Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Quality C-Span
I just happened upon one of the more entertaining hours of C-Span I've seen in a while: the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's deliberations over whether to vote on the nomination of John Bolton for UN Ambassador. Recent allegations have further indicated the possiblity that Bolton might be truly mad. A US AID worker, who was situated in Kyrgyzstan in 1994, has written that, after she criticized the actions of a contractor that Bolton was representing he,
This was perhaps the main development shaping how the committee acted this afternoon. Chairman Richard Lugar did his grandfatherly best to urge his colleagues to bring the nomination to a vote. Lugar is known far and wide for his geniality - he is not a White House hatchet man.
Facing Lugar was a quintet of aggressive Democrats: John Kerry, Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer, Paul Sarbanes, and Chris Dodd. They pressed their points home and the excitable Biden occasionally interrupted the chair.
What was most intriguing was the apparent crack that formed among the GOP committee members. First Chuck Hagel said that he had reservations about Bolton but wanted them to be discussed on the floor. Faint praise, though an argument that sorta helped Lugar. Then George Voinovich said that the new allegations were serious and he could not support Bolton without some discussion of them. A nervous looking Lincoln Chafee asked Lugar if Voinovich's statement had changed his views. Chafee would probably experience real difficulty from an early vote in favor of Bolton. Rhode Island isn't getting any redder and his professions of filial piety justifying his GOP membership seem pretty thin. With these two seeming iffy and the Democrats seemingly united, the Bolton nomination stood to fail by a 10-8 vote. Beforehand, Chafee had indicated support for the nomination. Apparently it doesn't take too strong a wind to shake him.
The apparent reservations of Voinovich and Chafee set off a long procedural discussion in which Lugar sought to give ground gracefully - getting the minority to commit to a vote at some definite point in the future. Still, it would seem that Bolton might be too bitter a pill for GOP moderates to swallow. Depending how these new allegations play out, he might be dead in the water - the first significant defeat of the administration since the inauguration.
- 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.
This was perhaps the main development shaping how the committee acted this afternoon. Chairman Richard Lugar did his grandfatherly best to urge his colleagues to bring the nomination to a vote. Lugar is known far and wide for his geniality - he is not a White House hatchet man.
Facing Lugar was a quintet of aggressive Democrats: John Kerry, Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer, Paul Sarbanes, and Chris Dodd. They pressed their points home and the excitable Biden occasionally interrupted the chair.
What was most intriguing was the apparent crack that formed among the GOP committee members. First Chuck Hagel said that he had reservations about Bolton but wanted them to be discussed on the floor. Faint praise, though an argument that sorta helped Lugar. Then George Voinovich said that the new allegations were serious and he could not support Bolton without some discussion of them. A nervous looking Lincoln Chafee asked Lugar if Voinovich's statement had changed his views. Chafee would probably experience real difficulty from an early vote in favor of Bolton. Rhode Island isn't getting any redder and his professions of filial piety justifying his GOP membership seem pretty thin. With these two seeming iffy and the Democrats seemingly united, the Bolton nomination stood to fail by a 10-8 vote. Beforehand, Chafee had indicated support for the nomination. Apparently it doesn't take too strong a wind to shake him.
The apparent reservations of Voinovich and Chafee set off a long procedural discussion in which Lugar sought to give ground gracefully - getting the minority to commit to a vote at some definite point in the future. Still, it would seem that Bolton might be too bitter a pill for GOP moderates to swallow. Depending how these new allegations play out, he might be dead in the water - the first significant defeat of the administration since the inauguration.
