Bolton nod delayed by REPUBLICAN senator
From Reuters:
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed a vote on the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador after a Republican senator said he was not prepared to vote for him on Tuesday and cast the nomination in doubt.
“I’ve heard enough today that I don’t feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton,” Ohio Sen. George Voinovich said, stunning fellow Republicans who were set to push the contentious nomination through the committee on a party-line vote.
Without Voinovich’s support, Bolton’s nomination faced being bottled up in the committee on a 9-9 tie vote that would not advance it to the full Senate.
Democrats contend Bolton, currently the top U.S. diplomat for arms controls and an outspoken critic of the United Nations, has displayed a pattern of abusive behavior toward subordinates and tried to force intelligence analysts into writing their analyzes to suit his views.
They pressed to delay the committee’s vote to give lawmakers more time to consider information that became available since last week’s confirmation hearings.
After Voinovich’s comment, Sen. Richard Lugar, the Indiana Republican who chairs the committee, agreed to put the vote off until after the Senate returns from a one-week recess in early May.
