Posted on 04/20/2005 9:18:27 AM PDT by ArmyBratproud
The woman whose testimony now threatens to derail John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador claims he was "genuinely behaving like a madman" during a 1994 trip to Moscow.
But she's a self-described "liberal Democrat" who helped organize the Dallas chapter of "Mothers Opposing Bush" during last year's presidential campaign.
Story Continues Below
Melody Townsel first offered her bizarre allegation to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 8, in a letter claiming that during a trip ten years ago to Kyrgyzstan, Bolton chased her through the halls of a her hotel throwing objects and screaming threats.
In her unlikely account Ms. Townsel said the harassment was not sexual.
Still, her uncorroborated story appears to have prompted at least one key Republican on the committee to withdraw his support for Bolton, forcing a delay in the vote.
"I don't feel comfortable voting today," Ohio Republican George Voinovich told the committee on Tuesday. "I think we ought to get the information [and] get a chance to have [the allegations] rebutted," he added.
Ms. Townsel was a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development at the time she and Bolton worked together.
"For nearly two weeks, while I awaited fresh direction from my company and from USAID, John Bolton hounded me in such an appalling way that I eventually retreated to my hotel room and stayed there," Townsel claimed, in quotes first reported by the New York Sun on Monday.
"Mr. Bolton, of course, then routinely visited me there to pound on the door and shout threats," she continued.
The paper also uncovered the Bolton accuser's anti-Bush credentials.
Townsel's allegations which were touted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's ranking Democrat, Joe Biden, who told his colleagues on Tuesday that the Bolton accuser was willing to sign a sworn affidavit to back her story.
Biden read from Townsel's letter:
"When I was dispatching a letter to AID, my hell began. Mr. Bolton proceeded to chase me through the halls of a Russian hotel, throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door, and genuinely behaving like a madman."
But in an interview with the Sun, Townsel admitted that she has no witnesses to back her claims. "There were people aware of the harassment, but they are not willing to come forward because they have existing business with the government," she said.
Townsel also admitted she was a staunch Bush basher, explaining, "There is no question that I have been a vocal and outspoken critic of this administration and I am a very liberal Democrat."
Asked why she didn't go public with her complaint in 2001, when Bolton's nomination for undersecretary of state was being considered by the same committee, Townsel said that at the time she had retreated from politics and was raising young children.
IF there's television video of this woman wailing against Bush, I surely hope it's played and replayed on network and cable news shows. do I think it will be? No.
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I'm searching as we speak.
Reports of Firefly Spottings Supplied by
Visitors to This Web Site
by Donald Ray Burger
Attorney at Law
May 17, 2003:
Melody Townsel reports:
Hello, there: Tonight in North Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas, Sadie, my three-year-old, and I were sitting on the porch when we spotted what initially looked like 3-4 fireflies, but what turned out to be a large group of about 40 of them buzzing around our yard and several others on our block. This was the first time my daughter has been able to see a firefly, and to be surrounded by so many was magical! She chased them around the yard screaming, "Come back, come back!," and then began doing a little dance number she called the firefly ballet. We'll definitely hit the porch tomorrow night to see if we're able to spot more!
The Democrat's search for the next Carla Hill continues.
Think this might be her-
http://www.dallasarena.com/s050125townsel.htm
Short Form Listing of Registrant's Foreign Agents
1998
Brecht, Adam Erich Burton
Cisneros, Adrienna Laura
Dietz-Petrovich, Michelle
Fong, Albert Kwok-Keung
Howard, Billee
Liu, Jiang (George)
Peth, Tracy
Petrovich, Michelle Dietz
Pollock, Richard
Sampson, Candida
Sinderson, Brian Norman
Townsel, Melody Annette
Weiss, Jeffrey Christopher
The L.A. Times
"But on Sunday, Ed Hullander, who worked with Townsel on the AID contract and now is an AID senior economist, said it was Townsel, and not Bolton, who acted irrationally. "She would get belligerent at times," Hullander said.
"He said that although he was not at the hotel at that time, he would have heard about any misbehavior. "It would not have gone unnoticed," Hullander said. "The security there was so tight, they would not have allowed anything like that in the hotel hallways."
He added, "Anyone who knows John, running through the hall doesn't make sense at all. It's too outrageous even to think about."
says she was once a journalists.
LIBERAL
It's time to start calling her clients and ask why they use a liberal fraud for pr.
I emailed Matt, asking him to put his resources on it. I mean, in all fairness, we should see what Bolton's accusor looks and sounds like, and video of her ranting against Bush would by dynamite. If you can remember the Dallas station(s) you saw her on, I bet that would be helpful.
Maybe her company did the pr stuff for brachs????
Time to start digging.
I bet we will eventually see where she got favors from democrats and got some contract work in return.
When asked why she did not make this matter public in 2001, when Mr. Bolton's nomination for his current post as undersecretary of state was being considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she said that at the time she had retreated from politics and was raising young children.
She also said there were no other eyewitnesses to what in the letter she said was a pattern of abusive behavior, but that others working on the project were familiar with her account.
"There were people aware of the harassment, but they are not willing to come forward because they have existing business with the government," she said.
Ms. Townsel's allegations appeared over the weekend in the Los Angeles Times, the Houston Chronicle, and numerous Democratic-leaning Web sites, such as Daily Kos and The American Prospect's web log, Tapped.
"My story seems to track so closely with other people," she said. "I really thought this would be a small log on the fire, I did not think it would be this big. Nothing in my story is all that out of track with the other stories out there." She also said she was contacted on Friday by the minority counsel of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
It is her...actually, a pretty cool website (don't like here lib politics, though.
From my research ...
There some how is a connection between Melody Townsel and one Amy Boardman Hunt .. something about working at the same PR Firm
http://www.dallasbar.com/members/headnotes.asp?item=169
It also seems that Amy was the one that has been pushing Melody Townsel letter all over the internet on Friday, April 15, 2005 .. with the intenstion of getting the Dems attention ..
Thanks .. see my above post
They need to have Hullander go before the committee.
Everybody call Lugar's, Voinavich's, and Hagel's offices and demand that they have Hullander speak.
Those three are moderates...and I think Rush is right when he indicates that part of what they are about is to help democrats get control.
They are democrats themselves. They can only win when running as a republican...so the pull the RINO bit.
They need to have Hullander go before the committee.
Everybody call Lugar's, Voinavich's, and Hagel's offices and demand that they have Hullander speak.
Those three are moderates...and I think Rush is right when he indicates that part of what they are about is to help democrats get control.
They are democrats themselves. They can only win when running as a republican...so the pull the RINO bit.
another name that popped up was george lakoff
Bolton is being Borked. Not to mention Thomased.
When will the Democrats realize that when the Republicans are in office, the Republicans get to pick the nominees? A better question is, when will the public realize that the Democrats are constantly trying to thwart the election results?
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