Bolton Nomination Death Watch Wrap-up

Bolton's nomination has been on the back burner for the past two weeks and pretty much faded from view in TV mediawhore land. But forests have been felled to print all the reports out on the newswires. Here's a sampling, in descending chronological order...

Powell Plays Behind the Scenes Role in Bolton Debate
Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell is emerging as a behind the scenes player in the battle over John Bolton's nomination to the UN, privately telling at least two key Republican lawmakers that Bolton is smart, but a very problematic government official, according to Republican sources. Powell spoke in recent days with Sens. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), two of three GOP members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who have raised concerns about Bolton's confirmation...

Another Republican Backs More Review of Bolton
The nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the UN was cast in further doubt on Friday when a fourth Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said more time was needed to review his record. A spokeswoman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said the senator felt the committee "did the right thing delaying the vote on Bolton in light of the recent information presented to the committee." Asked if Bolton, an outspoken critic of the UN, had Murkowski's support, spokeswoman Kristin Pugh said, "I can't speculate on how she would vote."...

Ex-Ambassador Challenges Bolton Testimony
As President Bush tries to shore up support for John R. Bolton among wavering Republican senators, his former ambassador to South Korea is challenging Bolton's Senate testimony and his diplomatic style. The criticism leveled at the nominee for U.S. ambassador to the UN by retired career diplomat Thomas Hubbard, who held the Seoul post during Bush's first term, adds to allegations by several former and current State Department officials that Bolton mistreated them and threatened their careers...

Bolton's British Problem
Colin Powell plainly didn't like what he was hearing. At a meeting in London in November 2003, his counterpart, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, was complaining to Powell about John Bolton, according to a former Bush administration official who was there. Straw told the then Secretary of State that Bolton, Powell's under secretary for arms control, was making it impossible to reach allied agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Powell turned to an aide and said, "Get a different view on [the Iranian problem]. Bolton is being too tough." Unbeknownst to Bolton, the aide then interviewed experts in Bolton's own Nonproliferation Bureau. The issue was resolved, the former official told NEWSWEEK, only after Powell adopted softer language recommended by these experts on how and when Iran might be referred to the U.N. Security Council. But the terrified State experts were "adamant that we not let Bolton know we had talked to them," the official said...

Blow to Bush as Bolton panel widens its inquiry
The Senate committee assessing John Bolton's nomination as the next US ambassador to the UN yesterday widened its inquiry to interview several more potentially hostile witnesses, in a fresh blow to the White House. According to an official on the committee, most of the two dozen officials and former officials the senators plan to interview in the next 10 days are thought to have clashed with him, or to have witnessed some of the heated rows for which he earned a reputation in his former job at the state department...

The good soldier's revenge
From the redoubt of his retirement, former secretary of state Colin Powell is beginning to exact revenge. His sterling reputation was soiled, having lost most of the important battles within the administration during the first term. While he lamented that he had been "deceived" into presenting false information before the UN to justify the Iraq war, he acted as the good soldier to the end, giving every sign of desiring to fade away. In seeking to prevent the bullying and duplicitous ideologue from representing the US before the international organisation, Powell is engaging in hand-to-hand combat with his successor. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's first true test has not arrived from abroad. Caught by Powell's flanking movement, she is trapped in a crisis of credibility, which she herself is deepening...

Senate Panel Talks with CIA Official on Bolton
The Senate committee weighing John Bolton's troubled nomination for U.N. ambassador on Friday interviewed former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin, who has been described as having clashed with Bolton on intelligence analyses. Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff interviewed McLaughlin as part of the examination driven by Democrats and a few Republicans of whether Bolton bullied subordinates and tried to force analyzes of Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Iran to conform to his hardline views.McLaughlin was asked about his intervention to block a transfer Bolton sought of Fulton Armstrong, then a national intelligence officer for Latin America...

Official Says Bolton Flouted Travel Rules
John R. Bolton, the embattled nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the UN, regularly tried to set up meetings abroad with Russian, British and French officials without notifying the U.S. Embassy or the State Department, the outgoing head of the department's European bureau said Friday. On each occasion, Bolton ultimately received permission to hold the meetings before they actually were conducted because State Department officials found out about his plans...

Democrats hint they may try to delay Bolton vote
Democrats called on the Bush administration to turn over documents for a Senate committee's probe of John Bolton on Thursday, and hinted they may try to delay a vote on his nomination for U.S. ambassador to the UN. Joseph Biden, top Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrat, in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Democrats agreed to a May 12 deadline for the committee to vote on Bolton only if the administration provided requested documents and witnesses in the committee's inquiry into his suitability for the position. "My Democratic colleagues and I would consider the failure to produce the requested documents in a timely manner a lack of cooperation," Biden said....

Tempers Flare in Bolton Saga as Democratic Senator Demands More Records
With a critical vote less than a week away, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee renewed an unanswered request to... Rice on Thursday for documents about the embattled nomination of John R. Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the UN... In a second letter to Rice, Biden clashed with the committee chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, who did not endorse Biden's in his own letter to Rice. Lugar had told Rice parts of the request were "extremely broad" or of "marginal relevance." Biden told Rice he expects to receive the documents and hinted he might try to delay the committee's May 12 vote if he did not get them... "My Democratic colleagues and I would consider the failure to produce requested documents in a timely manner a lack of cooperation," Biden wrote in a letter made available to AP...

Democrats Threatening to Stall Bolton Debate
Senate Democrats are threatening to abandon an agreement to move toward a swift vote on the nomination of John R. Bolton unless the State Department provides documents related to a clash between Bolton and intelligence officials over assessments of Syria. The threat reflects growing tensions between Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over the handling of an inquiry into Bolton's qualifications to serve as ambassador to the UN. The inquiry is scheduled to conclude today, but the Republican chairman of the committee, Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has refused to endorse a Democratic request for the Syria documents, and the State Dept. has not turned them over to the panel. The documents sought by the Democrats include e-mail messages, memorandums, correspondence and draft testimony related to a long-running dispute between Bolton and U.S. intelligence agencies about Syria. In 2002 and 2003, the CIA rejected as inflated several attempts by Bolton to portray Syria and its illicit weapons programs as a threat to the stability of the Middle East...

Bolton's Behavior Hinders Confirmation
If they agree on anything, backers and critics of John R. Bolton seem to acknowledge that the embattled U.N. nominee can behave like a bull in a china shop. The question for moderate Republican senators with qualms about Bolton is whether his temperament or behavior should disqualify him as the Bush administration's mbassador to the UN...

Biden rips Rice over Bolton documents
The top Democrat on the Senate committee considering the nomination of John R. Bolton as UN ambassador scolded Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday for ignoring Democratic requests for additional information about the embattled nominee. In a curt letter to Rice, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., reiterated his requests for State Department documents related to charges that Bolton tried to bend or ignore government intelligence findings that did not suit his hard right ideology...

Lugar Predicts Bolton Approval
"Republicans, I suspect, will vote in favor of John Bolton; Democrats, I suspect, will vote unanimously against him," Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said on CBS' "Face the Nation." That would send Bolton's nomination to the full Senate on a 10-8 margin when the GOP-led committee meets Thursday. Lugar said he thought the vote, delayed since mid-April, would come off as scheduled. But he acknowledged that Democrats who want to get more information about Bolton have many procedural ways to stall the vote...