WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was cast in further doubt on Friday when a fourth Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said more time was needed to review his record.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said the senator felt the committee "did the right thing delaying the vote on Bolton in light of the recent information presented to the committee."
Asked if Bolton, an outspoken critic of the United Nations, had Murkowski's support, spokeswoman Kristin Pugh said, "I can't speculate on how she would vote." [...]
Republican Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska also said they wanted more information on the accusations before they made up their minds.
Everyone seems to be in agreement that over the next few weeks, enough information about Bolton's behavior and (more importantly) intelligence manipulations is going to be confirmed as to make Bolton nearly radioactive. Still doesn't mean these Senators will vote against him, mind you -- but they've got the sense to want to see what does come forward before lashing their own professional integrity to it.
Incidentally, the best commentary I've seen anywhere on the Bolton nomination comes from Laura Rozen at War And Piece, in a simple smackdown to a blistering WSJ editorial against chairman Dick Lugar for being too "weak" in manhandling the Bolton nomination through committee:
You know what this is really all about? Far more than a partisan fight between Republicans and Democrats as the White House would have us believe, this is really all about a fight within the Republican party about whether all Republicans have to robotically be in lockstep with the White House on every issue, every nomination, or not. Are they allowed a smidgen of independence, ever? Now the WSJ is serving happily as the "fashion police" for the White House on how forcefully Republican Senators need to speak about a nominee Sen. Lugar has every substantive reason and right to consider unfit for that job. And for that matter, that he did almost all in his power to push through committee. He just didn't look happy enough about it for the White House. Is this a trial balloon, a threat, that Lugar could lose his committee chair, a la Arlen Specter, as Chris Nelson suggested earlier this week, if he doesn't manage somehow to push Bolton through? How truly incredibly stifling.
In both the filibuster threats and the Bolton nomination, both on the floor of the Senate and during this weekend's Cirque du Spongebob or whatever the hell they're calling it, that's it in a nutshell. Ninety-five percent agreement with adminstration/conservative/religious policies is not enough, ninety-nine percent is not enough: you are either supportive of The Movement in every particular, without reservation or question, or you are a traitor.
Welcome to the Congress of the United States: now shut up and vote as we tell you to.