Every day the Bolton fiasco grows more incredible. Some want to call this entire mess BoltonGate, but I don’t want to trivialize or resort to cliches (yet) to describe some of the really outrageous practices of the John Bolton fiefdom at the State Department.
A new set of controversial Bolton emails has made its way out of the State Department’s increasingly tightened access to all things related to John Bolton. In these, Reuters submits that Bolton’s Chief of Staff, Fred Fleitz, threatened to “diminish the role” of the Intelligence and Research Bureau.
Paula Dobriansky is a well-liked, talented international attorney who now serves as Under Secretary for Global Affairs at the Department of State. Previous to this position, she directed the Washington operation of the Council on Foreign Relations.
TWN has just learned that State Department officials are worried that Bolton’s nomination will not go through. The combination of stone-walling, withholding of key documents, shenanigans related to the long-awaited NSA intercepts and names of U.S.
The Senators want facts. Lawrence Wilkerson just blew Bolton’s professional performance in his Under Secretary job apart in his recent interviews. Senators will ignore the material at great peril because it discloses the lengths that then Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage went to keep Bolton contained and controlled.
I heard Chuck Hagel on National Public Radio yesterday continue the line that he still had not heard anything that would compel him to vote against Bolton — but that he had not studied all of the “facts.
Very high-handed politics have erupted in the Bolton Battle. All players must take a step back and consider options, figure out how much they want to gamble to make a point and secure victory.
Richard Lugar and others have been commenting that Bolton’s worst traits may be good skills for the Ambassadorial position in the United Nations. They argue that his combativeness and tendency towards abuse of people may help him turn the U.N. in directios it needs to go.
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.