Tick Tock Tick Tock. . .The NSA Intercepts Have Not Yet Pulled Into Dock

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Demetri Sevastopulo of the Financial Times has a piece out noting that the National Security Agency has recommended that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee be given to the intercepts in which John Bolton had such an interest during his last job.

Bob Kimmitt Falls Off the List to Replace Bolton for United Nations

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The White House has made a genuinely inspired choice of Robert Kimmitt, whom I wrote about just this morning as a potential U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., and nominated him instead to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. This just in from Chris Nelson’s The Nelson Report: On the subject of money. . .

Key Quotes and Passages in Three Interviews on John Bolton-Christian Westermann “Removal from Portfolio” Incident

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Here is a roster of key quotations in Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff interviews held on the 7th and 8th of April, 2005 on the subject of the tumultuous interaction between Undersecretary of State John Bolton and State Department INR analyst Christian Westermann. The interviews were with: 1.

Douglas Jehl First to Report on New Set of Bolton-Related Interviews

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Doug Jehl has done a truly impressive job working the story on John Bolton and reports today on a set of leaked Senate Foreign Relations Committee interview transcripts with three former SENIOR government officials. This good article rubs some serious salt into some already very deep wounds in the White House’s Bolton nomination.

Tough, Respected, Knowledgable. . .Arnold Kanter Would Also Make Great Ambassador to the U.N.

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Here is another choice, ARNOLD KANTER. He has all the right credentials and has done lots of “heavy-lifting” and “tough negotiating” in his former government roles — and I haven’t yet tripped over someone (like we seem to do everyday with John Bolton) who has accused him of professionally abusive behavior.

Note to President Bush: Where Does Letting John Bolton Out to Bully Other Nations, the U.N., and His Colleagues Fit Into YOUR Notions of Decency and Humility?

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Remember this line from the 2nd Bush-Gore presidential debates? President Bush made this admirable statement on October 11, 2000: I just don’t think it’s the role of the United States to walk into a country and say, we do it this way, so should you. . .