Senate Democrats Bolt On Bolton

Democrats said they hoped the Senate's vote to delay confirmation of John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador would force the White House to release long-sought classified information about the embattled nominee, or perhaps to pick someone else for the job.

In a renewal of intense partisanship, the Senate put off a final vote on Bolton on Thursday, the latest setback for the tough-talking conservative whom President Bush has called strong medicine for corruption and inefficiency at the United Nations.

"It certainly sounds like a filibuster. It quacks like a filibuster," said Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

"We are not here to filibuster Bolton, we are here to get information regarding Bolton," countered Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

The Democrats say they did this to protest the administration's refusal to give them information they demanded about some charges made against Bolton, reports CBS News Capitol Hill Correspondent Bob Fuss. Nothing angers senators more than to suggest that they can't be trusted, and Democrats say that's why they did this.

"Mr. Bolton's staff got this information!" fumed Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.

Some Democrats are hoping the president finds someone else for the United Nations.

"I would hope the president will think about what happened here," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "I hope cooler heads will prevail and we see a new nominee."

The procedural vote to advance Bolton's nomination to a confirmation vote was 56-42, four short of the 60 votes that Bolton's Republican backers needed.

Republicans hold a 55-44 majority in the Senate, with one independent, and the White House has predicted repeatedly that Bolton would eventually win confirmation.
The Senate is out next week, but when it returns, it's likely they'll take up the Bolton nomination again.

"We are willing to vote 10 minutes after we get back in session, if in fact they provide the information," said Biden.

"What you see here is partisanship, and that is unfortunate," said Sen. George Allen, R-Va., adding that Republicans plan to keep fighting for Bolton.

But it wasn't just Democrats who oppose Bolton's nomination.

"Mr. President, please find a better candidate to send to the United Nations," said Ohio's George Voinovich, the only Republican to speak against Bolton on the Senate floor.

Voinovich's surprisingly strong opposition to Bolton had forced a delay of last month's planned Foreign Relations Committee vote on the nominee, and the panel subsequently denied Bolton its customary endorsement.

Thursday's vote lasted about 50 minutes — far longer than the 15 minutes generally allowed for roll calls — as GOP leaders futilely hunted for enough support to prevail.

The outcome raised questions about President Bush's ability to win speedy confirmation of some of his more ideologically conservative appointees as he begins his second term in the White House. And it was a setback for Frist, who was hoping to end nearly three months of delays and investigation and finally deliver Bolton's nomination for the president.

Frist said the Bolton matter soured the air of cooperation the two parties' centrists forged just days ago after months of wrangling over Mr. Bush's judicial nominees.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration was pleased that Republicans would revisit the vote after the recess and criticized Democrats for the newest delay.

"Just 72 hours after all the goodwill and bipartisanship, it is a shame to see the Democratic Senate leadership resort back to such a partisan approach," McClellan said. "This is a nominee that enjoys majority support."

The material Democrats have sought for weeks involves Bolton's use of government intelligence on Syria, and instances in which he asked for names of fellow U.S. officials whose communications were secretly picked up by a U.S. spy agency.
"I think the Senate, by voting this way, has increased the likelihood that we might get access to this information," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who also made a personal pitch to the president in an unrelated White House meeting Thursday to make the data available.

A deal to turn over part of the information fell through earlier Thursday. Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, rejected an offer to see edited versions of the classified communications picked up by the National Security Agency that would not reveal the names of the U.S. officials.

Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana were the only Democrats to break ranks and support the move to have an immediate final vote. Frist was the only Republican to vote against ending the delays, but he only did so because that gave him the procedural right to force the Senate to vote again on the issue.

Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., did not vote.

Thursday's day-long debate touched on the issues that have made the Bolton nomination one of the Bush administration's toughest fights: Bolton's dismissive remarks about the United Nations, his reputation as an uncompromising and hotheaded conservative, and allegations that he shut out or retaliated against any voices of caution or dissent.

The White House has lobbied hard for Bolton, especially among a handful of moderate Republicans with public misgivings about his temperament.

Democrats cried foul as soon as Mr. Bush nominated Bolton in March, and pointed to his remark that it would not matter if 10 stories of the United Nations' New York headquarters were to vanish.