Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld may not have been the only person bemoaning the fact that he didn’t have his own robust, independent source for national security intelligence. John Bolton too felt constantly constrained by and at war with “intelligence-packagers” at the Department of State and CIA.
Senator Chuck Hagel said yesterday that his vote is in trouble. He was inclined as of yesterday to vote for Bolton, but if the scope of concern and inquiry grew any more he indicated he could not support John Bolton’s U.N. nomination. The Washington Post‘s Dafna Linzer discloses today that the scope has widened.
Ron Brownstein does a great job at getting at the complex politics of the Bolton nomination. He writes: Chafee, facing reelection next year, is feeling as squeezed as anyone. Conservatives grumble about all the times he’s defected from Bush’s agenda.
I just read a very long but interesting piece on the blog, Obsidian Wings, about John Bolton. It’s a cluster blog, with some on the right and others on the left. One of the writers, “hilzoy,” caught most of the major reasons to oppose Bolton, and I want to link to her post.
College newspapers around the country are also getting into the question of John Bolton’s fitness to serve as America’s UN Ambassador. Robert Iafolla of USC’s Daily Trojan published a superb piece today making the case that John Bolton’s biggest problem is that he seems to be a “serial liar.
John Bolton was a man obsessed with intelligence in his last job.
Today is the most important day for anyone who is engaged in the effort to send someone better than John Bolton to be America’s Ambassador to the United Nations. I will be posting a lot today — quick but important items.
Any Senator — any and all — who votes to confirm John Bolton on Tuesday this week (though there may be a further delay) not only has to sign off on the issue of Bolton’s pattern of abusive behavior, they must also sign off on the connection of such abuse to the mismanagement of intelligence…
When most observers of the John Bolton jousting match were focusing on whether Lincoln Chafee was going to support or oppose Bolton, many of his advocates and opponents did not realize that the testimony that unfolded in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as well as other disconcerting reports in the media had seriously shaken other…