So it now appears the committee will vote 9-9-1 on recommending Bolton and 10-9 to allow the nomination to go to the floor of the Senate for an up-or-down vote anyway, and the aggravation that Voinovich would go right to the cusp of voting no and then backing away shows just how much pressure Rove is putting on these Senators to shove Ol' Mustache-Breath into the U.N.
Is this defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, or a blessing in disguise?
Think about it: just today we get all the Larry Flynt buisness about Bolton's kinky sex life, the revelation that some of the info that Condi is trying to hide about Bolton's tenure is seeping out into the public anyway, and all of the gearing up for Frist pushing the button on the filibuster. I ask everyone, would another 2-3 weeks of this kind of stuff really be BAD for us?
Or, if this vote becomes the door through which Bolton would "decide" to withdraw his name, would we then get the best of both worlds -- Bolton goes down and the knives get pointed not at Democrats, but Voinovich, because you know damn well the Wingnuts will try to eat one of their own to make sure that whoever else Bush ships up would get in.
And even if Bush pushes and shoves and bribes and threatens to get Bolton in with Cheney being the decisive vote, say -- won't Bolton be so beaten up and bloodied by this that it would be a pyrrhic victory? All that political capital burned on what should've been a slam-dunk four-day confirmation?
We didn't quite get that adrenaline rush we wanted, but this looks like a win-win-win situation for us.
Am I wrong?