Democrats play for time on Bolton nomination

WASHINGTON - President Bush’s nomination of John Bolton to be U.N. ambassador has been shaken again by a Republican senator’s surprise opposition to the embattled nominee, and Democrats hope to seize the opportunity and defeat him in the Senate.

At a minimum, they will play for delay, make the White House squirm and renew accusations that Bolton was overly aggressive as the State Department’s top arms-control official, pushing his views and trying to damage the careers of officials who disagreed with him.

The leader of the fight against Bolton, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, suggested Bush “would be better served by bringing the nomination down.”

Biden says majority not behind Bolton
“It does not appear that Mr. Bolton has the confidence of a majority of the members of the Senate,” Biden said.

The White House showed no sign of backing down after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday voted 10-8 along party lines to forward the nomination to the Senate but without a recommendation, an unusual move.

Sticking to a weeks-old script, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said, “John Bolton is the right person at the right time for this important position.”

While not a defeat for Bush, the vote by the Republican-led committee represented an embarrassing setback early in his second term.

Bush does have an ace in the hole, however, in that Republicans control the Senate 55 to 44, with one independent.

If Bolton survives the bruising Senate fight, he will take with him to New York the scorching criticism of Democratic senators, the doubts of Republican George Voinovich of Ohio, who placed a legislative stumbling block in his path, and criticism even from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who is managing the nomination.

‘Blunt style alienated some colleagues’
“His blunt style alienated some colleagues,” Lugar acknowledged.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., called Bolton “a loose cannon.”

Voinovich’s doubts helped delay the vote for more than three weeks. In an impassioned and conflicted statement that electrified the committee’s 5½-hour meeting, he questioned the impact on the United Nations of naming an ambassador “who himself has been accused of being arrogant, of not listening to his friends, of acting unilaterally and of bullying those who do not have ability to properly defend themselves.”

“These are the very characteristics that we are trying to dispel,” Voinovich said.

Lugar, taking a contrary tack, said if Bolton goes to the United Nations and helps achieve reform, the U.N. will gain in credibility, especially among the American people. “Secretary Bolton has become closely associated with the United States’ efforts to reform the U.N.,” the chairman said.

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