The White House and some of the Senators who had hoped to quickly move the Bolton nomination through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee counted on the American public’s ignorance of Bolton and their relative disinterest in this post at the United Nations.
This morning in the Boston Globe: In a new allegation against President Bush’s nominee for United Nations ambassador, a woman who worked under John Bolton in the early 1980s has complained that he tried to fire her after they clashed over US policy on infant formula in developing nations. Lynne D.
Vice President Cheney does the nation a real disservice by confusing “serial abuse” with what he calls occasional toughness and abrasiveness in the John Bolton case.
Today is April 23rd, Saturday. Yesterday, major front page articles appeared throughout the major press that Colin Powell had entered the fray on John Bolton and apparently joined the “Bolton is Unfit” side of the equation.
I knew that the essential themes and players involved with the Bolton nomination had played out some time before. Sort of like a Shakespearean tragedy, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Pick up nearly any major paper in the United States today and there is a front page story on the implications of Colin Powell discreetly sharing his thoughts on John Bolton’s past behavior and performance with Senators Hagel and Chafee.
This is getting interesting. Didn’t Bush also look into Putin’s eyes and see a good man? Bush’s team is trying to make this about White House infallibility. It’s sad that the White House can’t step back and study the many reasons why there is so much national indigestion about the Bolton nomination.
I spoke with Senator Chafee’s Chief Spokesman, Steve Hourahan, yesterday and was very pleased with the discussion. I think Senator Chafee is now moving from the ‘passive’ and ‘reactive’ in this matter on John Bolton — to ‘proactive’ and ‘aggressive’ in trying to get to the truth about the many allegations about Bolton.
But didn’t John Bolton testify that his only beef with some of these intelligence analysts was over process? That they went behind his back? Did he know he was under oath? This from AP: Senators considering John R. Bolton’s nomination to be U.N.
Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett has reported that the White House intends to power on and doesn’t consider Voinovich’s stand a “no vote” yet. Just in case anyone at the White House is reading (and I’ve been informed that they are), no problem.