Posted on 04/24/2005 3:21:15 AM PDT by Imaverygooddriver
Bolton Finds U.N. Nomination in Jeopardy
By ANNE GEARAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Withdraw or be pushed out by the White House. Survive the test of his professional life. Suffer a rejection by the Senate. That's about what it comes down to for John R. Bolton, President Bush's besieged nominee to be U.N. ambassador.
Bolton could weather the indignity of further investigation into his personal and professional behavior and win confirmation by the Senate next month. He also could find his nomination scuttled. Or he could pull the plug before a scheduled May 12 vote by a Senate committee.
Only a week ago, Bolton seemed assured of moving on to New York to be the ambassador who works toward Bush's wishes for major changes at the United Nations. His new assignment, however, was thrown into jeopardy last week when moderate Republican senators said new allegations about Bolton gave them cause to reconsider whether he was the right person for the job.
"This nomination is not doomed, but it's on life support and the plug may well be pulled any day," said Allan J. Lichtman, a political history professor at American University.
GOP support for Bolton cracked during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing early last week, so the chairman decided to postpone a vote that Bolton would have lost.
Since then, the White House has defended Bolton daily and blamed Democrats for playing politics with the nomination. Yet each new day has brought fresh allegations that Bolton dressed down subordinates or behaved, as one former colleague claimed, "like a madman," when he was crossed.
The charges come on top of unease over Bolton's past hostility toward the United Nations and allegations that the political appointee tried to pressure career intelligence analysts into twisting the facts for political reasons.
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., went to the full Senate on Thursday to decry what he called "death by a thousand cuts."
Later that day, word spread that former Secretary of State Colin Powell quietly was telling wavering Republican senators what he knows about Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security since May 2001. The two did not get along during Bush's first term.
"My sense is that he's going down," said Thomas Mann, an expert on Congress and the presidency at the Brookings Institution in Washington. It is not clear, Mann said, whether Bolton would jump or be pushed by the White House.
Vice President Dick Cheney sounded as resolute as ever about Bolton's nomination when he spoke to Republican campaign lawyers on Friday.
"If being occasionally tough and aggressive and abrasive were a problem," Cheney said, "a lot of members of the United States Senate wouldn't qualify."
Bolton has not commented publicly since he testified before the committee on April 11. Until the committee hearing on Tuesday, he appeared headed to a 10-8 party line approval, which would have sent the nomination to the GOP-controlled Senate.
Now the focus is on one committee member, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio. Voinovich stunned the chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and his colleagues when he announced during the hearing that he had misgivings about Bolton.
The White House is now lobbying Voinovich and two other GOP senators on the committee to support Bolton, although Bush has not gotten involved personally.
To salvage the nomination, the White House probably will have to offer some "exculpatory information" to counter the daily trickle of new allegations about Bolton's record, Lichtman said. In the end, however, he said it may depend on how badly the White House wants Bolton's confirmation.
"If the White House wants to spend enough political chips they could save it," Lichtman said.
Good for him!
The White House is now lobbying Voinovich and two other GOP senators
on the committee to support Bolton, although
Bush has not gotten involved personally.
WHY NOT?!!!
Sometimes Bush makes me sick to my stomach!
If Bolton is as tough as they portray him, he will get nominated.
Is anyone else as sick as I am of all these endless manhood insults of honorable politicians?
Winning in politics is not about getting your way on the small issues, it's about the big picture.
Precisely. Despite the VP's stated sentence of support, I haven't seen the WH leading any charge of the light brigade to Bolton's defense. They've been pretty meek, if you ask me.
A comment of support here, and another one there.
I think it really is their style to float people and see if anything turns up. Ashcroft, Chavez, Kerik.... examples. I don't mind the style, but it's hard to get worked up over that which hasn't yet gotten the WH in a lather.
Quite understandable.
I would feel ill also if I took everything witten, or stated about him to be factual and true, however I was fortunate that at an early time in my life I was advised to ... "consider the sources".
Colin Powell needs to STFU and haul his liberal carcass back home. Apparently, President Bush did not boot him hard enough, since he has found his way back to Washington and is now backstabbing Bolton.
I'm not sure why the WH pursues a "float and see" position on nominees, but it does. Maybe they just don't have enough folks to investigate their own nominees. I don't know.
Maybe you can investigate criminal stuff, but you can't the personal or political stuff.
Whatever it is, it makes it hard to get in a tizzy about WH nominees.
All except the judiciary....the WH seems to have launched a real offensive to get judges approved. We'll see what Frist and the Senate does with that.
I can't imagine why Bolton wanted it in the first place. Withdraw his nomination and then leave the position empty. That will send a stronger message of how the administration feels towards the UN than Bolton could.
Maybe as a result there'll be a new military airbase in Cleveland now.
Bolton understands the corruption and mendacity of the UN, and he would announce it loudly.
The Marxist rats who support the UN socialists can't allow that. Being told the truth about the UN would increase the number of Americans calling for the UN's overdue demise. The UN with its criminal, fascist NGOs is one of the power bases for the rat party. The corrupt leftists will fight hard to continue the UN's theft, murder and lies.
I have to agree, most of the time his conservative values are at the surface, but when it comes to UN, border control, etc. I too sometimes retch.
Good idea, da**ed good idea!
Remember to give to the NRSC this next election cycle. END HEAVY SARCASM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's precedent for a major power not having representation at a major Security Council meeting. The Soviets were boycotting the meeting the day the vote was taken to support South Korea following invasion by the North.
Not filling our seat at the UN is an altogether bad idea, although I agree with the sentiment behind the gesture.
I believe you are right. The Democrats are just using this Bolton confirmation to size up their Republican opponents in the Senate in preparation for the upcoming judicial nominee confirmations, and I’m afraid they have just found out that our Republican majority has no backbone.
The Bolton nomination is part of a bigger picture. If Bush cannot have a GOP Senate confirm his nominee to the UN, which has always been recognized as a place where the Executive has the most control, then Bush is a lame duck. Bush will be a toothless tiger that no one will fear, and we might as well just focus on 2008.
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