Posted on 05/04/2005 11:31:48 AM PDT by pookie18
A left-wing website rescues clueless Democrats in the confirmation fight.
When Melody Townsel, the Texas woman who claims that U.N.-ambassador nominee John Bolton chased her through a Moscow hotel, throwing things at her and "behaving like a madman," first tried to tell her story to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the committee showed no interest. It was only after she turned to the influential far-Left website DailyKos that Democrats on the committee realized Townsel might be a powerful weapon in their campaign to defeat the Bolton nomination.
The story began on Friday, April 8, when Townsel e-mailed her story to the committee. In an interview last night with National Review Online, she explained that she sent the letter, which described an alleged incident that occurred when she was working for an Agency for International Development subcontractor in Kyrgyzstan, to the committee's general e-mail address, and not to any particular senator. It was an explosive story. Bolton, she wrote,
proceeded to chase me through the halls of a Russian hotel - throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door and, generally, behaving like a madman. For nearly two weeks, while I awaited fresh direction from my company and from US AID, John Bolton hounded me in such an appalling way that I eventually retreated to my hotel room and stayed there. Mr. Bolton, of course, then routinely visited me there to pound on the door and shout threats.
One might have expected Democrats on the committee to take immediate notice. But days passed - including April 12, the day of Bolton's confirmation hearing - and Townsel heard nothing from the committee. "I got two form e-mails, one from [Democratic Sen. Joseph] Biden and one from someone I don't remember," Townsel says. "They said thank you very much for your comments."
A few more days passed, and then a week, and Townsel still heard nothing from the committee. Then, on Friday, April 15, with the committee's scheduled vote on Bolton just four days away, a friend of Townsel's, to whom she had told the story, asked if she could post Townsel's letter on DailyKos. The friend, who went by the name amyindallas, posted the letter with the comment that "[Townsel] described the incident in a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members (who have thus far responded with a yawn), and I wanted to share it with a larger audience."
It worked. "Within a few hours, I started getting phone calls," Townsel told NRO, "one from the Senate and then the Senate again, both Democratic staffers." Democrats who had heretofore shown no interest in Townsel's story were suddenly very, very interested.
That evening, Townsel got a call from the liberal radio network Air America, and she soon found herself on the air. "I make no secret of the fact that I am an extremely liberal and vocal Democrat," Townsel, who was a member of the group Mothers Opposing Bush, said on Air America. But she claimed that her partisanship did not play a factor in her decision to speak out. Bolton, she said, had been "not just very difficult to deal with but abusive and confrontational and ended up sort of chucking some things in a meeting and pounding on hotel doors and trotting across hotel lobbies to get to me, and it was uncomfortable and kind of creepy." (A number of people involved in the matter, including Townsel's then-boss, have cast doubt on key parts of her story.)
By the next day, Saturday, April 16, Democrats sent Townsel's letter out to dozens of reporters. By Sunday morning, her story was in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Biden, whose office had blown Townsel off just a few days before, announced on Fox News Sunday that, "A former AID worker in Kyrgyzstan wrote an open letter to the committee...saying that she'd essentially been harassed by John Bolton...For me, that's an issue."
On Monday, April 18, the day before the scheduled (and later postponed) committee vote on Bolton, Townsel's friend, amyindallas, posted another message on DailyKos. "I want to thank everybody on Kos," she said, "for creating such a buzz about her letter that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had no choice but to at least hear her out." By Tuesday, Townsel's hometown paper, the Dallas Morning News, ran a story headlined, "Bolton Foes Hope E-Mail Alleging Abuse Sways UN Ambassador Vote."
And indeed, it appears that it did. At the April 19 committee meeting to vote on Bolton, Biden, the ranking Democrat on the committee, read at length from Townsel's letter. Later in the session, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich stunned his fellow Republicans by announcing that "I've heard enough today that I don't feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton." The vote was postponed for three weeks.
Townsel, meanwhile, says she is surprised by the turn of events, saying she "didn't feel like we would get any response." But she did, and all because a liberal blog, like conservative websites in earlier controversies involving Dan Rather, Eason Jordan, and others, played a key role in another high-profile fight.
" ... [Bolton] proceeded to chase me through the halls of a Russian hotel - throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door and, generally, behaving like a madman. For nearly two weeks, while I awaited fresh direction from my company and from US AID, John Bolton hounded me in such an appalling way that I eventually retreated to my hotel room and stayed there. Mr. Bolton, of course, then routinely visited me there to pound on the door and shout threats."
First question ... WHY?
Throwing what things?
Where are the letters, and what did they contain?
Did she call the authorities? If so, whom?
Can this woman pass a sobriety test?
I did come across one that said it was her .. but now I can't find it now
I wished I had saved it at the time .... grrrr
Iremember reading somwhere that it has been proven she wasn't even in Bishkek when Bolton was there. I'll see if I can find the reference.
Just to echo what other posters have said- what happened that supposedly enraged Bolton so much that he had to chase her around the hotel and throw things at her.
And what things was he throwing at her?? Hotel hallways don't have junk just laying around. Room service trays? Copies of USA Today? His briefcase??
Were there no other guests or staff present in the hotel that day who can confirm her story? If she were, in fact, being chased through hotel hallways then someone HAD to see them.
Sorry, I don't believe her as far as I can throw her.
I am always amazed when some truth slips out of their lying mouths. They turn to a far-Left website, not to find the truth but simply to defeat a Bush appointee. LOL
bttt
BOLTON, BOLTON, BOLTON [Rich Lowry] O.K., one more. Here’s an e-mail that asks an interesting question:
nobody has asked this yet, but, whenever you walk down a hotel lobby, can you please tell me what you might find to pick up and throw at someone? Was it a room service tray? Soap off the maid's cart? A chocolate mint? Townsel has never detailed what was thrown at her. All these details from her, except what was thrown. Curious, to say the least.
