Voinovich Throws in the Towel on Bolton

Posted on May 13, 2005

In a dramatic denouement to the Bolton Senate Committee fight, Republican Senator George Voinovich threw in the towel and voted to allow John Bolton's nommination as U.N. Ambassador to go the Senate floor for a vote. The word is that the White House has come down really hard on Voinovich and Chafee after their expressions of distaste for Mr. Bolton's antics at the State Department.

So Voinovich, looking like the very picture of misery, gave an impassioned speech which basically said that Bolton is a sociopath and completely unfit for the job, but that he would vote yes to allow him to get a full Senate vote. Then he said that he would be voting "No" when it came to the Senate floor. So, he caved, but he did it his way. His "I'll allow Bolton's nomination to go to the full Senate for a vote, but I sure as hell will be voting against the bastard" speech stunned listeners. It confused some. But I think that Steven C. Clemons, writing for UPI, gets the analysis right as to why Voinovich did what he did.

In clear daylight, the White House is intimidating Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel, poor Lincoln Chafee, Lamar Alexander and Lisa Murkowski -- the moderates on the Republican side of the Committee -- much like Bolton intimidated the national intelligence bureaucracy of the U.S. government. In the case of the intel analysts, their bosses saved them from Bolton. But no one is saving these senators from Cheneyesque efforts to completely subordinate the Senate to the whims of the White House.
George Voinovich saved himself by indicating he would not support Bolton's nomination. Despite voting in favor of moving Bolton's nomination to the floor of the Senate without recommendation, Voinovich has assured weeks more of pain for the White House on Bolton and has shored up some Democrats who were beginning to wilt under the pressure of a convincing psy-ops campaign by the White House last weekend claiming the Republicans had assembled a party-line vote "in favor" of Bolton's confirmation -- which was false. And Voinovich has created space for principled internationalists in his own party to defect from the Cheney-Bolton pressure cooker.

So, now the full Senate can debate 1) John Bolton's alleged abuse of his ex-wife, 2) his lying to the Senate Committee, and 3) his fitness to be Ambassador to the U.N. But even George Tenant wouldn't call this confirmation hearing "a slam dunk."