Reply #7: Lincoln Chafee is a spineless wimp. [View All]

[whometense]

whatever already!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Profiles in Courage, or rather the lack thereof.

Senator Lincoln Chaffee, Republican of Rhode Island, today says that he will vote in favor of the nomination of John R. Bolton to be the new ambassador to the United Nations. As both the most moderate and independent of Republican Senators on the SFRC, he was long considered the most likely member of the committee to vote against Bolton's nomination.

"I won't deny a lot of information certainly brings great pause, but I fight the administration on so many issues; this is one of those that I've been with them on-- to appoint their team."

Senator John Hagel, Republican of Nebraska was considered the second most likely to vote against Bolton, but he has indicated in recent days that he too would vote for Bolton.

It now appears all but certain that Bolton's nomination will be voted favorably out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he will be confirmed by the Senate.

The only Republican who has not yet publicly to say how he would vote is Senator George Voinovich, of Ohio, who the White House was worried about the most. Of all the Senators considering voting against Bolton, the Ohio Senator has the most to lose. Chaffee is a Republican from the bluest of states, Rhode Island, and in many ways a vote against Bolton would have assisted in his re-election bid by making him more attractive to Democrats and Independent voters. Hagel is so popular and wins by such huge margins in his home state of Nebraska that he also had less to lose by an anti-Bolton vote than most Senators.

Now with Chaffee and Hagel both apparently going to vote for Bolton, it would obviously be much more difficult for Voinovich to be the sole Republican to vote against the nomination.