Bolton update

[whometense]

Steve Clemons: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001655.php

Yesterday, the Department of State sent a high level emissary to see if any deal-making could be done with Senator Lincoln Chafee regarding his opposition to John Bolton...

...Our advice to Senator Chafee -- keep your powder dry.

John Bolton is the wrong person to handle America's diplomacy at the UN -- and is the world's best expert in setting the UN up for failure. One only has to remember Bolton's promises that he would conscientiously approach reform at the UN in an above the board manner. But succeeding at actually getting the UN back in good shape or getting the kind of Human Right Council the US could support -- something that should have been the absolute highest priority for Ambassador Bolton to accomplish -- would not be good line items in John Bolton's resume as the nation's poster-person for "pugnacious Americanism."

On the Middle East, beware, the administration is also pretty good at setting up Middle East diplomacy for failure -- embracing one side at the expense of the other, over and over again. A real program will lay out the ground rules of fair and just negotiations and not leave the environment one that Vice President Cheney and his team can easily tip at the end.

Stand strong on Bolton.

[whometense]

1. Give Bolton the Boot

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-schlesinger17sep17,0,5285865.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary

The U.S. shouldn't have an ineffective bully as its U.N. envoy.
By Stephen Schlesinger
STEPHEN SCHLESINGER is the author, most recently, of "Act of Creation," on the founding of the United Nations.

September 17, 2006

...To the extent that he has been able to operate at all at the United Nations — most recently in the Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire — he has had to bow to a new realism within the Bush administration, and yes, sometimes, to international pressure. Even then, though, according to published news reports, he doesn't get along well with our allies. His bristling nature has left many bruised feelings among his colleagues. His accomplishments are marginal at best. He may be among the most ineffective envoys the United States has ever sent to the U.N.

Just when the administration thought Bolton was finally going to be approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) began to raise questions about Bolton's performance and pushed to delay the vote. The Bush administration is said to be exploring other ways to keep Bolton in the job.

A responsible nation that intends to harmonize differing viewpoints and work out compromises to further U.S. national security interests makes a serious error in appointing a Jacobin to work inside a collegial global body.

Bolton's presence on the same roster with previous U.S. envoys such as Henry Cabot Lodge, Adlai Stevenson, Arthur Goldberg, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke and Bush appointees John Negroponte and John Danforth — or, for that matter, with George H.W. Bush — is a blemish on our nation. His nomination should be rejected again by the Senate.

[whometense]

2. I have Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

running through my head, for some reason:

Barrister: But we've got to verify it legally, to see
Mayor: To see?
Barrister: If she
Mayor: If she?
Barrister: Is morally, ethic'lly
Father No.1: Spiritually, physically
Father No. 2: Positively, absolutely
Munchkins: Undeniably and reliably Dead
Coroner: As Coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her.
And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/sep/26/big_news_bolton_confirmation_is_really_really_dead

BIG NEWS: Bolton Confirmation Is Really, Really Dead

By Steve Clemons

The last pre-election loophole through which John Bolton's confirmation might have snuck through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was at 2:15 this afternoon at a previously called "business meeting" of the Committee.

That meeting has been cancelled -- and with it even the dimmest chance of John Bolton being confirmed as US Ambassador to the United Nations.

Some have said that another effort could be mounted during a lame duck session of Congress, but there are several Republicans who will not feel bound by the White House in that circumstance; Dems as well -- who will vote against cloture on the floor of the Senate were it to get out of Committee then.

So, it's over. Wow.

********

John Bolton might agree to serve as the uncompensated Ambassador to the UN in a second recess appointment, or might agree to serve as a recess appointed political deputy at the UN and made "acting Ambassador and Chief of Mission" at a pay cut.

Either way, Ambassador Bolton will fill his term as the only unconfirmed Ambassador at the United Nations in American history.

For the record, I do believe that John Bolton has strengths as a public servant. Those who have opposed him should in fact know that he has done some good things for this country. I strongly disagree with his international views and his brand of diplomacy, but there are other jobs in the Bush administration that I would support John Bolton for.

It is time to say that. I hope that Ambassador Bolton, in the next few months, works at trying to leave a legacy that is constructive regarding America's engagement with the UN.

But this battle seems now to be definitively, completely at an end.

