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Republicans Delay Bolton Nomination By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — Facing the sudden prospect of defeat in approving the nomination of John Bolton for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday agreed to delay a vote for three weeks to allow for further investigation of the State Department official’s record (see GSN, April 19). More than an hour into discussions before a vote that had been expected yesterday afternoon, Republican Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio) surprised the committee by saying, “I’ve heard enough today that I don’t feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton. I think one’s interpersonal skills and their relationship with their fellow man is a very important ingredient in anyone that works for me.” “Maybe it would be in the best interest of this committee to take a little bit more time,” said Voinovich, who did not attend last week’s hearings on Bolton’s appointment. Voinovich’s statement prompted Republicans to abruptly abandon a push for a vote on the controversial nomination, and endorse a Democratic call for a delay that they opposed only minutes earlier. “If in fact the votes play out the way I suspect they’re going to play out if we push this vote, the Bolton nomination will not come out of this committee. I think the responsible thing, in light of what Senator Voinovich has said, is to take the [motion to delay a vote], put a time frame on it, address the issues, and then call for the vote,” said Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.). The White House had pressed for the vote yesterday with the idea that the committee would approve Bolton’s nomination. “John Bolton is exactly the kind of person we need at the United Nations during this time of reform. John Bolton shares the president’s commitment to making sure that the United Nations is an effective multilateral organization that focuses on results,” Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters before the committee meeting at a briefing yesterday aboard Air Force One. During the meeting yesterday, Democrats said they were recently made aware of new, though not fully substantiated, allegations of behavior by Bolton in his current and previous positions that they said fit a pattern of harassment and dishonesty that made him unsuitable for the ambassadorship. Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) noted an account by Texas businesswoman who said that Bolton, then working outside of government, harassed her nonsexually in 1994 while he was providing legal representation to a U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor and she worked for the subcontractor’s supervising firm. Bolton also allegedly gave a false account of her conduct to try to get her in trouble. Biden said Bolton “followed her through Moscow, she alleges. He banged on her door in the middle of the night, went to Kyrgyzstan before she got back there, saying she had absconded with U.S. funds and so on and so forth, and that she shouldn’t be listened to.” “There are other things that have been alleged to us relating to a pattern of his conduct,” he said. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who had proposed the Democratic motion to delay the vote, also described an allegation that Bolton “harassed a career Justice Department attorney while he was serving as the attorney general for the Civil Rights Division,” including by denying the attorney’s request for additional unpaid maternity leave. “Ultimately, the deputy attorney general stepped in and overruled Mr. Bolton,” he said. Such new allegations had not been fully examined by the committee, Democrats said, and therefore warranted a delay of the vote to allow for a more thorough investigation. Democrats also said further examination was needed on allegations described at hearings last week that Bolton sought to have a State Department analyst and a CIA analyst fired after a disagreement over whether Cuba had a biological weapons program. Bolton, Dodd said, did “damage” to the “integrity of U.S. intelligence by trying on five different occasions over the past 24 months to have two intelligence analysts removed from their jobs, one at the State Department, the other at the CIA, because these individuals wouldn’t clear language that Mr. Bolton wanted to use that was not supported by available intelligence.” He said also Bolton “may have blocked important information from going to senior members of the State Department,” including former Secretary of State Colin Powell and current Secretary Condoleezza Rice. The information, Dodd said, has been characterized as “vital to the U.S. strategies on Iran” and “related to the lack of international support for Mr. Bolton’s effort to have the head of the [International Atomic Energy Agency] removed” (see GSN, April 18). Democrats said they also wanted to examine why Bolton had requested on 10 occasions the identities of U.S. officials whose conversations with foreign officials were recorded by the National Security Agency. Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said further exploration of Bolton’s record could occur after the committee had voted to approve him. He said “hundreds of pages of material” requested declassified by the committee still needed to be received from the CIA and State Department “so that a thorough record was available to all of us.” Earlier during the meeting, however, Lugar also said “that any allegation that somehow or other there is not a very complete record on John Bolton I think [is] in error.” A Hasty RetreatThrough much of the meeting, Lugar attempted to cut off discussion and to hold a vote, believing that the committee consisting of 10 Republicans and eight Democrats could move the nomination to the Senate floor for a vote of the full Republican-controlled chamber. Lugar said he was committed to holding a vote and dismissed the idea that further debate or investigation would block the nomination. “I appreciate … the kindliness of the [Democratic] members trying to make certain that all of us as Republicans are well informed so that we will cast our votes in a proper way,” he said. “But let me just say, we were not born yesterday. The Republicans want to vote for John Bolton. There are 10 Republicans here,” he said. Voinovich’s brief statement, however, prompted other Republicans to reverse tack and lobby Lugar to accept Dodd’s motion to delay a vote to allow for further investigation of the allegations. “In view of Senator Voinovich’s comments, do you have any hesitation about going forward with this nomination?” Senator Lincoln Chafee (R –R.I.) asked Lugar. Lugar said he didn’t, but changed his mind after further prompting by Republicans. “In regard to Senator Voinovich’s comments, I would respect[fully] suggest that we might consider amending Senator Dodd’s amendment,” to set a time limit on further investigation, Hagel said. Senator George Allen (R-Va.) was more frank, using a football analogy. “In the event that that a tie vote would actually sink this nomination, then strategically thinking, we need to play for a second down … but put a time limit on it,” he said. “The chair has sensed today a desire on the part of many not to vote,” Lugar said. “I would just simply say that at the end of the day I think we owe the nominee and the president that consideration,” he said. Lugar and ranking Democrat Biden agreed in principle to hold the vote in three weeks, following a congressional recess, and that Bolton might be again called before the committee, to discuss the allegations.
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