I have been at a foreing policy conference with a few people — including Andy Moravscik and G. John Ikenberry of Princeton, Charles Kupchan of Georgetown, Michael Cox of the LSE and other really smart folks — but I’m heading back now.
The word is out. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will not get the much-wanted National Security Agency intercepts in which John Bolton expressed so much interest during his tenure as Under Secretary of State for International Security and Arms Control.
The Washington Post‘s Glenn Kessler reveals today the story running around town about Richard Armitage “endorsing” John Bolton. Kessler writes: In a boost for Bolton, however, Powell’s closest friend, former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, endorsed Bolton in a statement to the Associated Press.
Warren Strobel and John Wolcott hit a homer with this piece today. Given President Bush’s predisposition in the Summer of 2002 to go to war before the intelligence on WMDs and Iraq had really come in (around October 2002), it is not surprising that Bolton demonstrated the same patterns of behavior.
One of the things that most bothered me about the beginning of the opposition efforts to John Bolton’s nomination is that so few thought that just opposing him because he didn’t seem to believe in the very concept of the United Nations was enough to make him unfit.
Senator Lugar was on the side of democracy in the Philippines before it became fashionable. But apparently Bolton “management advisor” Matthew Freedman was not. This just came to me from a reliable source who knew Freedman two decades ago: Steve, Your penultimate post (on Matthew Freedman) triggered long-stored memories.
Senator Biden wrote yesterday to Condoleeza Rice indicating that he and Senator Lugar disagree as to the importance of the information requests that the minority staff has made of the State Department in the John Bolton investigation. Here is the letter.
I’m about to board a plane. This is just in from Andy Fisher, Press Secretary to Senator Richard Lugar: We anticipate that sufficient discovery, information and due diligence will be completed in a timely manner for the vote to occur next Thursday as agreed.
Well, it’s clear that serving as a management advisor to John Bolton would require some tough resolve. Here is an interesting clip which appeared in 1995 on PR Newswire on Matthew Freedman when he moved from Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly to the PBN Company: “It has been quite an adventure at BMSK.
“John Bolton. John Bolton. John Bolton. I want John Bolton.” I wonder if that is what Vice President Cheney is saying morning, noon and night to keep the Bolton nomination in play.