ME: Actually in a USA Today interview Townsel says it was a file folder and a plastic tape dispenser that he threw at her. Now, this is different from the impression created by her letter, (available here) which seems to suggest he was chasing her AND throwing things at her in the hallway. That might be just be a product of sloppy writing.
But her USA Today account seems to suggest that the incidents happened in an office, and the IBTCI people have said it was a bullpen-style office where such fireworks wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
Also, in her letter she says she couldn't leave her hotel room for two weeks because she was under Bolton's abusive siege. For two weeks. But no on working at the hotel noticed?
In her letter, she further says that Bolton kept berating her when they both were in Bishkek, Kyrgzstan. But here is yet another letter in support of Bolton sent to the committee by former IBTCI officer, Edwin Hullander. He says that when Bolton and Townsel overlapped in Moscow Bolton had nothing to do with the dispute over Townsel's Bishkek work. Eventually, Bolton was assigned to look into it and went to Bishkek. But by then Townsel had been relieved from her job and left the city, according to Hullander.
In the USA Today piece, there is another Townsel corroborator, Kirby James. But the only specific thing the paper reports James corroborating is that she told him Bolton was accusing her of stealing money. Since IBTCI had ousted her partly over concerns over her financial management and Bolton was asked to look into the whole matter, this seems more plausible--and not outrageous.
Uno Ramat, the other corroborator, is reported by the Times today as saying that Townsel told him about the hotel abuse at the time. Uno didn't return my call or e-mail today. But I did notice that the other day a Texas newspaper only reported that Ramat told them Bolton went to Bishkek and told the office that Townsel “was under investigation and she was being accused of various things, including stealing money.” Again, not the sort of thing that should get someone banned from public service.
Anybody went to high school with this "lady" and might have class reunion photos of her?
How about the genealogy sites?
Or is this woman really Dan "Lucy Ramirez" Rather?
Thanks for the ping.
"Sorry, I don't believe her as far as I can throw her."
...especially when she can't produce the "letters" she says he harassed her with!
Ha! Some blackmailer SHE turned out to be.... (smirk)
Bolton Accuser Sought Publicity
Public relations executive Melody Townsel became the focus of media attention last week by accusing U.N. ambassador nominee John Bolton of once chasing her down a hotel hallway in Moscow while screaming and throwing things.
But that's not the first time Townsel has been in the news. In fact, the former leader of Mothers Opposing Bush has quite a knack for attracting press coverage, even when it comes to the most mundane details of her personal life.
Like the New York City apartment she rented a few years after returning from the Russia trip. Somehow Townsel got the Village Voice to do a profile on her flat, which she described to the Voice reporter as looking like "a Bangkok brothel."
And then there was the birth of Ms. Townsel's baby. By October 2000, the Bolton accuser had moved to Dallas – just in time to be quoted in the Dallas Morning News giving advice on how to juggle a career and motherhood.
By 2003, Melody Townsel was in the news again – this time after a local homeless man was hit by a truck. The Dallas Morning News turned to Townsel because she once hired the injured gent "to move heavy boxes and to help make repairs in her back yard."
But the most intriguing account of Townsel's travails came nine years earlier – just after she returned from the ill-fated Russia trip where she encountered Bolton.
"She broke her left leg in three places while working in Kazakhstan, formerly part of the Soviet Union," the Dallas paper reported in December 1994. "Ms. Townsel said the broken leg was a painful blessing. ... Had it not been for the accident, she would not have made it home for Christmas."
It's unclear from the report whether Townsel broke her leg before or after she was compelled to run down that Moscow hallway with Bolton in hot pursuit.
She sounds like quite the drama queen, doesn't she?
Quite the understatement! LOL!
John Bolton can breathe easier. Critics of President Bush's would-be UN ambassador have been buzzing this week that he could be haunted by his first marriage, to Christina Moser Bolton - who, so far, hasn't been mentioned in profiles of the nominee.
Steven Clemons writes on his blog, TheWashingtonNote.com, that "the media should investigate questions about [Christina] ... and what some of their friends consider quite cruel treatment by him of their relationship."
Clemons also writes that, during their marriage, the "hyper-conservative John Bolton" was "also allegedly involved in somewhat risqué private behavior." Clemons doesn't go into any more detail, saying he'd rather stick to "intellectual and policy differences."
The good news for Bolton is that his ex isn't in any hurry to fill in the blanks. Christina, who served in the first Bush administration as a deputy assistant commerce secretary, tells us, "What happens in a marriage should remain between the two people." Foes of Bolton, whose spokesman declined comment, may see Christina as an ally. But the international-trade consultant won't say boo about the nomination of her husband of 10 years. She does scoff at any suggestion of "risqué private behavior." [Oops, in other words, more lies about Bolton]
"No way," says Christina. "He's a real straight guy."
I'm getting the feeling that the despotic, enemy Dimocrats will continue this assault, practically aided by the Rhino's, until the elections in 2006, or 08.
From the performance of Biden, etal a few weeks ago, the public must believe the Dimocrats are still the majority.
BUMP!
This part just cracks me up. It's the equivalent of "I know something you don't know!!" He's just throwing things out there seeing if something will stick.
So Steven Clemons is just a flat out liar? Just trying to add a little more fuel to the fire?
Cripes.
Did anyone catch the segment on Fox News about the woman who is an Dodd aide who has been pulling tricks on the Bolton nomination and demanding that segments of Otto Reich's Q&A be removed?
I just caught the end of the report, and I'd sure like to know more.
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