Colin Powell's Revenge

Posted on April 22, 2005

Colin Powell may be out of the State Department, but it appears that he's still in the game. The former Secretary of State has been working behind the scenes to kill the nomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N.

Mr. Powell has not spoken publicly about the Bolton nomination. But his associates said he had told two Republican senators, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, that he had been troubled by the way Mr. Bolton had treated an intelligence analyst and others at the State Department who had disagreed with him.
Mr. Chafee and Mr. Hagel, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have expressed concern about Mr. Bolton's temperament, credibility and treatment of intelligence analysts. The senators' concerns, with those of Senator George V. Voinovich, the Ohio Republican, were among the factors that led the committee to postpone a vote on Mr. Bolton's nomination until next month.
Accounts were conflicting as to whether Mr. Powell or the senators had initiated the phone calls. A spokeswoman for Mr. Powell said he had only returned calls from others, but one person familiar with one conversation said it had been Mr. Powell who had reached out to Mr. Hagel.

Meanwhile, President Bush has ignored advice to drop Bolton like a hot potato and nominate someone more suited to the post. In fact, he is pushing harder than ever for the nomination. Moderate Republicans respect and like Colin Powell. If the Bolton nomination goes up in flames, it will be the first visible power move from Secretary Powell. And defeating Bolton would be sweet revenge for Powell, who was reportedly hurt when he wasn't asked to stay on as secretary of state for Bush's second term.