Washington – Democrats this evening forced the U.S. Senate to put off a final vote on John R. Bolton’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador, the latest setback for the tough-talking nominee President Bush has called strong medicine for corruption and inefficiency at the United Nations.
Democrats contended the White House had stiff-armed the Senate
over classified information on Bolton’s tenure in his current job
as the State Department’s arms control chief, and demanded more
information before the Senate can give Bolton an up-or-down vote.
“We should delay this (vote) until we see that information; it’s a matter of right and wrong,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said earlier today. “It is right for us to get that information, it is wrong for the administration to withhold it.”
Republicans needed 60 votes to end the Democrats’ procedural
delays and move to an immediate final vote on Bolton’s
confirmation. But the vote to halt the stalling was 56-42, four shy
of that threshold.
The final Bolton vote will probably not take
place until early June, after the Senate returns from a Memorial
Day recess.
Today was the second day of Senate debate over Bolton’s fitness and qualifications.
Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph Biden of Delaware had asked other senators in a letter today to support a delay.
The material, which Democrats have sought for weeks, 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 had said it was time to vote after weeks of investigation into allegations that Bolton mistreated subordinates and misused government intelligence.
“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?”
