Something's up with the Bolton nomination

[whometense]

Press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Frist: Amy Call [phone]

June 13, 2005 McCain: Andrea Jones [phone]





***MEDIA ADVISORY***



FRIST AND MCCAIN TO DISCUSS BOLTON NOMINATION



WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Frist and McCain will hold a press availability to discuss the nomination of John Bolton, to be Ambassador to the United Nations.



WHO: Majority Leader William Frist, M.D. and Senator John McCain



WHAT: Press availability



WHEN: Tuesday, June 14, 2005

10:30 a.m.



WHERE: S-230, Majority Leader’s suite. Please meet at Ohio Clock Corridor at 10:15 for escort.


-30-

05-210

[whometense]

1. Steve Clemons:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000720.html

...Something seems to be breaking on the Bolton battle. The White House may be yielding on evidence requests and communicating this through John McCain. Or they may be announcing that they think they have enough votes on cloture? Or -- though I seriously doubt it -- they may be throwing in the towel.

However, the most likely scenario to me is that the White House is yielding on something and letting McCain take credit...

[TayTay]

2. Interesting strategy

That way Frist still get to be conservatively pure in the eyes of the RWers and McCain gets to continue his new role as leader of the Mod Squad. Everybody is happy.

This strategy seems to be one designed to give the appearance but not the substance of compromise. Very clever. Rove is a smaht bastard. I bet the actual disclosures are empty, but the RWers will scream 'obstructionist' to the Dems in light of this. They will claim that they gave the Dems what they wanted, now the Dems must do an 'up or down' vote.

Okay, Sen. Reid. Sen. (in absentia) Rove just raised the stakes and called. Is he bluffing or does he actually have something? What is your next move Senator dearie?

[rox63]

3. Reid's from Nevada

I'm sure he knows a bit about betting, and how to win.

[TayTay]

4. This is good stuff

They are really playing some high stakes games here. Rove is one smart little bastard. It's a good move. It says, okay, here is the info and then allows Rethug spokesmen to go on talk shows and FOX and say (again and again) that they gave the Dems what they wanted. I sincerely doubt that they will give the Dems much of anything. Now Se. Reid has to counter-program that move and see if he can get the word out to the Dem troops that they need to oppose this.

[whometense]

5. AP item

here: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/28-06132005-502148.html

Bolton Nomination May Get Senate Vote Soon
(Mon, Jun/13/2005)

WASHINGTON - President Bush's embattled pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations could face a confirmation vote in the Senate within days. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has privately indicated to the Democratic leadership that he wants a vote on John Bolton's stalled nomination this week, congressional aides say.

The White House has predicted repeatedly that Bolton eventually will win confirmation.

Before the Senate broke for a brief recess last month, Republicans had fallen short of the 60 votes they needed to stop debate on the nomination and move to an up-or-down vote.

Republicans hold a 55-44 majority in the Senate, with one independent. That means several Democrats would have to side with Republicans to move Bolton forward.

Last month, Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana were the only Democrats to break ranks and support the move to have an immediate final vote.

Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada "is not aware that anyone is preparing to switch their votes" from last month's tally, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Monday.

Democrats have held up the nomination because the administration has refused senators access to the names of the U.S. officials mentioned in 10 communications intercepted by the National Security Agency. Bolton requested the intercepted communications and Democrats want to know whether he was targeting certain U.S. officials.

Democrats also are seeking internal State Department documents concerning Bolton's use of intelligence about Syria's weapons capabilities.

Article's URL:

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/28-06132005-502148.html

[karynnj]

6. I'd be interested in how McCain and Frist can come up with a compromise

From his floor speech, McCain is adamantly behind Bolton. I think the Democrats have promised a vote if they get the information they asked for. It would make more sense if McCain were with some Democrat and they were creating a middle position - I guess of giving fewer people the information or getting only a subset of the information. I'm really mystified how a compromise involving Bush, Frist and McCain alone could change the dynamic.

[whometense]

7. Here's the scoop: Not much happened

Just posted by Steve Clemons, who attended the press conference:

...Frist gave the impression that he felt that Senators Biden and Dodd had continued to widen and broaden their requests. During the press conference and later in discussion in the corridor with Senator McCain, McCain made clear that he did not have much detail about what the pending evidence requests were or the degree to which they had been widened or narrowed. Several senior press at the meeting expressed their surprise to McCain that Frist had lodged such a complaint as nearly every journalist there was aware of the number of times that the bar on evidence requests had been lowered by the Democrats.

Senator McCain used the term "executive privilege" to describe the reason why the White House was blocking some material from the Senate. TWN followed up with a question to Senator McCain asking if he had changed his mind about his earlier comments that Senators Biden and Dodd "had a point" in their evidence requests of the administration and asked about this use of the term, "executive privilege," which the White House has been careful not to use.

McCain said that he thought that Senators Biden and Dodd were outstanding Senators and doing what they thought they needed to do to try and use leverage to extract information from the administration. But he also believed that we had come to a point where we needed to get serious representation of American interests in the U.N. McCain said he strongly supports bringing the Bolton vote to the floor for an up/down vote.

