Do GOP centrists have clout — or just notoriety?

Bolton, filibusters put Voinovich and other GOP moderates in spotlight

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file

Sen. George Voinovich, R- Ohio, emerges from a swarm of reporters Tuesday asking if he'll back UN nominee John Bolton.

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By Tom Curry

National affairs writer

MSNBC

updated 5:36 p.m. ET May 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - Even though it’s a conservative-dominated Senate, centrist Republicans, such as Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio and Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, are a hot commodity on Capitol Hill these days.

After keeping reporters and the White House guessing for weeks, Chafee announced Tuesday he’d back John Bolton, President Bush’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations in the scheduled vote Thursday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the nomination.

“I fight the administration on so many issues; this is one of those that I've been with them on — to appoint their team," Chafee told the Associated Press.

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Three weeks ago, Voinovich wielded his clout by bringing the Bolton nomination to a halt. At the end of a Foreign Relations Committee hearing in which Democrats assailed Bolton, Voinovich suddenly said, "I don't feel comfortable voting today on Mr. John Bolton."

Praise from Ohio
Voinovich’s delay won him praise from Senate Democrats and back in his home state.

"What Sen. Voinovich did a few weeks ago was courageous and the right thing to do," Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., told reporters Tuesday.

Voinovich “should be commended for occasionally differing with President Bush and GOP leaders in Congress,” said a Columbus Dispatch editorial. “Independent thinking should be — but is not — a prized commodity in highly partisan Washington.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Voinovich found himself surrounded by reporters pleading with him to reveal how he’ll vote Thursday on Bolton.

Not looking like a man who enjoyed being at the center of the swarm, yet quite willing to talk, the Republican wouldn’t tip his hand.

“The most important thing is to do what your heart tells you to do and what your brain tells you to do,” he told the horde.

When a reporter asked whether he felt greater freedom to “buck your party’s leaders” since he won re-election last November, Voinovich replied, “I don’t look at that as bucking the party. My people sent me down here to do what’s in the best interest of our nation and that’s what the president wants to do…. But if I should decide that I’m not going to go forward and support him (Bolton), I don’t consider that bucking the party. I think that’s doing what the people of Ohio wanted me to do: use my best judgment.”

He added, “I don’t feel pressure from anyone.”

Maybe the more pertinent question is the converse: do Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist feel any pressure from the not-so-conservative contingent of Republican senators, a group that includes Voinovich, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and Gordon Smith of Oregon?

CONTINUED: Clout on the filibuster

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