There is a diligent soul over at DailyKos posting segments of all of the Bolton speeches on the floor of the Senate. It’s a great archive to have available for those of you who may have missed Voinovich, Levin, Boxer, or Biden yesterday — or Senator Pat Robert’s miserly response — or Obama’s fantastic speech today.
It’s worth checking these out now that “Alias” is over for the season.
On another front — I’ve mentioned this several times, but I am so tired of hearing that the “President deserves the team he wants.” The constitutional responsibilities of the Senate include providing advise and consent to the White House — because the White House sometimes gets decisions wrong. The President is not infallible and is not a monarch — and this is a process that should be celebrated and robustly embraced.
Bolton is wrong for this U.N. Ambassadorship. Full stop. The Senate should tell this to the White House because national interests will be undermnined by this appointment.
I find it hilarious that even current White House official Elliot Abrams has apparently written to the President opposing the possible nomination of C. Boyden Gray to serve as America’s Ambassador to the U.K. Other neocons — the same ones pushing Bolton — are knocking down Boyden Gray!
Double standards galore — they are proliferating. More on this later. . .but just remember that what our Democracy is about is good public policy (or should be about) and that the next person that says that the “President deserves the team he wants” is angling for monarchy.
Enough of that. Make the case for Bolton — and hear the case against him. That’s what the Senate is for — and it ought not to be timid of or fear that role.
— Steve Clemons
