Lincoln Chafee, after losing his re-election campaign as Senator from Rhode Island, now has joined with his Democratic colleagues in the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee in opposition to the President Bush’s nomination of John Bolton as America’s Ambassador to the UN:

WASHINGTON: The Senate’s prospects for extending John Bolton’s job as U.N. ambassador essentially died Thursday as Democrats and a pivotal Republican said they would continue to oppose the nomination. […]

On Thursday, the White House resubmitted Bolton’s nomination to the Senate, where the appointment has languished for more than a year. Bush appointed him to the job temporarily in August 2005 while Congress was in recess, an appointment that will expire when the current Congress adjourns, no later than January.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who was defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse on Tuesday, told reporters in Rhode Island on Thursday that he would continue opposing Bolton. That would all but certainly deny Republicans the votes needed to move Bolton’s nomination from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate.

“The American people have spoken out against the president’s agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy,” Chafee said. “And at this late stage in my term, I’m not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against.”

That’s Bush’s idea of bi-partisanship, by the way. Asking the Democrats to confirm John Bolton, possibly the worst person to ever serve as our ambassador to the United Nations. What a joke.