Posted on 04/22/2005 3:12:35 PM PDT by Pikamax
Voinovich surprised by reaction to decision Friday, April 22, 2005 Elizabeth Auster Plain Dealer Bureau Washington - Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich says he is surprised by the fuss he stirred with his unexpected announcement Tuesday that he wasn't prepared to vote to confirm John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.
But if Voinovich has any regrets for single-handedly forcing a delay in Bolton's confirmation, he's not showing it.
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"I feel real good," he said Thursday. "My conscience told me this is what I think I should do."
Voinovich, answering questions briefly from reporters Thursday, said he planned to vote for Bolton before Tuesday's meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee because he felt reassured by an earlier private meeting with Bolton in which he asked many hard questions about foreign policy.
Voinovich said he changed his mind for various reasons, including "hearing some things that bothered me" at the committee meeting.
He cited complaints about Bolton's interpersonal relationships that made him question whether Bolton treats people "with dignity and respect."
Voinovich said he also was disturbed by the outrage on the faces of Democrats on the panel who complained that they weren't being given a chance to examine allegations about Bolton.
"This was very serious business," said Voinovich.
"These are guys who have been on this committee for a long time."
Voinovich said he feared that failing to give Democrats a chance to explore their concerns could undermine "a sense of decency" that often has prevailed on the foreign relations panel and "do real damage to the possibility of having a bipartisan foreign policy."
He felt that Bolton and the Bush administration would be better off if questions about the nomination were resolved by the committee.
The alternative, he said, was a "free-for-all" on the Senate floor.
Voinovich, who has periodically infuriated conservatives by straying from the party line, declined to say whether he is being pressured by the White House to support Bolton. And he laughed off a question about whether GOP colleagues are upset with him.
"My colleagues know I'm the same old George," he said.
A California-based conservative group, Move America Forward, has mounted a radio advertising campaign in Ohio criticizing Voinovich's action.
The group claimed to have raised nearly $50,000 by early Thursday afternoon for the campaign. Ads began running Thursday throughout Ohio, said executive director Siobhan Guiney.
Voinovich spokeswoman Marcie Ridgway said the senator's office is getting a steady stream of e-mails and phone calls on the Bolton issue, with response split between people supporting and opposing Voinovich's action.
Most of the calls and e-mails are from outside Ohio, she said.
Stupid a-hole.
He later remarked: "has anyone seen my spine?"
That's not your conscience, George. That's a voice inside your head. Seek help.
The idiot NEVER went to hearings and pulled this stunt. Obviously he has very little conscience! Once a jerk always a jerk in his case.
"My conscience told me this is what I think I should do."
Actually, I rather suspect that his RINO handlers told him this what he should do.
He's a RINO with the best of em'!
it's interesting that democrats never steer off the democrat plantation.
Didn't he make some comment that he took action because "The holy spirt" made him? Seems like I heard that this week.
In any case, this had all the markings of somebody getting to this guy. He has zero interest in the subject, doesn't go to a bunch of meetings, and then all of a suddent he holy spirit is telling him to speak up?
Sounds to me like someone got to him, one way or another.
Pathetic.
Yep, still not the sharpest knife in the Senate dining room.
I wonder how much cash was in that plain brown paper bag he found in the back seat of his car ??? (Thank you DNC).
I think Lugar did a pretty good job of explaining that the Dems have done everything they could to block, obstruct, undermine, or delay this nomination. For voinovich to play the naive bumpkin might play in Ohio, but the rest of us are seething.
Even McCain had enough sense not to get on the wrong side of this issue.
A little Harsh? Perhaps, but he has it coming.
This guy Voinovich just got off the turnip truck, right?
...and the idiot WILL be voted back in by the sheepe. No harm No foul.
HA!!! I don't believe it for a second. I bet he's getting nailed on his idiotic decision. I live in Ohio, I sent him an email expressing my outrage. He's as worthless as Sen. DeWine and Gov. Taft. I'm afraid Ohio is ripe for the picking if the Democrats ever got it together, as a Ohio Republican I'm disgusted.
Very possibly spirits of some type were involved.
In all seriousness:
1..Does anyone really think Bolton will not be confirmed?
2..Does it really matter if we don't have someone representing us in the UN (useless nations) for a few weeks?
3..Would Bolton's talents be best served elsewhere? Goodness know we have plenty of departments that need a severe a$$ kickin'...
just thinking.
McCain already got on the wrong side of the filibuster. He's probably irked that Voinovich is the new darling Maverick of the press and Dems, and so is pulling the rug from his competition.
I will extend that not even McCain has shockingly reversed himself right before a vote is to be taken without prior word to his collegues. Voinovich has officially surpassed McCain.
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