Call Senator Lugar now to ask him
NOT to announce a hearing for John Bolton. 202-224-4651
If his staff doesn't announce the hearing toay, he can't be brought up in Committee next week.
Details below.
From Steve's
The Washington Note:
Senator Lugar: Please Do Not Announce Bolton Hearings Today
NOTE TO WASHINGTON NOTE READERS:
Please immediately call the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Majority Staff) office at 202-224-4651 and state that while you are not opposed to the Bolton Hearings themselves, you are asking Senator Lugar NOT TO ANNOUNCE THE DATE OF THE HEARINGS TODAY.
The committee staff is now aware that this is a matter of contention. If Lugar does not announce the Bolton Hearings today -- then they cannot be held next week. The first opportunity would then be during the week of April 4th.
This is important. Please call today -- Friday -- TODAY.
202-224-4651.
-- Steve Clemons
Dear Senator Lugar:
You are the kind of outstanding citizen committed to principled American leadership in the world that our Ambassador to the United Nations should also exemplify.
Many of your fans and those who feel that America must make some credible efforts at rebuilding bridges with parts of the world that have traditionally been friends and allies are hopeful that America will begin demonstrating fresh and revitalized, principled global leadership. President Bush's nomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations inflames world opinion and may undermine America's efforts to constructively assist in UN reform efforts.
John Bolton has served in government a long time and deserves a fair hearing -- but that hearing must be fair for those who have serious questions and doubts about his candidacy.
The State Department is worried about the Bolton hearings and is pressuring your office to announce his confirmation hearings TODAY so that by the "six-day notification rule" those hearings can be held next week and before recess.
Please do the right thing. The fair and balanced thing to do is give advocates and skeptics a reasonable amount of time to make their case or lodge their concerns.
Please announce Bolton's hearings at a later date -- but not TODAY.
With sincere respect,
Steve Clemons
If Bolton gets
fasttracked through the Committee, there will be almost no opportunity for opposition.
Update: Steve posts in the comments at Atrios:
To the rest of you who are hearing that Bolton has not been "technically nominated," that is not the issue -- and the young staffer, Katie, is just on the front line of the calls and trying to deflect.
The issue at hand is that the State Department is trying to jam this nomination forward before the opposition can organize. What we are worried about is a Close of Business Announcement of the Nomination and Hearings today!! That would allow hearings end of next week under the "six day notification rule."
Thus, we are trying to preempt the very "technical nomination" that overwhelmed Katie says has not yet occurred.
The task is to keep it from yet occuring until next week -- then Hearings will not occur before the week of April 4th.
Best regards,
Steve Clemons
Update 2: See Josh Marshall's analysis
here.
Update 3: Good News! Bolton won't come up next week! We have a chance to organize. Let's take advantage of it.
We Won This Battle: They Threw in the Towel Today -- But The War on Bolton is Left to Fight
I just received a phone call from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I was informed that the Committee will definitively not hold hearings on John Bolton's nomination next week and that they will occur some time in April.
I confirmed with my source in the State Department that the effort to fast-track Bolton has been successfully derailed -- thanks to your efforts and to the good sense and reason of Senator Lugar who does want to play honorably and fairly when it comes to these hearings.
It was important to make these calls today. While the State Department was pushing from one side on Lugar's staff, there was no resistance from the other. Many of you provided the resistance to make sure that this was not ram-rodded through.
And just to be clear, the Dem staff needed this too. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is pretty collegial -- so for Biden to take exception to a decision by Senator Lugar would require some reason. If there had been no civil society alert in this case and Lugar had made the announement on Bolton, Biden would have had little to give Lugar by way of excuses for delay.
So, today's effort was extremely useful on many fronts.
This is one small victory. Much more to do now.
But at least we have some time to prepare our case on the many, many better options Republicans have for Ambassador to the United Nations than John Bolton.
-- Steve Clemons