Posted on 04/20/2005 11:19:40 PM PDT by Pikamax
U.N. Nominee's Confirmation Is Seen in Growing Danger By DOUGLAS JEHL and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON, April 20 - After an unexpected erosion of Republican support for John R. Bolton, senators and their aides from both parties said Wednesday that his nomination as ambassador to the United Nations now appeared to be in some peril.
Senator Lincoln Chafee, the Rhode Island Republican who had earlier said he was inclined to support Mr. Bolton, said Wednesday that he wanted to consult with his colleagues in the wake of the stormy meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday at which Democrats forced the postponement of a vote until next month. Among the committee's 10 Republicans, Mr. Chafee and 2 others have now voiced significant doubts about whether Mr. Bolton has the temperament and credibility to win confirmation.
Asked Wednesday if he was now less inclined to support the nomination, Mr. Chafee said, "That would be accurate."
Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, sided Tuesday with the Democrats, forcing the panel's chairman, Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, to put off a vote.
Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, another Republican on the panel, also made clear during Tuesday's deliberations that he was troubled enough by some of the accusations against Mr. Bolton to possibly not vote for him on the Senate floor.
The White House continued Wednesday to dismiss the charges as unfounded. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, traveling in Lithuania, endorsed him anew as "the right person to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations at what is a really quite critical time."
But Democrats made clear their belief that Mr. Bolton had been dealt a serious and perhaps fatal blow.
"My hope would be that the administration, after yesterday, would say that he's damaged goods," Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut said. "You'd think at some point, they'd wait a few days or whatever and decide this nomination isn't worth it to have a one-vote victory." Mr. Dodd said there must be other "highly qualified, conservative Republicans to get appointed to this position that don't bring the luggage that Mr. Bolton will to this job."
Mr. Chafee said that Mr. Bolton's prospects were "hard to predict" but said he expected that "the administration is really going to put some pressure on Senator Voinovich. Then it comes to the rest of us that have had some reservations."
The nomination appears to hang on what emerges on several points.
One is whether the Senate panel substantiates accusations from a former contract worker on an Agency for International Development project that Mr. Bolton, as a private lawyer hired by her employer, tried to intimidate her in 1994. A co-worker has corroborated some of the charges made by the former contract worker, Melody Townsel, while the president of the company has challenged some of her claims.
A second point involves documents sought by the committee from the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, to clarify conflicting accounts about Mr. Bolton's role in several matters, including his attempts while working as an under secretary of state to seek the transfer of several employees, and his requests for identifying information about American officials who were mentioned in or participated in conversations intercepted by the National Security Agency. He addressed some of these issues in his public testimony last week, but Democrats have said there is evidence some of his answers were less than candid.
Finally, Mr. Bolton's prospects may hinge on calculations made by the nominee himself, or by the White House, and particularly Vice President Dick Cheney, who is regarded as his main patron. For now, President Bush and his team appear to see the battle as a test of wills, but new information, or the potential for another bruising hearing, may turn his cause into an unacceptable political liability. Mr. Chafee told CNN that the committee's Republicans might consider whether to recommend that the nomination be withdrawn.
"I think Republicans, we ought to get together and talk about this," Mr. Chafee said.
In interviews on Wednesday, some Senate aides said they would not be surprised if the nomination was ultimately withdrawn. But many Republican senators continued to voice their support for Mr. Bolton.
"These allegations have come in; there is a feeling they have to be investigated," Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said, characterizing the views of most Republican senators. "But it doesn't mean they bail out on him. I know of no Republican senator who says, 'I'm therefore voting against him.' "
Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, declared himself a "strong supporter," acknowledging only that the delay made final approval "more challenging from a scheduling standpoint."
But other Republicans, including Mr. Lugar, have voiced little enthusiasm for Mr. Bolton, making clear that they were willing to accept him mainly out of loyalty to Mr. Bush and the belief that nominees should be given the benefit of the doubt.
The new account that corroborated Ms. Townsel's complaints against Mr. Bolton was offered by Uno Ramat, who worked with her on an Agency for International Development project in Kyrgyzstan in 1994. Mr. Ramat said Mr. Bolton, who was then a lawyer representing Ms. Townsel's and Mr. Ramat's employer, International Business and Technical Consultants Inc., flew to Moscow to counter Ms. Townsel's complaints that the company was slow in providing cash to pay suppliers.
