The New York Sun is a right-wing rag closely aligned with the American Enterprise Institute and the neo-conservative movement. They are trying to take advantage of the Israel/Lebanon conflict to pressure Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton into voting for cloture in the nomination of John Bolton to be permanent U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Currently, only Senator Ben Nelson is on the record as being for cloture, and Bush needs five Democrats to defect. Other targets are Landrieu, Pryor, and Bill Nelson of Florida. Schumer and Clinton voted against cloture last year, but this year they have remained silent. Meanwhile, George Voinovich, who was the lone Republican on the Foreign Relation Committee to oppose Bolton, has decided to give him the benefit of the doubt after a year’s probationary period.
The Sun’s column is an effort to ramp up the pressure on Clinton and Schumer in an effort to get to 60 votes.
The president of the Zionist Organization of America, Morton Klein, said yesterday that “important friends” of Mr. Schumer and Mrs. Clinton have confided to him that the senators are “seriously reconsidering” their position on Mr. Bolton. Mr. Klein, in a telephone interview, would not disclose the names of the friends, saying they had not given him permission to do so.
“If they came out against him, I would be somewhat surprised,” Mr. Klein said of the New York senators. “I think there’s a reasonable chance they might support him this time around.”
He added, however, that “with politics, you never know.”…
…Jewish leaders who support Mr. Bolton said they hope the war in the Middle East will take precedent over a stalemate between Democrats and the White House on the release of classified documents that led to a filibuster last year.
“Given the fact that we face a world today where every decision every day seems to count, we cannot allow any disruption in who plays the lead role in representing the United States,” the chairman of the American Jewish Congress, Jack Rosen, said. “This is not a time for a void.It is not a time to take away someone who’s represented us well at the United Nations, putting aside for the moment any squabbles or disagreements with the administration.”
Schumer reportedly boycotted Maliki’s speech before Congress. As far as I know, he was the only member of Congress to do so. I do not know if he will follow that up with a vote for Bolton or a vote for cloture, or both. Schumer isn’t running for President but, from all appearances, Hillary Clinton is. A vote for John Bolton will further cement her image on the left as a unreliable ally. I can see that she is under a lot of pressure from all sides. I hope she doesn’t do the wrong thing. And to be fair, this looks like the New York Sun ramping up the pressure more than any evidence that Schumer and Clinton are about to sell us out.
