Democrats Hope to Delay Vote on Bolton

Democrats Hope to Delay Vote on Bolton

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
Thu May 26, 1:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The White House is stiff-arming Democrats over classified information about President Bush's pick to be United Nations ambassador, and the Senate should put off a vote on the embattled nominee until next month, a Democratic opponent argued Thursday.

"We should delay this until we see that information; it's a matter of right and wrong," Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., maintained at the start of a second day of Senate debate over John R. Bolton's fitness and qualifications. "It is right for us to get that information, it is wrong for the administration to withhold it."

The Senate planned a procedural vote Thursday that Democrats hoped to win and force postponement of a confirmation vote until June. Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph Biden of Delaware asked other senators in a letter Thursday to support a delay. If Republicans win the initial vote, the Senate was expected to quickly approve Bolton, whom President Bush says would reform the United Nations.

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 said it was time to vote after weeks of investigation into allegations that Bolton mistreated subordinates and misused government intelligence. This week's bipartisan agreement on judicial filibusters in the Senate and the approach of the Memorial Day recess, which starts at week's end, seemed to be sapping some of the strength from the effort by Bolton's opponents to erect further roadblocks.

"Where does legitimate due diligence turn into partisanship?" asked Sen. Richard Lugar (news, bio, voting record), 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?"

On Wednesday, the Republican leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record) of Kansas, said he and his Democratic counterpart had been briefed on the matter and found that Bolton had done nothing improper when asking for the names.

Bolton is currently the undersecretary of state for arms control and one of Bush's most conservative foreign policy advisers. Bush nominated him in March to succeed John Danforth as U.N. ambassador, a plum diplomatic job despite the Bush administration's sometimes chilly attitude toward the world body.

Not all Republicans back Bolton. Sen. George Voinovich (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, said Bolton would set back the U.S. goal of reforming the United Nations and lacks the diplomatic touch for the sensitive job of ambassador.

Voinovich implored senators to think hard before voting to approve Bolton. His surprisingly strong opposition forced a delay of last month's planned Foreign Relations Committee vote on Bolton, and the panel subsequently denied Bolton its customary endorsement.

"The message will be lost because our enemies will do everything they can to use Mr. Bolton's baggage to drown his words," Voinovich said. "The issue will be the messenger, not the message."

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Bill's Comment: Sounds like a filibuster to me. Besides, BB or Dingy Harry dave no
access to any of that information. Only the committee members do. Even those who do have access are not supposed to tell the world about it. That is the whole point of classified information.