The Bolton Nomination

Last year John Bolton failed to obtain the support of Senator Voinovich or any Democrat on the Senate Committee considering his nomination as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Bush temporarily installed Bolton as U.N. ambassador on Aug. 1 of last year while Congress was in recess. That appointment is to expire in January. He re-nominated Bolton again this year, and hearings were again held on the nomination.

Comment: Bolton is, to put it mildly, an undiplomatic diplomat. He dislikes the United Nations. His term to date has, as far as I can see, been marked by counter-productive pugnacity which has antagonized other diplomats, without gaining any advantage for the United States. While sometimes it is necessary to antagonize representatives of other countries in the course of representing ours, to do so needlessly is simply foolish. Sometimes diplomacy depends on the good will of the diplomats!

Read the negative review Bolton's performance recently published by representatives of the United Nations Association of the United States.

Thursday, according to ABC News, the Senate Committee pulled the scheduled vote. "Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., gave no reason for the delay and did not say when the vote would be held."

Senator Lincoln Chafee sent a letter to Secretary Rice (Posted by Steve Clemons on TPM Cafe) on Thursday which concluded:

It is my hope that answers will be forthcoming about our policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Committee can reconvene to debate Ambassador Bolton's confirmation.

Yesterday Clemons reported:

Several well-placed sources close to the Bolton nomination process have reported to me that the Bolton confirmation process is now dead.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is "highly unlikely" to reconsider Bolton's confirmation again as things now stand.

Lets hope Clemons is right.

Comment: The Bush Administration has the right to nominate (and renominate) Bolton to the post, and apparently agrees with his views and likes the job he has done so far. But the Constitution provides a check, requiring Senate confirmation. Given the opposition of the Democrats to Bolton's policies and behavior, unless the Administration can bring moderate Republicans to vote for Bolton, he will not be confirmed. It now appears that Senator Chaffee, a Republican widely recognized for his good judgement and knowledge of foreign policy, has stood up to the Administration and said no!