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Democrat Rejects GOP Compromise on Bolton
Republican Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, offered to disclose some information about secret intelligence intercepts that Democrats have sought.
Democrats want the names of U.S. individuals mentioned in the intercepts that the National Security Agency gathered and that Bolton requested — and received — while he was the State Department’s chief arms control official.
Sen. Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record), D-Conn., turned down Roberts’ offer.
“For Senator Roberts to decide on our behalf what we should be concerned about is most unusual,” Dodd said.
Dodd said the Bush administration should provide all the information or accept last week’s proposal from Dodd and Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del.
[…]
Roberts said he was offering “one last good faith effort to alleviate the concerns” of Democrats.
Good faith? The Republicans must read the dictionary upside down.
More from The Washington Note:
Harry Reid kicks ass
From the outset of the debate on John Bolton’s nomination, Senate Democrats have had a clear and consistent position: If the Administration works in good faith to give the Senate the information it deserves, Senate Democrats are ready to immediately give this nomination an up or down vote.
~ We said this in May and it remains our position today.
~ Despite the Administration’s refusal to turn over any of the requested information during this time period, Senator Frist informed me yesterday that he is inclined to seek another vote on the Bolton nomination.
~ While he is certainly within his rights to do so, unless the Administration changes course before this vote is held, the outcome will be the same as it was last month and here is why.
~ The history and precedent in the Senate make it clear that the Senate has a right to information that bears directly on the fitness of a potential nominee to serve. Every other Administration has recognized the Senate’s rights and provided the needed information. Every Administration except this one.
~ Many colleagues on the other side of the aisle have stood up for the Senate’s right to get information from the executive branch in the past. My colleagues have made it clear with their words and deeds that it was perfectly legitimate for the Senate to withhold action on an executive branch nominee until the executive branch provided certain information, even if the information requested had nothing to do with the nominee in question.
~ In this instance, we are seeking information that bears directly on the fitness of John Bolton to serve as our representative to the United Nations. And we are not engaging in a fishing expedition. We are seeking clearly defined documents and information about two very important issues:
— Did Mr. Bolton attempt to exaggerate what Congress would be told about Syria’s alleged WMD capabilities?
— Did Mr. Bolton use, and perhaps misuse, highly classified intelligence intercepts to spy on bureaucratic rivals who disagreed with his views or for other inappropriate purposes?
Sen. Pryor of Arkansas is thinking about voting with the Dems this time… against cloture
But it seems like Bill Frist’s gambit in calling for another cloture vote has backfired. Mark Pryor is now signalling that if the White House fails to concede on these key document requests, he will join his fellow Democrats in opposing cloture on the Bolton nomination.
As Charles Babington reports:
A key Democratic senator warned yesterday that the Bush administration may be losing ground in its bid to confirm John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, as the White House continued to rebuff Democrats’ request for documents related to the nominee.
Senate GOP leaders, acknowledging no apparent progress on Bolton, said they will call for another vote to end debate in a renewed effort to portray Democrats as obstructionists, probably this week. But one of the three Democrats who sided with them on an unsuccessful “cloture” vote on May 26, Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.), said he may abandon the Republicans, leaving them farther from their goal than they were three weeks ago.
If Democrats “continue being reasonable [in their requests] and the White House won’t provide the information, I want to reserve the right to change my vote,” Pryor told reporters.
Well, the Dems are being reasonable, so you better change your vote. It’s about the Senate, damnit!
Pat Roberts’s “compromise” offer may have been a mistake…or not
Senator Roberts said he had gone through the minority report and found names that were listed in it, Carl Ford, Christian Westermann, Mr. Smith (Fulton Armstrong), Rexon Ryu, Jack Pritchard and two unnamed individuals.
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte told Roberts that none of these names are in the intercepts. Of course not! This is a sorry gambit to try an appear as if the Republicans have assisted in the information requests.
Rememember that John Bolton said he wanted the American names to give context to conversations between the Americans and the foreign source.
Almost all these names don’t fit the bill, now do they?
Looks more and more like a mistake by Pat Roberts
TWN has learned how the idea was hatched.
A senior level Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff person who has been a key player in the NSA intercepts battle was racing off to catch a plane scheduled to leave on a foreign trip with this person’s Senator during recess. This person literally bumped into a top aide to Senator Roberts on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the SFRC staff member said to the SSCI staffer that the Committee was considering submitting a roster of names of “individuals of interest” to the administration. The SSCI staffer began to ask lots of questions about where thing stood, and the SFRC staffer said, “READ THE MINORITY REPORT” on Bolton.
Well, it seems that the SSCI staff member just began to read through and picked out names — thinking that was what the SFRC was going to do — and then coached Senator Roberts to take this track.
It made no sense because all but one of the names selected by Roberts’ staff to check against the NSA’s list would never have been suggested by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority staff. They would not have fit the criteria that Bolton himself had indicated as to his interest in the names of various U.S. officials.
So, the Intel Committee staffer misunderstood — and gave the misunderstanding a significant vehicle — which just made his own boss look poorly informed and out of touch with the Bolton investigation.
THE IMPORTANT THING, however, is that some good has come from this error. Senator Roberts has now established the precedent that running names by the Director of National Intelligence is a legitimate way to proceed. It would be very easy now to check against the list.
Now, watch Roberts whine and cry about that.
Senate contact info. If you’ve got a moderate Republican Senator, lean hard on ’em. For the few Democrats that voted for cloture last time, tell them to preserve the sanctity of the Senate and vote against it tomorrow.
Update [2005-6-15 19:8:7 by Newsie8200]:
Financial Times: Bolton vote may be forced on Senate
Mr Frist accused Democrats of “unreasonably and irresponsibly” filibustering Mr Bolton. Emboldened by success in blocking a vote last month, Senate Democrats are refusing to allow a vote until the Bush administration provides information that could shed light on whether Mr Bolton skewed intelligence in his former position as undersecretary of state for arms control.
Mr Frist accused Democrats of “shifting the goalposts” in their requests for information on the nomination. “Every time I’ve offered to provide that information in some shape or form, a lot more information has been demanded,” he said. The Republicans, who hold 55 seats in the 100-seat chamber, require 60 votes to invoke “cloture” and cut off debate. Mr McCain urged Mr Frist to hold a cloture vote yesterday but Mr Frist said he wanted to allow a couple more days for negotiations.
Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, and Chris Dodd, a Connecticut senator, want the White House to provide information on three requests, including the names of 19 US officials and companies contained in National Security Agency intercepts to which Mr Bolton received access.
The Democrats originally demanded access to the NSA transcripts but recently have agreed to allow a vote on Mr Bolton if the White House certifies that the names of 36 US officials, provided by the Democrats, are not included in the transcripts.
“If the goalposts have moved . . . they’ve been moved in the administration’s direction,” Mr Dodd said. “We have offered the hand of compromise on this issue and all we receive from the administration is the back of their hand.”
Look at Frist whine. Must’ve seen those goalposts moving the same way he saw that Terri Schiavo could track visuals.