It was made clear to Senator McCain by other members of the press that the White House has not yielded on a single evidence request -- all of which had been lodged in April 2005. McCain said that he was "hopeful" that the negotiations would lead somewhere and that a balance could be struck between protecting the rights of the Executive Branch while at the same time addressing the concerns of Senators Biden and Dodd...

...However, the press conference really broke very little new news -- other than that Bill Frist is attempting to pressure Senate Democrats to yield on their objections to a cloture vote and may call for a vote this week -- even if Frist fails once again to get cloture.

Essentially, the state of play remains the same. . .for the moment.

[karynnj]

8. Two republican Senators have absolutely no concept of the

meaning of the word "compromise". Other than Frist lying about the requests, what did they change on.

[whometense]

9. Absolutely nothing.

The whole press conference appears to have been a stunt to try and pressure democrats. I don't see any way it has any effect at all.

[TayTay]

10. Yeah, that figures

by the way, did you see the EJ Dionne column in WaPo today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061301461.html

McCain is officially a whore.

[whometense]

11. To think I once bought into his

"moderate maverick" schtick. I am officially embarrassed. :blush:

What does it say about the repukes that all they are breeding are Allens, Colemans, and Bushes?? Not a whole f***ing lot.

I mean, what was McCain really doing at that press conference? Besides whoring, that is?

[karynnj]

12. I absolutely don't understand how he keeps his image

He was never Mr. Clean, but he's always credited as clean. His "news" conference today, like many of earlier ones, is all image no substance. He is the one who plays for the camera.

I think I now see why the Republicans are so in love with the prospect of Hillary. Unless Hillary starts to publicly question the war, both how it happened and what to do now, Iraq becomes almost a non-issue and then the question is who can fight the war better Hillary or a WAR HERO (ignoring that his war hero status is a result of getting captured - which I don't diminish but it doesn't say anything about his ability to create strategy.) Does Hillary have a position on permanent bases?

[TayTay]

14. Deleted

brain-fart

[whometense]

16. I don't know what her position is.

(Been doing my level best to ignore her, I admit it.) Found this, though.

http://www.liberaloasis.com/archives/022005.htm#022405

February 24 Liberal Oasis:

The big concern is that Democratic leaders won’t be interested in making fundamental distinctions in foreign policy approaches, preferring to be seen as supportive of Bush’s goals.

Take Sen. Hillary Clinton.

She is currently on trip with a few other Senators to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

On Sunday, while in Iraq, she was asked on CBS’ Face The Nation, “Do you think we're coming to a situation where we will have permanent bases in Iraq?”

Her response:

No, but I think that we should take this sort of one step at a time...

...We are going to be negotiating with the new Iraqi government. The Iraqi government could turn around any time and say, “We want you to leave.”

I don't see any indication of that, but it could happen.

The Iraqi government could say, “We want you to be here with a certain kind of footprint.”

But until the Iraqi government is stood up and operating, I think it's a little premature for us to be talking about what they and we may decide to do together.

On one hand, she’s not coming out in favor of permanent bases.

But on the other, she’s covering for Bush by saying we’re not already on that path, when we clearly are.

Most importantly, she doesn’t make a clear distinction between the parties on this fundamental issue, leaving open the possibility that she would support them.

(Arguably, one might be hesitant to be partisan while on foreign soil, but LiberalOasis isn’t expecting any clarifications when she gets home.)

[whometense]

18. Maybe I'm paranoid, but

I wonder if McCain's presence was supposed to be seen as a veiled threat (allow this vote or we'll nuke you?)

Best comment on Clemons site so far comes from emptywheel:

"Shorter Bill Frist:

'C'mon you guys, we've got an invasion against Iran to trump up. We've got to get Bolton IN THERE!'"

[karynnj]

20. Don't think you are paranoid

It makes a lot of sense because having 2 Republicans imply there's a compromise and offer nothing but new lies doesn't make news on its substance. Having Frist and the leader of the judicial compromise together as he says they will have the vote this week and that the UN needs Bolton does kind of give the impression that this is part of the compromise - even though it's not.

[whometense]

21. McCain/Frist press conference repeats

Sen. Frist (R-TN) & Sen. McCain (R-AZ) on Bolton Nomination (7:45pm)

C-Span 2.

[Pirate Smile]

15. How worthless! What was the point?

[whometense]

17. He's got a partial transcript up now.

If anyone wants to go read it, it's here: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000724.html

[whometense]

13. Steve adds:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000723.html

"We have word that those leading the battle on the Bolton evidence requests may be preparing a response for Senator Frist."

[whometense]

19. Chris Dodd press conference on c-span

Congressional News Conference
U.N. Ambassador Nomination
U.S. Senate, Radio and Television Gallery
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 187200 - 06/14/2005 - 0:13 - $29.95

Dodd, Christopher J., U.S. Senator, D-CT

Senator Dodd responds to remarks by Senators Frist and McCain that the nomination of John Bolton to be the ambassador to United Nations is being filibustered.

Repeats at 08:01 PM EDT 0:13 (est.) and 09:18 PM EDT on c-span2

I have no idea what he said, but am looking forward to seeing for myself.

[fedupinBushcountry]

22. Saw him speak

He said that the WH is FILIBUSTERING their own nominee by refusing to give information asked for since April 11th. He also made it understood that this has been going on since April 11th not the 200 days as Frist kept on emphasizing. He spoke for about 5 minutes.