Update [2005-4-19 14:41:20 by BooMan]:Oh, that was so beautiful, and the timing was exquisite. Lugar, clearly operating under enormous pressure from the White House, attempted to break precedent and force an up or down vote on John Bolton. First Kerry got irate, then Dodd worked himself up to a heliotrope shade, then Biden nearly had another aneurysm.
Lugar struggled to explain why a man who had just lied to the committee, and about whom serious unresolved allegations had been leveled, should be approved for promotion without further investigation. He looked pained, but attempted to carry out his charge.
It became embarrassing as Sarbanes and Obama made reasoned and irrefutable points about the inappropriateness of cutting off debate.
Hagel, clearly uncomfortable with the whole charade, decided to make a little speech. He declared that he would go along with Lugar despite his misgivings, but he might not vote for Bolton on the floor.
Having shown his utter lack of spine and principle, he was swiftly cut off at the knees by a totally unexpected source. Senator Voinovich of Ohio asked to speak, and then declared that he was not prepared to vote for Bolton, in light of the issues the Democrats had raised.
This also had the effect of cutting Chafee off at the knees. Chafee had remained a silent observer up to that point. He was relying on Rhode Islanders to not care about a vote for a second-level post, and hoping to avoid severe punishment from the thugs on Pennsylvania Avenue. But now, with Voinovich jumping ship, he had no excuse to support Bolton anymore. He politely asked Lugar whether a vote was still desirable. Ha ha ha.
At that moment, if Lugar had pressed for a vote, Chafee was hinting, the vote would be 10-8 against Bolton, and his nomination would be dead.
All the Democrats and Voinovich and Chafee (and possibly Hagel) would have voted against him.
Oh, it was priceless to see how long Lugar took to figure it out. Finally an aide passed a note to Lugar, and Dodd raced in to offer a graceful retreat. Another three weeks of delay…
Great political theater…Kudos to Voinovich.
This is better than any political movie! The evil Lugar … the valiant Kerry and Biden. And DODD! Holysmokes…
I can’t believe that Lugar just tried to force a vote. of course, that was why the GOP voted to recess the Senate this afternoon: To railroad a vote through.
Norm coleman made his usual type statements, I hope Americans are watching this.
I really hope it’s reaired tonight. I should tape it for my daughter.
I’m watching the rebroadcast right now. It was priceless watching the Chairman have the rules explained to him.
I watched the rebroadcast too as I missed the second half when I went back to work. It was a priceless moment in the history of democracy in action for sure. What a day!
How can Lugar back off without losing face? They’ve all lectured him now… what carrot can they offer him?
about Bolton’s record it is so obvious. They don’t care about the way we (the US)looks to the world, they will simply push through whatever Bush wants.
he wants further debate, but on the floor. At least that is something.
says he is concerned won’t vote for nomination at this time.
Voinovich!!!! Saves the day.
Will they have enought votes without vonovich. I don’t think so.
A minor victory for our side. Lugar was made to look a bit foolish in the end, when the other Reps. made their stand for delay.
Good job done by the Dems, here/here for them.
The Democrats stood their ground, and stood their ground, all the while raising doubt after doubt. Eventually something cracked, and the monolith didn’t move. It was like watching Japanese drama, little head fakes, subtle little comments, suddenly Lugar realizes he doesn’t have a majority or even anything approaching a consensus to move the nomination out of Committee, and the body language of the Senate Aides behind all the Senators changes suddenly and everything becomes very animated as Aides are suddenly conferring everywhere in the room. Lugar begins to stammer. Political theatre. Bolton can’t survive another two or three weeks of this.
If Europeans have a way to see this Committee meeting don’t pass it up, it’s like a Kurosawa movie–very slow and then something moves.
I think it was historical for the Dems. and I hope a turning point in the congress.
This was high drama, I think.
Watching the wheels turn in the Reps. heads was priceless.
Bolton is dead I think, because Reps. cannot now politically be seen as confirming a person with this kind of history, it will enrage the base or should, I think.
