Friday (before Monday) Bolton

[whometense]

Steve Clemons offers this tantalizing tidbit:

My sense is that there are MORE than three Republican Senate offices now scrambling for reasons -- for phone calls -- to oppose Bolton.

TWN had a phone call from a Republican Senate office today asking for more on the "intelligence issues." And no one thinks that this Senator is in play.

I won't disclose who it is -- but I will say that the tectonics of this debate are shifting further than they recognize against the White House.

[whometense]

1. Pressure on Maine senators from local paper

Via Steve Clemons (of course), from the Bangor Daily News:

Never mind that John R. Bolton insults his subordinates; so did Lyndon Johnson and a lot of other public servants going all the way back to Theodore Roosevelt and John Adams. Never mind that he belittles and denigrates the United Nations, where he seeks to take a seat. Those attributes might even make Mr. Bolton an interesting and useful addition to an organization that can be stuffy and indecisive.
No, the case that members of the Senate, including Maine's two moderate Republicans, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, should be considering is far more serious. And more is yet to come in the days before the vote, expected as soon as June 7.

The most damning evidence thus far is testimony by former colleagues that he pressured intelligence officials to change their official appraisals to conform to his views and tried to have some of them transferred when they disagreed with him.

Many of those who have worked with him in the State Department have come forward to warn that he would be a terrible American representative at the U.N. Although five former secretaries of state signed a letter backing the confirmation, Colin Powell, for whom Mr. Bolton worked, did not join that list. Mr. Powell is known to have advised several senators that Mr. Bolton is not the right person for the job.

Democrats stalled a scheduled vote last week on the ground that the White House had refused repeated requests for files bearing on Mr. Bolton's efforts to punish officials who disagreed with his views on perceived threats by Cuba and Syria. Those files have been available to Mr. Bolton and the White House. They should be made available to members of the Senate and to the general public.

[TayTay]

2. I saw that, it's very interesting.

I think that the Senate goes back to Judicial nominations on Monday, so I'm not sure when Bolton is going to come up again.

Boy, Monday is starting to sound real interesting. Floor speech by JK, one of the odious judicial appointments coming up and then Bolton. Wow! Hope everyone had a good rest.

[whometense]

3. The man's ability

to bounce back on short rest never fails to amaze me.

[rox63]

4. I wish I could watch

But I'll be at work. It's that darn "roof-over-head, food-on-table" thingy again. :(

[whometense]

5. Such a pain, huh?

;-) but don't worry. Dembloggers have been putting all the best speeches online, so you won't have to miss a thing.

[Pirate Smile]

7. What??!! But according to Limpboy Democrats don't work.

Limbaugh: Making Election Day a holiday won't help Dems because "ost of their voters don't work anyway"

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh declared that the Democratic Party's plan to make Election Day a national holiday, outlined by Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean at the June 2 "Take Back America" conference, won't "help them that much" because "ost of their voters don't work anyway."

From the June 2 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: The two to three big opportunities so far mentioned by Howard Dean -- pension portability and changes to election laws. ... So portability of pensions. What's the second one? Oh, yeah, Election Day a holiday. And well, you know -- I don't know why they need to do that. Most of their voters don't work anyway, so I don't know how that's going to help them that much. At least in a percentage basis.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506030003

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3778469&mesg_id=3778469

[whometense]

6. Al Franken

is discussing Bolton right now.

http://www.ofrankenfactor.com/

Morton Halperin, hour two. He's the executive director of the Open Society Policy Center and the newly formed Security and Peace Institute. He'll discuss the UN nomination of John "kiss-up, kick down" Bolton.

[rox63]

8. Bolton's Yale classmates oppose his nomination

--snip--

Meanwhile, Yale classmates of Bolton's wrote to senators to oppose the nomination.

The 76 signers include cartoonist Garry Trudeau, who lampooned Bolton in his "Doonesbury" strip in May. Others were fellow members of the Class of 1970 who participated in a 35th reunion over the Memorial Day weekend.

"We are embarrassed and ashamed that the Bush administration has nominated someone so manifestly unsuited to represent our country at the United Nations," the Yale classmates wrote.

"As his classmates, we do not believe that Mr. Bolton has exhibited the values of civility, light and truth which our shared institution represents."

--snip--

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/14328.html

[ginnyinWI]

9. nobody likes this guy!

Except of course the Bushies, who are exactly the same type.
Bolton seems to have enemies left over from every stage of his life. Monday will indeed be interesting.

[karynnj]

10. Enemies from all stages of life

He really has a remarkably consistent personality - what's next "Bolton - grade school bully". I can't imagine why the Bushies don't persuade him to say "he needs more time with his family". They are either unwilling to ever give in or they may be afraid of Bolton.

I think Kerry's first adjective "inexplicable" is still the best for describing the idea of putting someone of Bolton's character and behavior at the UN where diplomacy is needed.

[whometense]

11. If you believe in karma,

and what child of the sixties does not :hippie:, Bolton's karma is one big ugly mess, isn't it?

[whometense]

12. Bolton Said to Orchestrate Unlawful Firing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050604/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bolton_un_firing;_ylt=AkGNOfo7C2A2_3ZQ7Zl09iys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2MTQ3MTFjBHNlYwN0cw--

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent 1 hour, 3 minutes ago

John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.

A former Bolton deputy says the U.S. undersecretary of state felt Jose Bustani "had to go," particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war.

Bustani, who says he got a "menacing" phone call from Bolton at one point, was removed by a vote of just one-third of member nations at an unusual special session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), at which the United States cited alleged mismanagement in calling for his ouster.

The United Nations' highest administrative tribunal later condemned the action as an "unacceptable violation" of principles protecting international civil servants. The OPCW session's Swiss chairman now calls it an "unfortunate precedent" and Bustani a "man with merit."

...more...

[TayTay]

13. Gawd, it just keeps getting worse and worse

Bolton is such an unconscionable bastard. I hope that Kerry ties this into his Downing Street Minutes speech on Monday. It all ties into just how dishonest and horrible the Thugs were in pimping for war in 2002.

[whometense]

14. True,

but isn't it fascinating how the more we find out the more it all hangs together?

I've never been one for conspiracy theories, but this case is proving to be the exception.

[TayTay]

15. I'm not shocked.

These bastards have been fixing the intelligence for years. They are the most dishonest group of lying bastards I have ever seen. (Paraphrashed from somebody or other.)

Seriously, I hope Senator Kerry does a passionate speech on the floor that points this stuff out. While we can't change the past and change how we got into Iraq, we can point out that we were lied to and lied into a war without an end. People should be outraged. (Of course, Senator Barfbag (Allen) thinks it was the Great Patriotic War and that anyone who opposes it is against Jesus, but he is a mental defective and a complete and unredeemable idiot.)