Just another post to irritate the anti-Bolton/Bush crowd:
those not from the USA may not recognize Yosemite Sam. Sorry about that, famous cartoon character.
Oh…and this just in…
[quote]Democrats’ hypocrisy on Bolton exposed
Joel Mowbray, May 5, 2005
Call it the tale of two confirmation hearings.
Two of the four men most recently nominated to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations found their candidacies challenged, though they could not have faced more different receptions. Both men were supremely qualified, but the similarities end there.
The divergent paths for each reveal Democrats
Don’t the Republicans hold the majority on that committee?
[quote]Reflecting their Senate majority, Republicans enjoy a two-vote advantage over Democrats on the committee – which naturally swings a favorable vote to any Bush nominee
Richardm – Interesting that Holbrooke was Ambassador to the UN starting in 1999 after a yearlong holdup by Helms and then by Grassley. The biggest parallel is that this time around, we again have Republican senators stepping forward to take the lead on delaying things – Voinovich, Chaffee and the others want to wait 3 weeks to hear a bit more about Bolton. Is that somehow so terrible?
I have no problem with waiting for three weeks. Let’s look at Bolton more closely, but ultimately, I think that Bolton will be confirmed since I believe that he is very highly qualified and eminently suitable for this position. Do we need another patsy at the UN? No. We need to hold that organization’s feet to the fire and Bolton is the one to do it. The time when dictators and French officials could call the tune is now over. There’s a new sheriff in town and the French ambassador has three more weeks to cover the trail of reeking corruption and rampant abuse of principles that has been occuring for the past several years.
Bolton is a nut. If you really intend to screw things up at the UN though that’s the perfect combination.
Then as a “nut” he should fit in perfectly with that madhouse we call the UN. What better person for a job to send to such a corruption-ridden, barbaric gaggle of manicured French and Third World bumbling bureaucrats and gangsta thugs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/05/AR2005050501675.html
[quote]The Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff prepared to interview former secretary of state Colin L. Powell’s chief of staff today as bipartisan harmony on the committee became increasingly frayed over Democratic requests for documents, interviews and other materials related to John R. Bolton’s nomination as U.N. ambassador.
Democrats view Larry Wilkerson, a longtime Powell aide who has been publicly critical of Bolton, as an important guide to Powell’s thinking and actions about key incidents being investigated by the committee, a Democratic aide said. Alone among living former Republican secretaries of state, Powell has pointedly refused to endorse Bolton and privately told some senators he had concerns about Bolton’s judgment.[/quote]
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/politics/03bolton.html?
[quote]The firsthand accounts came from a former ambassador to South Korea, a former assistant secretary of state, and the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s weapons proliferation center. All three described Mr. Bolton as unwilling to listen to alternative views, the transcripts show, and two provided new details about episodes in which he sought to punish those who challenged his positions.
A copy of the transcripts was provided to The New York Times by a Congressional official opposed to Mr. Bolton’s nomination, who said they raised new questions about his conduct.[/quote]
In looking at Bolton’s behavior, it appears he is not even able to play with members of his own team. Aside from the issue of whether or not he could be effective within the UN, it seems that Bolton simply doesn’t care about facts when he wants to charge forth with his own personal agenda.
Do we really need a guy who’s apparently adopted that “oderint dum metuant” nonsense for dealing with his own colleagues and underlings? As one might recall, that quote was a favorite of Caligula, a Roman emperor whose views on sound government have apparently rubbed off on the Bush administration a bit too much.
Getting closer to the vote. More emails have now come out about this wacko.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051001264.html
I am going to predict that Zimbabwe getting on the Human Rights Commission this week will be just the thing that Bolton needs to get confirmed. I predict a confirmation along party lines. I am not sure that anyone appointed to serve as ambassador to the UN, however, would believe that congratulations are in order.
I also think that given the highly publicized delivery of incriminating documents to Congress regarding the whitewash that was and is Volker’s effort to “investigate” will also prove that Carter Era politicians should be left firmly in their dotage and retirement.
Back to the Kiddie Pool! Thanks for playing! Denial ain’t a river in Egypt!
MFGR: Come on, don’t be mad. Give me some more of these. I WANT MORE!! If you do not, I will be forced to hold a contest to see who can come up with the best MFGRism. Don’t make me do it! haha
My preemptive entry for best MFGRism is:
“Fred Smith, the proverbial one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.”
Too long spook and it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi, “but thanks for playing.”
THAT is what is needed.
From the NYT’s of all places. The NYT is a subscription/register site, so I pasted the entire article to help those who might not like to register.
It looks like much of the Bolton ‘controversy’ is unfounded (I am shocked…shocked I say)
[quote]A Turning Tide for Bolton
By DAVID BROOKS, Published: May 12, 2005
Usually the bug dies. When a presidential nominee is treated like an ant under a magnifying glass under the noonday sun, when he has the full scrutiny of the media and Congressional investigators focused upon him, he usually gets incinerated.
But over the past two weeks John Bolton’s confirmation prospects have gotten stronger. What happened?
On April 19, Bolton’s nomination was knocked off-track by Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing. They made powerful presentations against Bolton, which clearly spooked several Republicans. So investigators were dispatched to interview dozens of Bolton’s colleagues to get a deeper view of his conduct.
