Washington – Senate Democrats on Monday again blocked a confirmation vote on John Bolton, opening the possibility that President Bush would bypass lawmakers and use a recess appointment to install the embattled nominee as U.N. ambassador.
Despite last-minute lobbying by the White House and public pressure from Bush, Republicans fell well short of the 60 votes they needed to break a Democratic filibuster and cut off debate on the nomination.
Afterward, both Democrats and Republicans indicated that the 54-38 vote dimmed the prospects of Bolton’s nomination eventually making it through the Senate and underscored the high political stakes involved for both parties.
“It’s a pretty tough climb” for the White House to win Bolton’s confirmation at this point, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told reporters.
Under the Constitution, the president has the right to make appointments without a confirmation vote when the Senate is not in session. But such an appointment lasts only through the next congressional year – in Bolton’s case, until January 2007. Presidents generally avoid the practice for fear of antagonizing Congress and because the appointees then bear the stigma of not having the Senate’s backing.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan refused to rule out the possibility that the president might appoint Bolton while Congress is on its week-long Fourth of July break.
Monday’s vote was a blow to both Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who has searched for weeks for the votes to secure Bolton’s confirmation. It followed a tense Senate showdown last month over Bush’s right to demand up-or-down votes for judicial nominees.
Sen. George Allen, R-Va., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, urged the White House to continue to fight for Bolton’s confirmation. At a news conference after the vote, Allen and Roberts accused Democrats of obstructionism and of impeding U.S. efforts to reform the United Nations.
“It would maybe better serve our country to have an up-or-down vote” than a recess appointment, Roberts said. Sending Bolton to the United Nations without Senate confirmation, he said, “would weaken not only Mr. Bolton, but also the United States” at the world body.
The fight is over more, both parties have said, than Bolton’s qualifications to represent the United States at the United Nations.
Republicans say the Democrats are determined to obstruct Bush’s second-term agenda and push the president closer to lame-duck status by handing him a defeat on a nominee whom Bush has strongly backed.
At a news conference hours before the vote, Bush sidestepped the question of whether he would resort to a recess appointment and instead urged the Senate to approve his nominee.
“Put him in,” Bush said. “If they are interested in reforming the United Nations,
they ought to approve John Bolton.” Republicans – who hold a 54-seat majority in the Senate – expressed frustration that they have been unable to get an up-or-down vote on Bolton, which they believe they can win.
