"Nice goin' Bob, checks in the mail".
Posted on 05/13/2005 5:17:59 PM PDT by Pikamax
Voinovich sticks to his conscience -- White House shouldn't have been surprised at opposition
By GEORGE E. CONDON Jr., Copley Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON – Sen. George Voinovich’s decision to oppose John Bolton came as a great shock to the White House. But it could not have surprised anyone who has watched the Republican senator’s long career in public office in Ohio.
As a county auditor and commissioner, Cleveland mayor, Ohio governor and now as senator, Voinovich has always insisted on civility and decent treatment of public employees, a trait he found woefully lacking in President Bush’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations.
And despite threats and hostile advertising from conservative groups out to punish him for his apostasy, it is also not surprising that Voinovich did not buckle under what became a withering three-week assault from Bolton’s supporters.
“Because he is so principled, he is extremely tough,” said Ted Hollingsworth, a longtime Voinovich staffer who recently left as his chief of staff. “As long as he really believes in his heart that he is doing the right thing for the right reasons he absolutely will never be intimidated. People who think they can intimidate him are fooling themselves.”
For Voinovich, the decision to oppose a president of his own party was painful.
But he said simply, “My conscience got to me.”
And once he was convinced that Bolton is diplomatically ill-suited for the U.N. post, he did not mince words in stating his view. The result was a scathing critique of the nomination and a pledge to “do everything I can” to defeat Bolton in the full Senate.
When it was over, he was near tears, he said later. And, he confessed to reporters, “I’m tired.”
The Ohio senator’s emergence as the only Republican on the Foreign Affairs committee to speak against Bolton came after what veteran congressional analyst Norman Ornstein called an inept White House lobbying effort and a “ham-handed” campaign by conservative groups to force Voinovich to toe the party line.
“They are so used to Republicans falling in line behind them that they only look at the squeaky wheels, and Voinovich said nothing,” said Ornstein. “The White House just made an assumption, a foolish assumption” that he would support Bolton.
Then when Voinovich signaled his unhappiness with tales of Bolton’s mistreatment of subordinates, the conservative attacks began. “Go to hell, Voinovich,” said one blogger on freerepublic.com, a leading conservative Internet blog. Another blogger dismissed Voinovich as “a gun-grabbing, tax raising RINO” – Republican In Name Only.
A group called “Move America Forward” spent tens of thousands of dollars to air a radio ad in Ohio in which actors state, “Shame on Sen. Voinovich” and calling him “a traitor to the Republican Party.”
In a conference call with reporters late Thursday, Voinovich said he ignored the attacks. “If they don’t like it, that’s tough,” he said, noting, “I’ve been around Ohio for a long time. People know who I am. If they want to beat me up, they can beat me up.”
Indeed, Voinovich has been on the ballot 15 times since 1966, losing only once. He won his second term as governor with a record 72 percent of the vote and was re-elected to the Senate last year with 64 percent. He is the latest in a long line of centrist-to-conservative Republicans who have fared well in Ohio.
But even as he tries to engineer a major defeat for the president he is trying to maintain good ties with Bush. “I respect the president. I think ... he’s a tremendous human being,” the senator said in a conference call with reporters. “He realizes that Voinovich is Voinovich,” he said with a laugh.
“He knows that I don’t have axes to grind. I’m not a hateful person. I’m not somebody who is an ideologue. I just try to do what I think is right and all common sense ... He knows we’re straight shooters and good people.”
But what the White House had failed to grasp is how passionate Voinovich is about public officials treating their employees with respect and decency. Interviews with three longtime and high-ranking Voinovich staffers made clear that the Ohioan always demanded that.
So he was personally repulsed at what he saw in Bolton.
“That’s a big deal,” said Voinovich. “I’ve been involved in trying to improve the environment for the people who get the work done around here for some time now. It’s been a cause celebre in terms of my career here in the Senate and one I feel very proud of.”
He felt certain that many in the State Department said “hooray” when he stood up for them against Bolton. “I’m pleased that we were able to get the message out to the thousands of people who work in the State Department that somebody cares about them,” he said, adding he was trying to send a signal “that if you behave the way Mr. Bolton behaves that there comes a day when you will have to stand up and be accountable.”
Active in European and NATO groups and a frequent overseas traveler, Voinovich also believes that Bolton’s appointment would set back the president’s announced plans to improve on “public diplomacy” and do better on persuading the rest of the world to support American efforts on a broad front, including the war against terrorism.
“Right now, we’re Uncle Sugar. It’s our men and women who are dying over there for the most part. It’s our country that is paying enormous sums of money for this,” he said. “We’ve got to convince the rest of the world that, by golly, they’ve got to be with us and on board with us.”
Usually they run as Democrats. This guy ran as a Republican, so I guess that makes him smarter than the others of his kind.
NOT ONE PENNY!!!
The Republican Party can KISS MY *SS if they think I'm going to donate one dime to the party that supports people like Voinovich! I'll donate to the individual candidate before I give them another penny to spend on people like that IDIOT who didn't think it important enough to even SHOW UP during the hearings!
"Voinovich looks so much like just another Ohio commie with an Eastern European name"
I happen to be a Republican Ohioan with an East European name. I ain't a commie but a solid conservative disgusted with Voinavich.
Don't paint us all with the same brush.
If you beat all the bull shit out of that article, it would only consist of two words.
The mainstream media in this country is so far in the tank for the left that all of us who are right of center should be denouncing them daily, loudly and clearly. Our Reps should be shouting their double standard crap from the congressional floor. This is such BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gee, no mention of screaming at the air traffic controllers. How does that jibe with civility towards government employees?
"If you beat all the bull shit out of that article, it would only consist of two words."
Yep. Bull shit.
No, he was personally repulsed by what the partisan Democrat operatives had to SAY about what Bolton was like. Has Voinivich ever had the opportunity to work directly with Bolton? If not, then how would he know for sure what Bolton was like?
I wonder if the MSM will treat Joe Lieberman so lovingly if he jumps from the Democrat ship and votes FOR Bolton. The media always talks about Repubs. marching in 'lock step', but they never seem to mention the Democrats who do the same thing. It's BAD for Repubs, but I guess it's ok for Dems.
The point being that both Indiana and Virginia cleaned up their problem with the Ku Klux Klan 3/4 of a century ago yet Ohio continues to play footsie with these Wobblies and Anarchists down to the present day.
Time to clean the place up.
"Right now, we're Uncle Sugar"?
Hey Ma, look at me, I'm a blogger!
Jeez, I think this guy Condon wrote for the PD when I still lived in Cleveland 40 years ago!
Selling out takes a lot out of a man, I suppose. But is he sleeping any easier these days..? Maybe his slumber is interrupted by that still, small voice crying softly into his ear, "George, you sonofab**ch! Wake up, damn you, and march your sad a** down to the Senate and apologize for the turmoil you've caused. Get UP, you worthless POS and face yourself in the mirror. !#%! for brains, I tell ya. !#%! for brains." I pray that is the conversation he's having with his conscience. IF he can recognize its voice anymore.
i sent him an email calling him an Oxygen Thief...
I live in Southern Ohio and you can bet I will never vote for him again.
I dare say there are alot of Republicans like me aound here.
No his name is Rinovich
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