Voinovich's Spasm

The American Spectator ^ | April 21, 2005 | R. Emmett Tyrrell

[kevinm13]

Best of the Web Today - April 20, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO


Voinovich and the Golden Rule
Democrats trying to sink the nomination of John Bolton as United Nations ambassador scored a big victory yesterday, when Sen. George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, declared himself unready to back the nominee. The Dems' efforts to beat Bolton on ideological grounds--that he's too pro-American and has "disdain" for the U.N.--having failed, they turned to that old standby, the politics of personal destruction.

Various bureaucrats alleged that Bolton had hurt their feelings. Most recently--try not to laugh--a woman who heads a group called Mothers Opposing Bush claimed that Bolton "chased her through the halls of a Moscow hotel" in 1994. The committee was supposed to vote yesterday afternoon, but Democrats urged a delay so they could dredge up more silly stories. All eyes were on two Republicans, Rhode Island liberal Lincoln Chafee and Nebraska narcissist Chuck Hagel, either of whom could have blocked an affirmative committee vote. But Chafee and Hagel seemed to be holding firm.

No one noticed Voinovich--perhaps because, according to National Review's Rich Lowry, he hadn't bothered to attend any of the Bolton hearings until yesterday. But as USA Today reports, yesterday the Ohioan showed up, and piped up:

Voinovich startled his fellow Republicans by declaring toward the end of a testy, two-hour meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that "I don't feel comfortable voting today on Mr. John Bolton, and maybe it would be in the best interest of the committee to take a little more time." The committee agreed unanimously to postpone the vote. . . .

"I want more information," Voinvovich [sic] told reporters after the meeting. "The whole issue of interpersonal skills and how we treat each other. The old concept of treating people like you would want to be treated. That's very important."

Voinovich's concern for the Golden Rule is certainly touching, but does it apply to air traffic controllers? What prompts the question is an incident that occurred in 1995, when he was governor of Ohio. The Cincinnati Enquirer's Cliff Radel described the incident in a June 1996 column:

Gov. Short Fuse blew on Oct. 20 when federal rules delayed his plane's takeoff as the president arrived in Columbus.

As it often does when the president flies, the FAA issued a Temporary Flight Restriction, commonly referred to as a no-fly order.

When this order is in effect, no planes other than essential aircraft are cleared for takeoff. That reduces the chances of a terrorist staging a kamikaze attack on Air Force One.

The order kept the governor and his plane on the ground. And he was honked.

Gov. Voinovich called it "bull"-something and ordered his pilot to break the rules and take off. He even dared the control tower to "shoot us down." That, too, would have cost. One hour of flying time for an F-15 Eagle fighter jet runs $3,399 to $4,037.

The Federal Aviation Administration "responded by slapping the governor with a standard $1,500 fine," and Voinovich decided to fight, at taxpayer expense. "We're paying his lawyers' $95-an-hour fee," noted Radel in June 1996. "Their bill could top out at $20,000."

Voinovich eventually gave up, paid the fine, and said he had found "private sources" to cover the lawyer bills. Presumably he'd like to be forgiven for this long-ago outburst, and that's not unreasonable. We bring it up only to underscore the importance of the old concept of treating people like you would want to be treated.

Here's a Plan B
The Bolton nomination is far from dead; neither Voinovich nor any other Republican has announced an intention to oppose his confirmation. The Republicans could end up sticking together, as they did when Democrats tried similar tactics to block the first President Bush's appointments of John Tower to the Pentagon and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Only one GOP senator ended up voting against Tower and two against Thomas.

Since the Republicans have a 55-45 majority, Bolton will be confirmed as long as no more than a few Republicans dissent. Bush père, by contrast, faced a Democratic Senate, so Thomas's confirmation by a 52-48 vote required the support of 11 Democrats. Tower, who won over only three Dems, was defeated, 53-47.

For the Democrats, the Tower rejection turned out to be one of the more Pyrrhic victories of recent times. The president appointed another hawk, House Minority Whip Richard Cheney of Wyoming, who was confirmed unanimously. Cheney, of course, turned out to be a highly consequential Republican pol and is now an Angry Left bête noire. Cheney's departure for Congress also opened up the minority whip post, which was filled by Newt Gingrich, who of course became speaker after leading the GOP to victory in 1994.

If the Senate ends up rejecting Bolton, or Bolton decides he's had enough and withdraws, President Bush's aim should be to make the Dems' victory as Pyrrhic as possible. That is, he should eschew any temptation to conciliation and instead nominate someone as brassy as Bolton. We've got just the candidate: Rudy Giuliani.

We made the case for Giuliani almost a year ago; for now, suffice to say that the overzealous ex-prosecutor who as mayor of New York threw Yasser Arafat out of Lincoln Center is unlikely to be the kind of U.N. ambassador Barbara Boxer and John Kerry dream of. But Giuliani is highly popular, and it seems unlikely that Senate Democrats would want to vote him down.

Sending Giuliani to Turtle Bay would actually help the Democrats by neutralizing the only likely threat to Sen. Hillary Clinton's re-election next year. The New York Times reports that Clinton "has embarked on a furious fund-raising drive that appears to have left her with a larger reserve of cash than any other senator seeking re-election." If she doesn't face a serious challenge, Senate Democrats who do may hope she shares the wealth.

But what's in it for Rudy? Well, perhaps he'd like to be president someday. True, only one U.N. ambassador has gone on to the highest office in the land, but that's one more than the number of New York City mayors who've made it to the White House. And the son of the lone ambassador-turned-president also later became commander in chief, so maybe there's a political future for Andrew Giuliani too.

[THE MODERATE]

The whip is Mitch McConnell he is planing to be the Majority leader afer next year.

[mass55th]

Thanks for posting Taranto's article.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" This leds me to wonder how many other mentally challenged are serving this country in the Senate."

I could not believe my ears last night, when Major Garrett, on Special Report said that Voinovich had told Fox News :

" The Holy Spirit moved him to withdraw his support ."

I find that remark to be flippant and inappropriate. Either Voinovich doesn't get it and thinks this is a big joke or he's got a few screws loose.
Maybe both.