Redstate

Rarely Has A "Bully" Been So Bullied

By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Featured Stories | Foreign Affairs — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Let's be clear: John Bolton was and is an excellent UN Ambassador. He is tough. He is forceful. He is highly intelligent and routinely masters his brief. I have no problem taking the Bush Administration and its individual members to task whenever it is necessary--and it is clear that the President needs to be taken to task quite often--but Bolton has been one of the most competent and capable members of the Administration.

And yet . . . (read on):

John Bolton's prospects for staying on as U.N. ambassador essentially died Thursday as Democrats and a pivotal Republican said they would continue to oppose his nomination.

It was another blow to President Bush, two days after Democrats triumphed in elections that will give them control of Congress next year. On Wednesday, Bush had announced that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, a polarizing figure and face of the Iraq war, would step down.

On Thursday, the White House resubmitted Bolton's nomination to the Senate, where the appointment has languished for more than a year. Bush appointed him to the job temporarily in August 2005 while Congress was in recess, an appointment that will expire when the Congress adjourns, no later than January.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., who was defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse on Tuesday, told reporters in Rhode Island that he would continue opposing Bolton. That would likely deny Republicans the votes needed to move Bolton's nomination from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate.

"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," Chafee said. "And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against."

Democrats indicated that even should the Senate try debating Bolton's nomination when lawmakers reconvene next week - still under Republican control - they would stretch out debate on Bolton with the aim of killing it. Republicans lack the 60 votes needed to force a vote on the nomination.

"I see no point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again in the Foreign Relations Committee because, regardless of what happens there, he is unlikely to be considered by the full Senate," said Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Chafee's stance is particularly appalling. First of all, it should be remembered that the White House and the Republican National Committee moved Heaven and Earth to help Chafee beat back a strong primary opponent earlier this year so that he could advance to the general election as the nominee of the Republican Party. And this is how he repays the White House. Classy.

Secondly, Chafee's opposition to Bolton is spelled out in a letter he sent earlier this year to Secretary Rice when he made clear that he would not allow Bolton's nomination to come out favorably from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Essentially, Chafee wrote that he was holding up Bolton's nomination because he disagreed with the Administration's approach to the Arab-Israeli peace process.

What the UN Ambassador has to do with the formulation of policy regarding the Middle East is, of course, anyone's guess. Bolton's job is the same as any other ambassador's; he takes his instructions from Washington, where policy is made. John Bolton has as much to do with the formulation of American policy regarding the Arab-Israeli peace process as I do with regard to the formulation of agricultural subsidies. And yet, his nomination was and continues to be held up. Thanks, Linc. You're a pal.

Not that it matters, of course. A political stance devoid of any kind of serious substantive reasoning ought to be condemned but Democrats, as the story makes clear, will not allow the Administration to have their nominee. I suppose this means that all the talk about "bipartisanship" can officially go out the window. Times have changed since the original contentious Bolton hearings for the UN post. He has been at the job for nearly two years and has performed exceptionally well, so much so that Ohio Senator George Voinovich went from being a strong Bolton opponent to a strong supporter. Unfortunately, Bolton's foes have chosen to keep to their static viewpoints regarding the nomination. A mind is a terrible thing to close, but don't try to tell them that.

UPDATE: In related news, bipartisanship is defined (again) as doing whatever Democrats want to do. Quelle surprise. I wonder who is actually supposed to be fooled by this transparently self-serving bit of amateur spin.