on wednesday, april 30, the white house press briefing featured the following exchange:

EXCERPT
Q A different topic. The tobacco treaty at the U.N., the U.S. wants
some changes to it that critics say will weaken it significantly.
What’s the administration’s —

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, this is this is — if ever there was an issue involving standard language in treaties, this is it. We wanted to be a signatory to this treaty. We have made clear that we want to sign it, we want to ratify it. The language here deals with what’s called the reservations clause, which is a standard procedure in treaties. And this reservation — the reservation clause simply prohibits signatories from making reservations of sections of the treaty. Reservations is a standard part of treaties. So you really haven’t seen anything different in our approach to this treaty. It is a treaty we want to sign, we want to ratify with the standard language.

“standard language” my ass.