Please please please for the sake of this world call Senator Chafee (202) 224-2921 and tell him to vote AGAINST Bolton. Here is our chance! There is hope.
Keep this in mind as you consider this option:
Bolton has come out opposing the ICC and the UN, yet we are appointing him as our representative.
When Clinton was president and there was a representative more willing to negotiate with other nations we still used our veto to oppose action in Rwanda. 800,000+ people died.
Bolton will use his veto power more expansively.
As globalization increases we need to have working relationships with other nations. Do something to sustain this! Please, for the sake of the future.
Peace, krissy
Senate Committee Delays Vote on Bolton
By Barry Schweid
The Associated Press
Wednesday 13 April 2005
Washington - President Bush's drive to make John R. Bolton the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations got sidetracked Wednesday as Senate Democrats forced a delay until next week of an important confirmation vote.
In buying time, they hoped to win over a pivotal Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, by amassing evidence that Bolton harassed U.S. officials who challenged his judgment on weapons issues.
Chafee said Wednesday he is leaning toward supporting Bolton, which would all but assure Bolton's confirmation.
Bolton, currently the undersecretary of state, has rejected the accusations.
A committee vote, tentatively planned for Thursday, was scrubbed after Democrats objected, said Andy Fisher, spokesman for the chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.
Under Senate rules, at least one Democratic senator has to attend a meeting for a vote to occur.
Democrats want further questioning of Bolton in writing and they are seeking testimony by three U.S. officials on what lawmakers said were Bolton's efforts to remove the dissenting analysts.
Fisher said the three officials already had been interviewed by committee aides and their statements were made public.
"There is no need for an additional hearing," he said.
The postponement was agreed to by Lugar and the committee's senior Democrat, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said Norm Kurz, an aide to Biden.
"A nomination of this importance deserves providing each and every senator with ample time," Kurz said.
Republicans hold a 10-8 committee majority. Unanimous GOP support would send Bolton's nomination to the GOP-controlled Senate, where approval is considered likely.
The committee, in two days of hearings this week, heard from two witnesses, Bolton and Carl Ford Jr., a former chief at the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research.
Ford denounced Bolton as a bully and a "serial abuser" of lower-level officials who challenged his assessments of the weapons potential of Cuba and other nations.
In a letter to Lugar, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., requested an additional hearing in which three officials would testify on Bolton's dealings with intelligence analysts. Dodd described Bolton as "evasive."
The three officials Dodd wants questioned are Thomas Fingar, assistant secretary of state for intelligence; Neil Silver, director of the strategic proliferation office; and Stuart Cohen, a former acting chief of the National Intelligence Council.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took issue with Ford's characterization of Bolton as a bully.
"John Bolton has been a very effective manager and diplomat," she said. She added, "It would be very useful if we could get this nomination done."
Rice said she believed strongly in the "role of debate, the role of the open and free exchange of ideas."
But, she said, when decisions are taken, "I fully expect that people will support those decisions because there is only one president of the United States and that's President Bush."