I think you can see this on Cspan on the web if anyone missed it.
George Allen was amusingly candid, and saved Lugar the embarrassment of having to state the obvious. I wonder if Allen really had no clue about the parliamentary rules, or was just playing stupid to stall for time and give Lugar a chance to gather his thoughts.
He is a waste of protoplasm.
How Allen wanted to have open hearing (in response to Dems request to make this closed), and said let the American people hear this.
I watched it…delightedly!
See, this is the way they oughta be doing things instead of giving these thugs carte blanche.
I give them ALL an A–only if they DENY Bolton the post!
Bolton Meeting: Re-Air
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Richard Lugar (R-IN), held a business meeting to discuss John Bolton’s nomination as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. In place of today’s expected vote, another business meeting will convene after the April recess, to review information and hold a vote.
TONIGHT, 8PM ET, C-SPAN2
I was able to watch at lunchtime(in fact ran over my hour lunch by 15 minutes). Thanks to dkos blow by blow play I was able to follow to the conclusion. And what a day for the dems. It was great to see Boxer, Biden and Dodd blow up with the facts and questions the repubs integrity with a yes vote. Man Lugar looked green with discomfort. It was so great to see our democracy at work for the first time in too long. Hope, we CAN believe again. It is a tiny step in the right direction. I sure hope this means no war in Iran.
Senate Panel Postpones Vote on U.N. Nominee
WASHINGTON, April 19 – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed a vote today on the nomination of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations after a Republican expressed reservations and Democrats demanded more time to look into what they said were serious questions about his fitness.
The decision to postpone, made by general agreement at the end of a contentious session, means the nomination will not be considered again until the week of May 9, after the Senate returns from a recess that will begin April 28 or 29.
The postponement guarantees that Mr. Bolton’s nomination will be hotly argued before the committee again in May, perhaps with the nominee himself present, and on the floor of the Senate – assuming that the committee sends the nomination to the floor.
The delay was decided upon after a heated debate over accusations that Mr. Bolton, acknowledged by friends and critics alike to use sharp and sometimes fiery language, had acted abusively toward subordinates and others, going so far as to try to punish people for giving him intelligence assessments he did not like.
Since Republicans have a 10-to-8 advantage on the Foreign Relations Committee, it would not have been surprising if the panel had endorsed Mr. Bolton today, even if all Democrats had voted “no,” as expected. But when a Republican, Senator George V. Voinovich of Ohio, said he “just did not feel comfortable” voting until he had more information, the committee chairman, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, and senior Democrats agreed to put the matter off.
Whether President Bush’s choice to be the United Nations envoy is in danger of being defeated – or whether there might be behind-the-scenes pressure from Republicans to ask him to stand down – may not be known for some time. But it seemed obvious today that even with 55 Republican votes in the Senate, the nomination is shaky.
Indeed, another Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, said the complaints against Mr. Bolton “cry out” for more investigation. Mr. Hagel said he had been prepared to vote today to send Mr. Bolton’s nomination to the full Senate but “that doesn’t mean I will support his nomination on the floor.”
Mr. Bolton did pick up crucial, if tepid, support from one Republican who had previously expressed doubts, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. “The president gets to choose his team,” Mr. Chafee told The Associated Press. “Most importantly for me, he’s going to be on a short leash with a choke collar.”
Mr. Bolton, a former under secretary of state for arms control, was a controversial choice for the United Nations post from the outset, since he had spoken disdainfully of the international organization. And over the past several days his critics have brought up episodes in which he was accused of bullying subordinates.
Today’s committee session was unusually tense, with the normally soft-spoken Mr. Lugar showing irritation with Democrats at one point. “We were not born yesterday,” he said. “Republicans want to vote for John Bolton. There are 10 Republicans here.”
But one after another, Democrats urged delay.
To vote today, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said, would be “voting in the blind.” Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said he had real doubts about Mr. Bolton’s credibility. And Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said Mr. Bolton’s record proved “he has no right to be promoted to a job at this level.”
