Bolton Nomination: The nomination of John Bolton as UN ambassador moved to the Senate floor, but not without trouble in the Foreign Relations Committee.
1) Sen. George Voinovich (R.-Ohio), whose sudden defection had caused a three-week delay, delivered a scathing speech against Bolton’s nomination. The speech revolved around Bolton’s temperament, based on accusations that he yelled at and bullied staffers on matters involving intelligence on Communist Cuba. However, Voinovich voted with the committee’s nine other Republicans to pass the nomination to the Senate floor, albeit without recommendation.
2) It is unclear what motivates Voinovich, except his fondness for bucking the party line every now and then. Even the far more liberal Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R.-R.I.) chose not to cause trouble. Voinovich’s own temper and attitude toward bureaucratic incompetence became an issue after a 1995 incident in which he threw a fit when his plane was held on the ground in Canton, Ohio. Then-Gov. Voinovich was being kept there because Air Force One was on the ground at an airport miles away. Voinovich was fined $1,500 by the Federal Aviation Administration over the incident.
3) Former Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich made a surprise appearance before the committee’s staff on May 6 that may have helped hold wavering committee Republicans—particularly Senators Chuck Hagel (R.-Neb.), Lisa Murkowski (R.-Alaska) and Chafee—together long enough to allow the nomination to reach the Senate floor. Reich, a recess appointee after his confirmation had been blocked by committee Democrats, testified that the intelligence officer whom Bolton had criticized, Fulton Armstrong, is known widely for poor judgment and for using his position to advance left-wing views.
4) The anti-Bolton campaign is about far more than the nominee’s irritation with staffers. It is not even about the United Nations, as most on the right believe. As we noted last month, the reason behind the delay in Bolton’s confirmation is the same one that prevented Reich from being confirmed as assistant secretary of State in 2001: Janice O’Connell, a staffer for Sen. Christopher Dodd (D.-Conn.) and the veteran Democrat staff expert on Western Hemisphere affairs, is working with allies in the State Department and CIA careerists to fight all foes of normalized relations with Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
5) Most Republicans on the committee remained passive and clueless about this fact, accepting the fiction that Bolton’s problem has to do with temperament. In fact, nearly all of Bolton’s detractors, both old and new, share some connection with Cuba policy. The Dodd-O’Connell team’s original complaint about Bolton is based on accusations he made that Castro is building a biological warfare capability. Col. Larry Wilkerson, who was former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff, has suddenly emerged as a Bolton-basher. In May 2004, Wilkerson called U.S. sanctions against Castro the “dumbest policy on the face of the earth.” Washington consultant Kirby Jones was also brought forward to confirm accusations that Bolton behaved inappropriately while in the private sector. He is described by Newsweek as having “better contacts in Cuba than any other American” and by the New York Times as “the man to see about business in Cuba.”
6) Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.) has placed a hold on Bolton’s nomination, preventing a floor vote from going forward. Boxer has demanded documents regarding Bolton’s occasional requests for information about American citizens whose names are contained in top-secret transmissions intercepted by American intelligence.
7) Boxer’s hold could potentially force a cloture vote on bringing the Bolton nomination on the floor, and it is by no means clear that there are 60 votes there to overcome that hurdle.
