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Democrats Delay Bolton Confirmation Vote
Senate Democrats yesterday delayed to next week a committee confirmation vote on John Bolton’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 13). The vote had been expected to occur today. Democrats hope to persuade Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I), the only Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee member who has not committed to vote for Bolton, to oppose his appointment, according to AP. Chafee has, however, indicated general support for Bolton, reducing Democrats’ hope of a tie vote on the committee that would block the nomination from going to the full Senate. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday expressed her support for Bolton. “John Bolton has been a very effective manager and diplomat,” she said. “It would be very useful if we could get this nomination done” (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, April 14). Meanwhile, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), has requested an explanation from Bolton about his requests to obtain details of the identities of U.S. officials involved in communications monitored by the National Security Agency, the New York Times reported. Under federal guidelines for NSA intercepts, names of U.S. citizens generally must be replaced by the term “U.S. person” in any report of the communication. There is an exception, however, for “senior executive branch officials,” including ambassadors and some State Department officials, according to the Times. Dodd was seemingly trying to find out whether Bolton’s requests focused on a specific person, and how he used that information, a Democratic official said. The State Department received Dodd’s request yesterday, a senior official said, estimating that Bolton requested identity information “about a half dozen times, maybe a few more, over a four-year period.” “There are established procedures for intelligence consumers to request the identity of persons referred to in intelligence reports. On those few occasions where Bolton made such inquiries, he followed these procedures,” said department spokesman Richard Boucher (Douglas Jehl, New York Times, April 14).
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