If Mr. Bolton should fail to gain endorsement by the committee, his nomination would not automatically be doomed. There are parliamentary moves that his backers could use to try to force his nomination to the Senate floor, but his prospects there would be uncertain.
(Not supposed to post the whole story . but what the heck!)
of the entire la’affair du jour. Pardon my french attempt. Sure wish we had a conservative on board today to give us their opinion of the meeting.
Voinovich ?…who’d-a-thunk ?
Could it be that he’s in a “safe” seat [ if I’m not mistaken, he was just re-elected ] and is providing cover for Chafee, et al, and buying time for the WH to spin their way out of the quagmire ?
This has certainly gotten entertaining !
Whether his nomination is killed in committee or he develops a sudden case of nannyitis, he will be lucratively employed. Apparently (sorry, no cite, but something I read), he will get a job on Cheney’s staff.
Whatever bad info is out there and close to being revealed must be so bad that the WH was pushing for a passing vote today; without it, there’s time to examine the record. I’m betting on the rapid emergence of a very bad nanny problem.
just found this article on Powerline, check out the rest, I did not put it all here.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/
Senate Slanderfest to Continue
This is bad news: Senator George Voinovich broke ranks today, along with Chuck Hagel, and forced his Republican colleagues to agree to an indefinite postponement in the vote on John Bolton’s nomination as U.N. Ambassador. This means the Democrats will have more time, probably around two weeks, to continue slandering Bolton and dredge up more dubious “witnesses” to accuse him of wrongdoing. Like looking at them with his hands on his hips.
The most ludicrous comment of the day came from Voinovich: “The passion on the other side on this, I don’t think is political.”
The Democrats’ assault on Bolton is reminiscent of their attack on Clarence Thomas. They say they have more “witnesses” ready to come out of the weeds and say that Bolton wasn’t nice to them. The moral of the story may be that it is career suicide for a Republican to take a front-line appointment in a deeply hostile environment like the State Department.
Ya know, these people really are intellectually negligible.
From the Bolton piece:
“Neither Frist nor his fellow Senate Republicans has ever opposed a nominee because he or she holds a religious faith other than those held by the nominees whose deeply held religious views bother the Democrats.”
Now I’m going to elide some adjectival phrasing and break it into propositions:
A – First has not opposed a nominee holding a religious faith
B – OTHER THAN those nominees whose faith bother Democrats.
The conclusion to be drawn from these is: Frist has opposed nominees holding a religion faith
Quad Erat Idoneshowedit
Which is a classic, informal, ‘Denial of the Anecedent’ logical fallacy, a specific class of violations of the Rule of the Excluded Middle (as he is attempting to make p -> ~p).
This is even more amusing as the author is attempting a logical refutation.
Perhaps there is a reason more conservatives do not hold university posts?
a fellow geek and lover of Symbolic Logic?
I’d love to diagram arguments, if only there were an audience 🙂
Let’s try something …
” $
The ” was supposed to be the Universal quantifier and the $ was supposed to be the Existential quantifier.
You blog is prejudiced against logicians.
I’m going to write a letter to the Journal of Symbolic Logic and complain!
One of the main reasons I can’t stand Limpblah is his continual lessons in illogical arguments and logical fallacies. If it was a crime – and why isn’t it? – for committing the Fallacies of Irrelevant Conclusions he would be serving 100,000 years in the pen.
My bippy? That’s not Vulcan.
“OTHER THAN” is highlighted as I confess to curiousity and I want to try a minor experiment.
So consider yourself a lab rat! 😀
It has been a long time since I watched the Senate carefully but 20 years ago what Voinovich did yesterday would have been a clear signal that something is going on in the background, and that Bolton was in the process of being abandoned. Voinovich has been in and around state and national politics for 40 years, and is long past pulling surprises out of a hat, if he ever had that inclination.
Biden’s defeated motion to go into closed session also indicates that there is something in the pipeline, and Biden was sending a signal that he either knows or has a good idea what is coming.
I haven’t a clue as to what the basis for the abandonment is, but we will know soon if I am right. All in all, a rather interesting day.
5
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