The Senate in Blinders (Repug loyality to the Pres)

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/28/opinion/28sat1.html?

May 28, 2005

The Senate in Blinders

John Bolton's nomination to be United States ambassador to the United Nations was put on hold Thursday when Senate Republicans failed to force a vote over Democratic objections. The delay is not exactly a classic filibuster, but a protest against the Bush administration's failure to turn over documents that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked for as part of its review of the nomination.

Mr. Bolton was an awful choice for the job before the Senate went away for vacation. He will be an awful choice when the Senate returns. It's unfortunate that this incorrigibly secretive White House is once again stonewalling legitimate requests for documents. But the senators are not exactly working with a shortage of information. They can listen to recordings in which Mr. Bolton expresses contempt for the U. N. They have heard former associates deplore his inability to work well with others, and paint a portrait, as Senator George Voinovich has said, of a "poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be." The chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell testified that Mr. Bolton was regarded as so unreliable he was forbidden to make speeches unless they were personally approved by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

The senators have also heard compelling reports about Mr. Bolton's habit of pressuring intelligence officers to make their reports fit his own preconceptions about global reality. That includes testimony by former deputy C.I.A. director John McLaughlin that Mr. Bolton had tried to get a top C.I.A. analyst who disagreed with him transferred. It was, Mr. McLaughlin said, the only time in his 32 years in the C.I.A. that he had seen such strong-arming by a policy maker.

[MADem]

1. Funny how everyone is talking about Bolton's public record

...but no one, save Wolcott and Flynt, are talking about his attendance at Plato's Retreat. That's the quiet little fly in the soup!

[AndreaCG]

2. Yeah where's James Dobson on this one

Or on Guckert/Gannon for that matter? Or Neil Horsley? Or David Hager?

[MADem]

5. In the buffet line, perhaps, at the NEW Plato's Retreat?

Some may call it CAMP DAVID!!!

[lady lib]

3. My favorite parts of this editorial...

Mr. Bolton was an awful choice for the job before the Senate went away for vacation. He will be an awful choice when the Senate returns.

They have heard former associates deplore his inability to work well with others, and paint a portrait, as Senator George Voinovich has said, of a "poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be."

The chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell testified that Mr. Bolton was regarded as so unreliable he was forbidden to make speeches unless they were personally approved by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

It is depressing to see how many normally independent Republicans have already put on the blinders. Senator Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, has been waging a gallant and lonely battle to convince other members of his party that they are not obliged to support a desperately unsuitable candidate just because President Bush wants him.

The fault, they should realize, is not in their loyalty. It's in an administration that has failed to deserve it.

What will it take for this Senate to develop some testicular fortitude?

[Demeter]

4. Two Issues: Treason by GOP, Crimes by Bolton

By permitting the coverup of whatever it is that Bolton did that cannot see the light of day, the Republican legislature is committing treason, high crimes and misdemeanors. Is there no end to this corruption?