WASHINGTON -The White House is stiff-arming Democrats over classified information about President Bush's pick for United Nations ambassador, and the Senate should put off a vote on the embattled nominee until next month, a Democratic opponent argued yesterday.
We should delay this until we see that information; it's a matter of right and wrong
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., maintained at the start of a second day of Senate debate over John R. Bolton's fitness and qualifications. It is right for us to get that information it is wrong for the administration to withhold it.
The Senate planned a procedural vote yesterday that Democrats hoped to win and force postponement of a confirmation vote until June. Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph Biden of Delaware asked other senators in a letter yesterday to support a delay. If Republicans win the initial vote, the Senate was expected to quickly approve Bolton, whom President Bush says would reform the United Nations.
The material involves Bolton's use of government intelligence on Syria and instances in which he asked for names of fellow U.S. officials whose communications were secretly picked up by a spy agency.
Boxer read out a litany of allegations about Bolton that she said show he is ill-suited to be the nation's top representative at the world body. She also accused Bolton of misleading the Senate committee that wrangled over Bolton's nomination for weeks without offering him its endorsement.
John Bolton did not tell the truth to the Foreign Relations Committee on several points, Boxer alleged. If nothing else I've said matters ... you ought to care about telling the truth to a committee of the United States Senate
Boxer told other senators. We have it chapter and verse. We have it cold here.
Democrats said Wednesday they did not plan to mount a filibuster, or procedural delays, to indefinitely block the vote, and some of their leading voices seemed to acknowledge that time was running out.
I would seriously hope that the president -and I really don't have much hope -but I wish the president had taken another look at this and found us someone else
Biden said.
Republicans said it was time to vote after weeks of investigation into allegations that Bolton mistreated subordinates and misused government intelligence. This week's bipartisan agreement on judicial filibusters in the Senate and the approach of the Memorial Day recess, which starts at week's end, seemed to be sapping some of the strength from the effort by Bolton's opponents to erect further roadblocks.
Where does legitimate due diligence turn into partisanship? asked Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Where does the desire for the truth turn into a competition over who wins and who loses?
On Wednesday, Republican leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas said he and his Democratic counterpart had been briefed on the matter and found that Bolton had done nothing improper when asking for the names.
Bolton is currently the undersecretary of state for arms control and one of Bush's most conservative foreign policy advisers. Bush nominated him in March to succeed John Danforth as U.N. ambassador, a plum diplomatic job despite the Bush administration's sometimes chilly attitude toward the world body.
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said Bolton would set back the U.S. goal of reforming the United Nations and lacks the diplomatic touch for the sensitive job of ambassador.
Voinovich implored senators to think hard before voting to approve Bolton. His surprisingly strong opposition forced a delay of last month's planned Foreign Relations Committee vote on Bolton, and the panel subsequently denied Bolton its customary endorsement.
The message will be lost because our enemies will do everything they can to use Mr. Bolton's baggage to drown his words
Voinovich said. The issue will be the messenger
not the message.
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