There are some Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who have stated that they will NOT vote to confirm John Bolton until a full investigation of his pattern of activities and views are known.

Abu Farraj al-Libbi’s capture is a big deal. This No. 3 player in the al Qaeda network no doubt has information on al-Zawahri and bin Laden’s operation that will bring these two mastermind terrorists closer to capture or some other form of justice. Bush has a big score here.

On another front in Bolton World, it was Fred Fleitz’s role in all of this as Bolton’s chief spear-carrier and warrior, that seems unusually important.

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.

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. . .

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.

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.

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.

This interesting summary, noting the “enormous stakes for the President” in the Bolton Battle, just in from AP: President Bush, stunned when John R.

Our campaign for better nominees than John Bolton continues. . . Today TWN suggests that President Bush consider Robert Kimmitt, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and former General Counsel at the National Security Council.