I hope this doesn't count towards my two diary limit since this is #3, but here goes...
Welcome! The Senate Foreign Relations Committee reconvenes today at 10am ET to consider the nomination of the now infamous John Bolton to the position of US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Unless you've been living under a rock the past month, you'll know that this nomination is highly controversial - with accusations and testimony against Bolton who bullied intelligence analysts and tried to get them fired for not providing him with the correct (cough, cough) intelligence about Cuba.
MSNBC also has a nice, if not a little misleading headline picture.
more...
Once again, this hearing has been going on for nearly three hours now, and a vote is expected at around 3pm...at this rate maybe 3:30pm..to send Bolton to the whole Senate.
Who has spoken so far:
- Lugar essentially spent his time either bashing the Democrats for questioning Bolton and making excuses for Bolton.
- Voinovich ripped Bolton pretty good, but he ultimate said that he would vote to send Bolton to the senate, as long as the committee did so without recommendation.
- Biden said some things such as the Senate does not work for the President, that the Senate, and the Senate alone and not the executive can decide what is relevant, and that no president is entitled to have his nominees confirmed.
- Sarbanes, in his calm and grandfatherly way, explained why he thinks Bolton is not good for the UN, including the fact that it is not just a representative but also a managerial position, and Bolton, frankly, sucks at being a manager.
- Senator Allen was fifth. Not that I need to say anymore, but, well...he's George Allen. He called the UN "anti-american", a waste of the American's people's money, and is "protecting tyrants"
- Christopher Dodd went sixth. One of his highlights of his talk was that if the committee doesn't like the nominee, why doesn't it end in comittee instead of dragging the deal out in the whole Senate.
- Chafee was quick, essentially saying he didn't like Bolton. He ultimately said he would vote for Bolton, however..
- Kerry has been talking about the usual...Bolton is bad...twisted intellegence, I'm running out of things to add.
- Coleman first essentially said that since Bush was elected, all his guys should get confirmed. Then, like Allen, he turned it into a "the UN is a problem" speech instead of a talk about Bolton.
- Feingold basically repeated many things Dems have said before: Bolton isn't a good leader, he will need oversight, he'll hurt our credibility, he twisted intellegence, etc.
- Hagel talked about how important the committee was and how this arguement should not be made partisan by either side.
Hagel is up is up now.
Oh yeah...Streaming video at CSPAN 3
Bolton Thread Episode I: The Phantom Recommendation
Bolton Thread Episode II: The Attack of the Lugar
Bolton Thread Episode III: Revenge of the Allen
Please unrecommend those and recommend this one.
You can unrecommend this one.
Number 5 is up now