Wow. I'm amazed that those concerned about this appointment have really won -- twice.

Sep 26, 2006 -- 10:09:13 AM EST

[TayTay]

3. Bolton the Bastard is stuffed

For this session anyway. I notice that SFRC has put his testimony on Darfur off until Thursday. Don't be surprised if this hearing either gets cancelled out right or has a different witness list.

[whometense]

4. couldn't have happened to a more deserving

asshole.

[ProSense]

12. Really

good BIG NEWS! That mean arrogant bastard should be given the boot, literally!

[wisteria]

5. I think Bush can give him another recess appointment. You know, if

he can he will. At least though, Bolton won't be legit or blessed by the senate.

[TayTay]

6. or paid n/t

[wisteria]

7. What? He doesn't get paid? Explain, please. n/t

[TayTay]

8. He gets paid now, but he is on a sort of 'hall pass' from Bush

to go to the UN. He is currently the longest serving, non-confirmed Ambassador to the UN ever. His recess appointment ends with the 109th (Weasel) Congress and he can only be re-appointed as a recess appointment if he serves without pay. That is unlikely.

There may be a turnover in one or both houses of Congress next year. That means there will be new sheriffs in town. BtB might not even get a hearing in such a new Congress.

[wisteria]

9. OMG, than he is really gone! Unless of course, he is loyal enough

to Bush to work for nothing.

[whometense]

11. I suppose Darth

could always pay him under the table. They don't follow any other laws; why would they honor this one?

[whometense]

10. Link

http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RS21308.pdf#search=%22second%20recess%20appointment%20must%20not%20be%20paid%22

There are, however, two points of statutory law that may prevent a recess appointee from being paid.
Under 5 U.S.C. 5503(a), if the position to which the President makes a recess
appointment fell vacant while the Senate was in session, the recess appointee may not be
paid from the Treasury until he or she is confirmed by the Senate. The salary prohibition
does not apply: (1) if the vacancy arose within 30 days before the end of the session; (2)
if a nomination for the office (other than the nomination of someone given a recess
appointment during the preceding recess) was pending when the Senate recessed; or (3)
if a nomination was rejected within 30 days before the end of the session and another
individual was given the recess appointment. A recess appointment falling under any one
of these three exceptions must be followed by a nomination to the position not later than
40 days after the beginning of the next session of the Senate.8 For this reason, when a
recess appointment is made, the President generally submits a new nomination to the
position even when an old nomination is pending. In addition, although recess appointees
whose nominations to a full term are subsequently rejected by the Senate may continue
to serve until the end of their recess appointment, a provision routinely included in an
appropriations act may prevent them from being paid after their rejection.

[whometense]

13. they continue to top themselves

http://boltonwatch.tpmcafe.com/blog/boltonwatch/2006/sep/28/the_bully_may_still_get_your_lunch_money

The bully may still get your lunch money
michaelroston's picture
By Michael Roston | bio

We had the happy news two days ago from Steve Clemons that the effort to get John Bolton confirmed by the US Senate as the US Ambassador to the United Nations is really finished. The report has not been picked up by any major news outlets so far, and when asked in the daily post-Security Council session stake-out by the press where his nomination stands, Bolton demures.

Could Bolton merely go out with a whimper, and not a bang?

Unfortunately, the bully may still get your lunch money. Indeed, there is a strong possibility that President Bush could not only reappoint Bolton to the UN Ambassadorship, but continue to send him the same paycheck, too...

... But, this being the presidency of the unitary executive, they are taking it a step farther. On November 30, 2005, President Bush issued a 'presidential signing statement' noting the following:

Section 809 seeks to prohibit the expenditure of funds for the salaries of "any person for the filling of any position for which heor she has been nominated after the Senate has voted not to approve the nomination of said person." The executive branch shall construe this provision in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to make recess appointments.

We critics of John Bolton's recklessly ineffective diplomacy have always known that his defeat in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would likely be a symbolic victory. But now it appears that this administration could use its enlarged sense of presidential power to pay the salary of a man to represent the United States whom our Senate has failed to consent to twice.

[beachmom]

14. Bolton's greatest champion on the SFRC needs to go!

I hope we in Virginia can give Barfbag the boot. That will improve matters greatly.

The N-word piling on continues, unabated:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15051663/