Posted on 05/28/2005 12:01:20 PM PDT by concentric circles
The Bush administration said yesterday that Democratic senators should not expect to get the documents they are seeking before they will allow an up-or-down vote on John R. Bolton...
"They have what they need," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "The Democratic and Republican leaders of the Intelligence Committee have had access to this sensitive, highly classified information. The Democrats clamoring for it have already voted against the nomination. This is about partisan politics."
...The documents sought by Democratic Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut are e-mail messages and other background material for congressional testimony Mr. Bolton was to give in 2003 about Syria's weapons programs and 10 foreign communications intercepts the nominee requested in his current role as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security...
... Republicans said the requests for information are just a delay tactic.
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee have seen redacted versions of the intercepts, and concluded nothing could be learned from allowing Mr. Biden to see censored versions.
Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and the committee chairman, went further, saying that releasing the intercepts to anyone else would set a bad precedent for compromising some of the most sensitive intelligence...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
No worry, I'd already come to the conclusion late last week that a recess appointment would do no more than preserve the status quo. The President and the House would remain spoilers to the agenda of the Liberals, while the Senate would remain chained by the Libs & RINO's. The President has four years left. We need a functioning Republican Majority. The Republican Senate needs to fix this problem without being bailed out by the President yet again. It's no more, no less, than kicking a child out of the house at 18 to fend for themselves. Time for them to grow up.
Given that the Senate refuses to even vote on the Bolton nomination, I think such an appointment would be entirely appropriate and that the President should do so.
Unless of course the President is using the obstructionism to his own advantage in other ways. Personally I think the refusal to invoke cloture should be the trigger that sets off the nuclear (aka Constitutional, aka Byrd) option for *all* Presidential appointments, including judicial ones.
Not necessarily, about 15% of the bases recommended for closer TO previous BRACs were taken off by the BRAC. I don't know how many, if any were added. Perhaps the BRAC will take another look at Cannon and Luke and switch which one is to be closed and which to remain open. I'm sure Phoenix could use yet another civilian airfield.
...but, enough about the Stone Age Press!
Pray for W and Our Troops
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