Posted on 04/20/2005 9:20:32 PM PDT by quidnunc
The White House was scrambling Tuesday night after the disastrous Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting held Tuesday afternoon to discuss voting out the U.N. ambassador nomination of John Bolton. Ultimately, Democrats prevailed, having the vote delayed for at least three weeks.
And the aftermath, says a Foreign Relations Committee staffer, is that committee chairman Richard Lugar on Wednesday morning broached the subject of pulling back the nomination with White House officials and the State Department.
"We don't have Voinovich, we don't have Hagel, and in the end we probably don't have Chafee if the other two give him cover," says a Senate leadership staffer. "I don't see how we bring that vote up. We're in for a bumpy ride."
"We're going to be seeing leaks for the next three weeks from Democrats on the committee and their various advocates just beating on Bolton at every turn," says the Foreign Relations Committee staffer. "We just don't have anything to combat it, and Lugar is furious that the White House is letting this happen without any vocal defense from administration people. They are making the chairman look weak and indecisive."
Lugar has been doing that pretty much on his own, without anyone's help, for the past month on the Bolton nomination. On Tuesday, Lugar sat stone-faced at the table, rarely attempting to push back against the Democratic onslaught on Bolton's character.
Lugar's inaction is in part due to his anger over Bolton's written responses, or lack there of, to questions submitted by Democrats. In some cases, according to the staffer, Bolton simply ignored the questions or wrote responses that did not address specific points the Democrats were seeking
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Perfect description of him. And he's blaming the White House? I am beyond angry.
If I can't say something ugly...then I have nothing to say.....Im at a loss!
As if anything the Democrats would say could even possibly be the truth.
C'mon. You don't get it.
Every word out of their mouths is a lie, including "and" and "the".
OF COURSE she's lying. But that should be a given, going in.
The Republican "majority" consists of about twenty Senators. The rest are opportunists, traitors, or wolves in sheep's clothing.
Bolton is finished.
Not quite yet. He has a better than even chance of getting out of committee. The WH is behind him, and the recent charges aganist Bolton are phony. I don't see the WH backing down, and Voinovich, Hagel and Chaffee will probably vote Bolton onto the Senate floor.
Where the nomination will stall in the face of cloture games, unless the GOP stands up and does its Constitutional duty.
The Bolton nomination is lost..
I smell strategery again.
It's a suspect report despite the Prowler usually having good sources.
Rice came out forcefully yesterday and it seems to me (it's early here so I can't recall specifics at the moment) that the WH did speak up for Bolton yesterday, too.
I do believe from what I read and heard yesterday Voinovich and Hagel were already headed back to the fold so I don't believe the tone of this report.
Oh, President Bush speaking specifically for Bolton by name LIVE now.
I rest my case.
No, it isn't good and you need a LONG TERM PLAN, not a quick fix you idiot little staffer. Geeze!
1) Agreed to investigate its leading House member on the basis of fraudulent and trumped up charges.
2) Tanked the nomination of Bush's UN ambassador even though they have the majority.
3) The biggest legislation they can brag about was changing bankruptcy laws to screw the citizens and favor the credit companies that paid for it.
Good job guys and gals. (/sarcasm)
Yep. Once again, I find myself without a party.
Just got online---say your (we're yelling) and just LMAO
Thank you--
What a good start to what may be yet another rough day for the Republicans---grrrrrrrrrr
Why does everyone blame George Bush? Now you have Lugar blaming Bush because HE, Lugar, didn't even talk to his own committee members before Tuesday's meeting and MAKE SURE they were in line---Lugar should have asked Voinivich WHY he didn't bother to show up to the hearings--
But, oh no, gotta blame it on Bush---
I heard Hastert on Hannity yesterday (only because I was in my car, the only place I listen to his show).
Hastert said there are several democrats that have ethical matters that bear looking at and right now they're (the dems) blocking the ethics committee from meeting.
The idea of getting the ethics committee back on track is not only for DeLay---to clear himself, btw---but to also allow these other questions about dems to be presented and answered.
Bolton's nomination is not tanked no matter how many handwringers here say it.
Lugar's inaction is in part due to his anger over Bolton's written responses, or lack there of, to questions submitted by Democrats. In some cases, according to the staffer, Bolton simply ignored the questions or wrote responses that did not address specific points the Democrats were seeking.
"Bolton was nonresponsive in some of those questions," says the staffer, who considers himself a moderate Republican. "When you're answering questions at a hearing, it's one thing to be able to duck an issue. But in writing, when you leave the answer space blank, it's pretty obvious where you are coming from."
So if true, that begs and explanation from Mr. Bolton.
I was concerned about that part also, but if you watched the hearings--especially the one with Bolton, I can imagine what kind of questions these Dems are asking Bolton to answer--
They were off the reservation, as far as I'm concerned in the way they are attacking this guy---nothing that they are pounding him on has anything to do with how well he would do as a UN Ambassador--especially at a time that the US needs to be hardnosed at the UN, not wimpy---
During Bolton's hearing they kept asking him the same question over and over and over, I have a feeling that the questions the dems offered were just as stupid!
The facts stand for themselves.
As a lifelong Republican, it was painful to watch.
And the MSM (including Fox News) reports their talking points as Gospel.
Yes, they do.
I take it you'd rather ignore them?
Hastert's excuses are just that. They are not facts. I have the results, the record if you will, listed in a previous post and it stinks. Its like and NFL team starting the season 1-4.
You are assuming that the Democratsw were asking appropriate questions.....they are childish and churlish.
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