May 26, 2005
BY ANNE GEARAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
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WASHINGTON-- Democrats forced the Senate to put off a final vote Thursday on John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador, the latest setback for the tough-talking nominee President Bush has called strong medicine for corruption and inefficiency at the United Nations.
Democrats contended the White House had stiff-armed the Senate over classified information on Bolton's tenure in his current job as the State Department's arms control chief, and demanded more information before the Senate can give Bolton an up-or-down vote.
Republicans needed 60 votes to end the Democrats' procedural delays and move to an immediate final vote on Bolton's confirmation. But the vote to halt the stalling was 56-42, four shy of that threshold. The final Bolton vote will not take place until at least June, after the Senate returns from a Memorial Day recess.
The dramatic roll call underscored that, despite the compromise the two parties' centrists forged just days ago in a bitter dispute over judicial nominees, most senators still had a taste for partisan confrontation over a polarizing figure like Bolton.
It also raised questions about Bush's ability to win confirmation of some of his more ideological appointees as he begins his second term in the White House. And it was a setback for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who was hoping to end nearly three months of delays and investigation and finally deliver Bolton's nomination for the president.
Frist said the Bolton matter soured the air of cooperation.
"John Bolton, the very first issue we turned to, we got what looks to me like a filibuster," Frist said. "It certainly sounds like a filibuster ... it quacks like a filibuster."
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Democrats do not want to postpone an up-or-down vote indefinitely.
"We are willing to vote 10 minutes after we get back in session, if in fact they provide the information," Biden said.
"Amazing how Dem US Senators speak on the floor and overseas about their country to comfort our enemies, with boots on the ground, about the lying evil Bush and his plan to take over the worlds oil, not to mention trashing our soldiers as murderers."
I agree. I am becoming convinced that the Democratic party needs to rename itself the Socialist, or even Neo-Communist Party in some sense, and that these Democratic senators want to subjugate the United States to the control of the UN, with US troops subject to the will of the UN. I think at one time there was talk of this. Furthermore, had Kerry won, I believe the plan was to appoint Clinton SecGen of the UN somehow, so that, when the Law of the Sea Treaty would be passed, world government would be a fact, with Clinton at the helm.
I still think this is the plan, and part of the reason for the objection to Bolton.