Democrats force Senate to delay vote on Bolton

After brief respite from partisanship, Senate divided along party lines

? The battle over John R. Bolton returned the Senate Thursday to its familiar patterns of partisan confrontation and finger-pointing, just three days after centrists from the two parties reached an agreement that averted a clash over judicial nominees.

In a near party-line tally, Democrats forced the chamber to delay a final vote on Bolton’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador until at least next month, when Congress returns from a Memorial Day recess. It took just minutes afterward for the two sides to blame each other for their latest logjam.

“John Bolton, the very first issue we turned to, we got what looks to me like a filibuster,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., referring to the procedural delays Democrats forced. “It certainly sounds like a filibuster … it quacks like a filibuster.”

Democrats said they were only exerting pressure on the Bush administration to provide classified information on Bolton’s tenure in his current job as the State Department’s arms control chief.

“How can we work together when the information isn’t supplied,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “This is the first filibuster of the year, and maybe the last. Hope so.”

Frist aides also said Reid had had offered assurances earlier on Thursday that obtaining the 60 votes needed to force an end to the delays would be simple. The vote ended up at 56-42 – four short of what Republicans needed to go to an immediate vote on Bolton’s confirmation.

“I never said that,” Reid told reporters afterward.

Democratic aides said that despite the vote, Bolton’s nomination did not appear to be in jeopardy.

Even so, the dramatic vote raised questions about Bush’s ability to win confirmation of some of his more ideological appointees as he begins his second term in the White House. And it was a setback for Frist, who was hoping to end nearly three months of delays and investigation and finally deliver Bolton’s nomination for the president.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and other Democrats forced the Senate to put off a final vote Thursday on John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.N. ambassador. It was the latest setback for the tough-talking nominee President Bush has called strong medicine for corruption and inefficiency at the United Nations.

Bush has called Bolton strong medicine for corruption and inefficiency at the United Nations, but Democrats said he is an ideologue who lacks the diplomatic touch to advance U.S. interests at the world body and repair the American image abroad.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Democrats do not want to postpone an up-or-down vote indefinitely.

“We are willing to vote 10 minutes after we get back in session, if in fact they provide the information,” Biden said.

Thursday’s vote lasted about 50 minutes – far longer than the 15 minutes generally allowed for roll calls – as GOP leaders futilely hunted for enough support to prevail.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration was pleased that Republicans would revisit the vote after the recess and criticized Democrats for the newest delay.

“Just 72 hours after all the goodwill and bipartisanship, it is a shame to see the Democratic Senate leadership resort back to such a partisan approach,” McClellan said. “This is a nominee that enjoys majority support.”

Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana were the only Democrats to vote for going to a final vote on Bolton. Frist was the only Republican to vote against ending the delays, but he only did so because that gave him the procedural right to force the Senate to vote again on the issue.

Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., did not vote.

“I think it was a very important day for the Senate because we need information on this nominee that we’ve been asking for for a very long time. We haven’t gotten it yet,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Thursday’s daylong debate touched on the issues that have made the Bolton nomination one of the Bush administration’s toughest fights: Bolton’s dismissive remarks about the United Nations, his reputation as an uncompromising and hotheaded conservative and allegations that he shut out or retaliated against any voices of caution or dissent.

“He will not be easily seduced by empty, meaningless, courteous pontifications of international bureaucrats,” said Sen. George Allen. R-Va., on the second day of Senate debate on Bolton. “John Bolton will bring much needed reform and accountability to the United Nations.”

The material Democrats have sought for weeks involves Bolton’s use of government intelligence on Syria, and instances in which he asked for names of fellow U.S. officials whose communications were secretly picked up by a spy agency.

The White House has lobbied hard for Bolton, especially among a handful of moderate Republicans with public misgivings about his temperament. Only one Republican, George Voinovich of Ohio, spoke against Bolton on the Senate floor.

Bolton is among Bush’s most hawkish foreign policy advisers, with hard-line views on Cuba, North Korea, Syria and other world hot spots. Democrats and some Republicans have said Bolton’s nomination seems out of step with Bush’s second-term emphasis on repairing frayed alliances and improving the U.S. image in the Middle East.

The administration and many in Congress have expressed outrage at corruption recently revealed in the U.N.’s oil-for-food program and at what even current U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called an unwieldy U.N. bureaucracy.