As my friend Steve Clemons has often pointed out, John Bolton’s allies have again and again snookered the press into reporting that their man’s ascension to the U.N. ambassador’s post is a done deal, just around the corner, etc., only to see that nomination fall flat. One thinks of Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football….
Peter Scoblic from The New Republic here, guest blogging for the day. I’ll write more later, but, in case anyone missed it, CNN reported last night that two senior administration officials have said the president may give Bolton a recess appointment early next week.
The Point Will Be Tipping All Over Again Prediction: On August 14, just a few hours to go before Iraq’s permanent constitution is to be completed, as the international community holds its collective breath, the Iraqi negotiators would announce that after overcoming monumental obstacles, including the deep divisions between the country’s ethnic and religious communities,…
Hot off the wires; Biden gets results: John Bolton, the nominee for U.N. ambassador, inaccurately told Congress he had not been interviewed or testified in any investigation over the past five years, the State Department said Thursday, responding to a Democratic critic.
It looks like Senator Joe Biden has sent another letter to Secretary Rice today, circling in on the controversy over Bolton’s truthfulness on his nomination form. Josh Marshall points to a Raw Story piece reproducing a July 28 letter to Rice asking whether Bolton was interviewed by State’s Inspector General. (See yesterday’s post.
At Tuesday’s State Department briefing, reporters again tried to get Spokesperson Sean McCormack to say something new about John Bolton. Here’s what he said: Still looking for an up-and-down vote. Up-or-down vote.
By way of followup to Steve’s post from this morning, Reuters’ Vicki Allen reports: The State Department on Thursday said U.N. ambassador nominee John Bolton told Congress the truth when he said he did not testify in the investigation of the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Dad, what did you do during the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism? I was a war-blogger, son.
The nation’s security must wait…at least until September, or so moved Senator Frist on the Senate floor on Tuesday morning. Frist pulled the all-important Defense Authorization bill from the Senate floor in order to pass the NRA’s Gun Liability legislation.
It turns out John Bolton is not the first UN Ambassador nominee to consider a recess appointment: in 1999, President Clinton floated the idea of a recess appointment for Richard Holbrooke, one of his UN Ambassador nominees, but Holbrooke refused.