American biases that infringe upon American society, said Sen. Jim Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma. 
 
 But other Republicans  including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who like Dole suffers from a war-related disability  pushed for approval, reading a statement from Dole into the record. 
 
 Thats what this is all about, McCain said. American leadership. 
 
 Dole was accompanied to the floor by his wife Elizabeth, herself a former senator. Senate rules allow former members access to the floor, although it is rarely used. 
 
 Several members approached Dole during his brief visit, shaking his hands and chatting. 
 
 The 1996 presidential candidate sat to the left of the Senates presiding officer and didnt speak. He left before the vote was finished, and didnt talk with reporters outside the chamber. 
 
 But advocates for the disabled were furious at the outcome. They were particularly angry at Roberts and Moran. 
 
 I think its appalling, said Marca Bristo, president of the United States International Council on Disabilities. Mr. Dole was so proud of what we did He was fighting right up until it went out onto the floor. 
 
 Rhonda Neuhaus, a policy analyst for the Disability Rights and Defense Fund, wept as she steered her wheelchair out of the Senate visitors gallery. 
 
 Its a betrayal of the disability community, she said. 
 
 Roberts was unavailable for comment. But a spokeswoman said the states senior senator voted his conscience and that Dole would understand. 
 
 Roberts and Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, who also voted no, had earlier written Senate leadership, asking it to withdraw the treaty until next year. Treaties, they argued, should not be decided in a lame duck session. 
 
 Treaty supporters seemed even more upset with Moran. In May he endorsed the treaty  saying, in a press release, that it advanced fundamental values by standing up for the rights of those with disabilities, including our nations veterans and servicemembers. 
 
 But by Tuesday he had changed his mind. 
 
 Genuine concerns raised by the language of this treaty ... have made it clear that foreign officials should not be put in a position to interfere with U.S. policymaking, his statement said. 
 
 Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, voted to ratify the treaty. 
 
 People with disabilities around the world will pay the price for its rejection, she said. 
 
 The treaty was negotiated by President George W. Bush and signed by President Barack Obama in 2009. 
 
 More than 150 nations have also signed the treaty, designed to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity, according to the document. 
 
 Advocates for the disabled said they would try again next year, and majority leader Sen. Harry Reid said he intends to bring it back. But it isnt clear how much help Dole can be, given his advanced age and battles with illness. 
 
 Just last week he went into the hospital for what a spokeswoman called a routine procedure. He has spent a great deal of time in and out of the hospital over the past three years, battling various infections and other maladies.
– Bob Dole watched from a wheelchair on the Senate floor yesterday as his Republican former colleagues rejected a United Nations disability rights treaty modeled on the Americans with Disabilities Act he championed in 1990, the Kansas City Star reports. GOP opponents of the treaty claimed it would surrender American sovereignty to the UN. It needed 67 votes to pass but received only 61. Just eight Republicans voted in favor, including John McCain who, like Dole, was left disabled by war injuries. After the vote, John Kerry said it was one of the saddest days he'd seen in nearly 28 years in the Senate, the New York Times reports. "This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it," he said. "It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter." Kerry vowed to keep fighting for the treaty, which was negotiated by George W. Bush and signed by President Obama in 2009.