"He was very intimidating and nasty," Mr. Ramat said in a telephone interview from Toronto. "He terrorized the office, he really did."
Mr. Ramat also said he recalled a series of phone calls from Ms. Townsel, who was in Moscow, complaining of Mr. Bolton's behavior. He said she complained at the time, as she has in recent days, that Mr. Bolton followed her around the hotel, pounded on her door and threatened her.
But in a letter to the Foreign Relations Committee, the president of International Business and Technical Consultants, Jayant S. Kalotra, disputed Ms. Townsel's allegations. Mr. Kalotra said in the letter that his company found Mr. Bolton to be "very intelligent, hard working, loyal and highly ethical."
Scott Shane contributed reporting for this article.
Senator,
Your conduct on the Foreign Relations committee is simply disgraceful. The President of the United States has sent a respectable nominee up for approval, and you forsake the Republican Party to play "Big Shot". Did you forget that your job is "advice and consent"? I wish the President could just sent his nominees to the full Senate for up or down vote.
We would end the practice of tin-horned "want-to-be's like yourself gumming up the works. I hope President Bush lays the wood to you as I'm sure he can. Maybe you should send all the RNC campaign money back to them. You my friend, are a disgrace and don't pass the "kitchen test". Now, go to lunch with Senator Jeffords, two peas in the same pod. Sincerely,
I'm beginning to realize the current crop of Republicans don't have what it takes to be a majority party.
Maybe he knows something that we don't know? Three Republicans are now voicing doubt. After all, I would hope that they are working in the best interest of US, not only the party.
Voinovich, Hagel, Chafee are a disgrace.
I can't imagine why are the Republicans putting people like them on an important committee, like the Foreign Affairs Comittee.
They should create a couple of totally useless committees and put them on those.
Read this - I don't think the dems better start congratulating themselves just yet. The day before the vote there was a signed statement sent to Lugar - 94 weapons type people along with 5 former secretaries of state support Bolton for the UN position.
Also .. this link is about the lady from MOB who has been outed by her boss for lying through her teeth. Read the first sentence in the 3rd paragraph - I don't know how the dems are going to overcome that statement. But .. we'll see.
In this case, there is no reason for Mr. Bolton's nomination to have been handled so poorly, and this irresolution reflects poorly on our Senate leadership.
I'll take one-vote victories whenever and wherever we can get them; whether that one-vote victory is getting a nomination out of Committee or is of the full Senate.
I firmly believe Dubya should ask some of the Republican Senators and Representatives to attend a one-on-one "come to Jesus"-type meeting.
Also, it may not be improper to use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to have a press conference and a few speeches saying, to the effect, "certain elected representatives are obstructing appointment of nominated officials and judges... the Country's ability to effectively address international concerns and important judicial matters are being harmed... etc. etc. etc."
In all honesty, they already have. We need a real leader.
What a bunch of wimps.
I think that you're right... In the Bible, the tale is that the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years... Many think that this was simply a punishment for the "Golden Calf Incident," but many believe that it was for a different reason. You see, the Israelites who left their bondage in Egypt brought their slave mindset along with them. It was G-d's will that they wander the desert until the next generation was born, brought up in freedom, and the older, slave generation had died off. It was only they that could truly be free.
The saying, "Free your mind, and your ass will follow" is really quite true. Most of the republicans still have the minority party mindset, or at least the mindset that they shouldn't do anything to upset to status quo. It's been more than 10 years now since the "Republican Revolution," and you'd think that they'd start getting their act together. I hope that it's not going to take them 40 years as well. I know I don't have that sort of patience!
Mark
Another day, another email to a wishy washy Republican senator anxious to get his moment on CNN by being against a Bush nominee.
What do you expect from the former mayor of Cleveland? Kusinich was also the mayor of Cleveland!
a lotta u.s. senators have compromised themselves by sexual liasons, or business deals gone awry, etc.
so when they need to be turned by anyone with intelligence on them, they either perform, or are outed.
As with judicial nominees, any presidential nominee is mandated to get a up or down vote on the senate floor by the constitution.
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