The interview transcripts suggest that Bolton could behave in a “fairly blunt manner” and that some people felt “undue pressure” to conform to his views, as John Wolf, a former assistant secretary of state, testified.
But they also reveal that Bolton has a professional sense of limits. He’d push his views, and push hard. But after he’d had his say, he would almost always bow to the dictates of the organization.
Here’s an exchange between investigators and Robert Hutchings, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council:
Q. After Mr. Bolton blew up, or reacted strongly, as you put it, when he heard that a lot of the Cuba judgments had been modified, did he do anything? What happened? What did he do after that?
HUTCHINGS This issue, it sort of went away. … That was the end of it.
Q. He didn’t seek to go behind your back and change these?
A. Not as far as I know. Those judgments were what they were, and–
Q. He let them stand.
A. Let them stand, yeah.
Here’s an exchange with Wil Taft, a former legal adviser to the State Department:
Q. Is there any instance that you can recall where Secretary Bolton did not agree with your advice and sought to undermine it or otherwise ignore it?
TAFT No.
Q. So even though he may not have agreed with it, that’s what the lawyer says, so that’s what you’ve got to do?
A. Yes.
Here’s an exchange with Colin Powell’s chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, about suggestions that Bolton change the text of a speech he was giving on nonproliferation issues:
WILKERSON There were changes.
Q. But - were those changes accepted?
WILKERSON Absolutely.
I could fill most of this page with exchanges of this sort. And I’m not even quoting from the interviews with Bolton’s supporters. These transcripts show a man who was trying to advance a point of view while still generally operating within the bureaucratic structure of the State Department.
The speeches he gave on controversial subjects were generally cleared. Nobody was fired because of him. Nobody’s career was damaged.
The other thing the transcripts reveal is that many fights over clearing speeches were not about intelligence - they were about policy. The speech-clearance process was the policy-making process. Often when Bolton was pushing back at his colleagues, he was trying to defend the president’s policies from dissenters at State.
For example, Larry Wilkerson believed that America’s Cuba policy was “the dumbest policy on the face of the earth,” as he told GQ. He disagreed strongly with the idea of imposing sanctions on arms proliferators, as he told Senate investigators.
So when he challenged Bolton, Bolton would bend on most matters, but not on policy.
As Wilkerson himself told the Senate investigators: “There were some problems, on a number of occasions, with Under Secretary Bolton’s proposed remarks. I found him to be, at that point, basically receptive to my changes that were culturally sensitive. … I did not find him to be receptive when we talked about policy changes, fundamental policy changes in his speeches.”
That’s because Bolton’s job was to stand up for the president’s policies.
The momentum has shifted on the Bolton nomination because John Bolton turns out to be a more complicated figure than earlier portrayed. It’s become clear that earlier tales of him chasing women down hallways are unreliable. It’s become clear that while he’s abrasive, he is professional. If Senator George Voinovich reads these transcripts before he votes, I’m sure Bolton will be confirmed.
E-mail: dabrooks@nytimes.com[/quote]
My NT’s says Bolton is in on the first vote.
This whole scheme against him is unraveling like a cheap sweater.
From Brooks the (gasp!) conservative columnist writing for the NYTimes? Next you’ll tell me Safire was a liberal! 
If the “proverbial one legged man in an ass-kicking contest” seems too long for Fred, then I volunteer simply that he hasn’t a leg to stand on.
I always liked that “busier than a one-armed paperhanger” line, but my grandma’s favorite would have probably been: “Fred, your posts look like they were written by a man riding by on a fast horse.”
Sending Bolton to the UN is like sending a chicken-killing dog to round up a colony of monkeys. Should be fun.
I say stop rattling his cage and let him get on with the job.
Anyone want to lay odds how many days before he’s chasing Kofi Annan around the floor of the UN Taiwan legislature style?
[quote=“mofangongren”]From Brooks the (gasp!) conservative columnist writing for the NYTimes? Next you’ll tell me Safire was a liberal!
If the “proverbial one legged man in an ass-kicking contest” seems too long for Fred, then I volunteer simply that he hasn’t a leg to stand on.
I always liked that “busier than a one-armed paperhanger” line, but my grandma’s favorite would have probably been: “Fred, your posts look like they were written by a man riding by on a fast horse.”[/quote]
…I could not find a picture of a rabbit with a pancake on its head.
This is really getting good. The…“Rest of the Story” is emerging…What Fun!
[quote]Otto Reich exposes sham of attacks on John Bolton
By ROBERT D. NOVAK, May 12, 2005
JANICE O
Vote for me, or I will personally CRUSH your head!
I wondered whether it’s normal to have that many veins popping out all at once, but in checking my little brother I guess it’s normal.
[color=blue]More fun facts . . . [/color]
"Committee member Sen. George Voinovich, R- Ohio, told reporters that even though he voted to send the nomination on, he would not vote for Bolton on the Senate floor.
“It is my opinion that John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be,” Voinovich said."
[color=blue]Plus , read for yourself.[/color]
Whatever happens, Bolton has made white moustaches a new cultural icon in the post-Mark Twain era. What a stache!
I think he will get voted in. Let the fireworks begin. He is exactly what the UN needs. The guy’s got guts. So what if he’s a little crazy in the EQ zone? They are all…