Democrats play for time on Bolton nomination

Bush called Voinovich
Bush, aware of Voinovich’s reservations, telephoned him Wednesday, a day before the vote. McClellan said Friday he was the only senator the president called.

Hoping time is on their side, the Democrats plan to demand more documents, particularly information on whether Bolton sought the names of U.S. officials whose communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence.

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, while not threatening a filibuster, told a reporter that the Democrats would not cooperate with any proposed deadlines. Biden reminded the Senate committee that other U.N. nominations have moved slowly through the Senate.

For instance, Biden said, the committee spent six months on former President Clinton’s nomination of Richard Holbrooke to be U.N. ambassador and four months on Bush’s nomination of John Negroponte for the post.

Republican lambastes nominee
Voinovich, in laying out a case against Bolton, called the nominee “the poster-child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be.”

Yet, Voinovich said Bolton should be commended for his achievements. The senator cited Bolton’s work in countering anti-Semitism, on a treaty to reduce stockpiles of U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons, and on a U.S. program designed to curb the spread of weapons technology.

“Despite these successes, there is no doubt that Bolton has serious deficiencies in the areas that are critical to a good ambassador,” Voinovich said.

After weeks of deliberation by the committee, interviews with 29 past and present U.S. officials and examining thousands of pages of documents, “I have come to the conclusion that the United States can do better than John Bolton,” he said in a low voice.

Democrats, eager for Republican support, leaned forward. It seemed the Republican majority would disintegrate and be replaced by a 9-9 tie.

Voinovich changes course
Then Voinovich hesitated, put his prepared statement aside, and changed course — enough to keep the nomination alive and possibly ensure its approval by the full Senate.

“Mr. Chairman,” he said, “I am not so arrogant to think that I should impose my judgment and perspective of the U.S. position in the world community on the rest of my colleagues. We owe it to the president to give Mr. Bolton an up-or-down vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”

The committee, he said, should move it along — but without a recommendation to approve Bolton. “Let the Senate work its will,” he said.

At the opening of hearings April 11, Bolton pledged to help strengthen the United Nations if confirmed. He called it an institution that had occasionally “gone off track.”

Bolton was senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute before he became Bush’s undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs four years ago.

He had been assistant secretary of state for international organizations under President George H.W. Bush, playing a leading role in organizing support for the U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 war against Iraq.

He also helped nullify a U.N. resolution that equated Zionism, the philosophical underpinning for Israel, with racism.

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