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| US Senate delays vote on Bolton UN confirmation
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Stephanie Griffith, Washiington / AFP
05/27/2005
| AFP/Getty Image |
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| John Bolton |
Opposition Democrats in US Senate on Thursday forced a delay
in the confirmation vote of John Bolton to become US ambassador
to the United Nations, the latest setback for President’s
George W. Bush’s beleaguered nominee to the post.
By a vote of 42 to 56, opposition Democrats managed to garner
enough support for a procedural maneuver to prolong debate on
Bolton’s nomination. Democrats needed the votes of just
41 senators to delay a confirmation vote from going forward.
After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist bitterly remarked
that the move bore an uncanny similarity to the “filibuster”
maneuver that Democrats employed to block Bush’s judicial
nominations for years, and which very nearly led to a massive
partisan showdown earlier this week.
“It looks
like we have yet again another filibuster,” Frist said.
Senate Democrats said the additional time would allow them to
pressure the Bush administration to produce additional classified
information on Bolton.
The sought-after information dealt with congressional testimony
written by Bolton about Syria’s alleged attempts to procure
weapons of mass destruction, and efforts by Bolton to obtain
the names of several intelligence analysts whose identities
were revealed in several top-secret reports.
Senate Minority Harry Reid assured Republicans that Democrats
were not trying to block a confirmation vote, but needed the
information to fully vet the controversial nominee.
“We don’t want this to be a diversion from the work
we have to do here,” Reid said, adding that Democrats
had no choice but to block the nominee until the White House
provides the documents.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher earlier Thursday
said the department, including his boss Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, has bent over backwards to provide all the data needed
for senators to vet Bolton.
“We’ve spent
hundreds of man hours. We’ve produced extensive amounts
of documents. Over 25 hours of hearings and business meetings
were devoted by the committee to reviewing the nomination,”
Boucher told reporters. |
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