Amid a spate of reports indicating high GOPers believe his nomination will pass, John Bolton’s image received another knee in the stomach from a new report that a high State Department official had put restrictions on his speeches and testimony.
This is yet one more indication that the Bolton nomination for U.S. Ambassador to the UN is flawed — the kind of nomination that would probably be withdrawn by most administrations, which would then submit another more acceptable candidate (and no one is irreplaceable…especially if they haven’t even been put in place yet). But the bottom line is that this — as in the case of the “nuclear option” on eliminating judicial nomination filibusters — is now being framed by the White House’s supporters as a must-win partly to ensure there is no erosion in President George Bush’s power.
The latest comes via the Washington Post:
A new portrayal of John R. Bolton describes him as having so angered senior State Department officials with his public comments that the deputy secretary of state, Richard L. Armitage, ordered two years ago that Mr. Bolton be blocked from delivering speeches and testimony unless they were personally approved by Mr. Armitage.
The detailed account was provided to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Lawrence S. Wilkerson, a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Mr. Wilkerson said that Mr. Bolton, who was then an under secretary of state, had caused “problems” by speaking out on North Korea, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other delicate issues in remarks that had not been properly cleared.
“Therefore, the deputy made a decision, and communicated that decision to me, that John Bolton would not give any testimony, nor would he give any speech, that wasn’t cleared first by Rich,” Mr. Wilkerson said, according to a transcript of an hourlong interview with members of the committee staff last Thursday.
In an e-mail message on Monday, Mr. Wilkerson said of the restrictions imposed on Mr. Bolton that “if anything, they got more stringent” as time went on. “No one else was subjected to these tight restrictions,” he said.
The Senate committee is to vote Thursday on Mr. Bolton’s nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, and the Republican chairman, Richard G. Lugar, has said he believes that the nomination will be sent to the Senate floor on a 10-to-8 vote, along party lines. But only on Monday, after a 10-day recess, were senators beginning to review the documents and interview transcripts assembled by the staff over the past three weeks.
And just look at the context:
–The State Department and Democrats are battling over documents pertaining to Bolton. So far it doesn’t look as if the Democrats will get them. There are already predictions that this will be a strictly party line vote. Bottom line: the Democrats don’t have the committee votes…or control State Department.
–Republican Senator Chuck Hagel predicts the nomination will go through. So does Senator Richard Lugar.
—USA Today notes that this becomes a test of strength. If Bush loses here, he could face problems further down the road.
Stephen Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University, says Bush’s steadfast defense of Bolton is a two-edged sword. “If he wins, it adds to his perception of being powerful. But if he loses, he looks that much weaker,” he says.
(Conservative pundit Bill) Kristol agrees that a win would show Bush “still can hold his party together, and it will be a blow to Democrats who gave it their best shot and failed.”
“Not necessarily,” says John Breaux, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana. “He’s having trouble with members of his own party. So it’s hard to see any positives from it.”
So will it be Bolton this week — and the “nuclear option” next week? If so, it would mean two issues settled by power politics and with absolutely no accommodation reached by both sides. What impact will that have on the dynamics of American politics this year — and beyond?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.